My sophomore year at Morristown High School I -- along with some other African American students -- was interviewed to provide our commentary and viewpoint on the diversity in our school. At the end of the interview, the interviewers revealed to us that Morris County has one of the most diverse school districts in the state. And this fact was astonishing.
Despite the fact of being so diverse, all of our comments revealed the underlying segregation that has been programmed into our hallways. A most evident example being that African Americans and other minority groups tend to sit downstairs in the lower atrium, while European Americans sit in the upper atrium. Thus, while our school is diverse, it is divided culturally and as an indirect consequence, racially. And it is not as if the European Americans don’t want to converse with African Americans, or at least not to my knowledge, there is simply a strong cultural divide that inhibits diverse friendships.
And therein lies the issue: while our school is diverse, we fail to acknowledge each other's cultures and social experiences, which is supposed to be one of the major benefits of going to a diverse school. Rather than getting to know each other, we stay in a shell consisting of friendships of those who are just like us. And it is this sheltering that leads people to believe that stereotypes about other races are true. While the race and culture divide is closely tied the issue is not so much race as it is a cultural difference that people fail to acknowledge.
On a larger scale -- in a society that is a melting pot of races, ethnicities and cultures -- in 2016, we are so segregated simply out of the sheer ignorance of other peoples’ cultures and experiences. Because while we are a melting pot of culture and filled with diverse communities, we have managed to somehow maintain a level of segregation from other cultures. We are diverse yet we have somehow managed to divide ourselves, and as a result we have become a completely disorganized and broken society.
In these most recent months, and even years before, several African American men -- and even African American woman, in some instances -- have been shot and killed by European American police officers. I want to believe the best, that those men weren’t racists. But if we acknowledge the realities of our society that African American men are seen as aggressive and criminals, that is is not so surprising that those men may have subconsciously believed those stereotypes. As a result of this subconscious conviction, rather than seeing those men as humans, as equals, they were seen as a threat to society, rather than an integral part of it.
After reflecting on the underlying segregation that takes place in our schools, our communities, and the ignorance it has created, it is understandable to see how we as a nation got to this place of brokenness.
The killings of Alton Sterling, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile and many many more are a result of the ignorance that we have allowed to manifest in the minds of many.
As we begin to move forward as a nation it is more important than ever to listen to each other, to embrace our differences, to disprove stereotypes, to defeat ignorance and to stand on a united front.
