Today it seems like race relations have been skyrocketing onto the front lines of public attention. Didn’t we sort all of this out after the 1960’s? The best quote I can think of that accurately describes the situation, is from Will Smith. “Racism isn’t getting worse, it’s getting filmed.”
Racism never went away after integration became national law in the U.S. Racism is something so deeply rooted in western civilization that it seems almost impossible to imagine a world without it. It’s at the core of our very country. Racism justified the mass slaughter of Native Americans in order for European’s to settle in this country. It seems that we forget how much these prejudices allowed this country to thrive.
Most people are taught in school that racism was a thing of the past or that racism was just a belief of Nazis and the KKK. For those who don’t actually realize this, the KKK is still going strong and is allowed to spread their hateful message under the 1st amendment’s freedom of speech. In fact our country is still teeming with white supremacist groups that flock to the swastika. These hateful groups didn’t just go away when segregation was abolished. Also, we think of segregation as being so long ago when really it was only a couple of generations away. Segregation was officially abolished in the Civil Rights act of 1964. That’s only 52 years. Our country is 240 years old and we have only spent 52 years with legal rights for people of color. Let that just sink in.
We have all heard of the race troubles that have been causing a social media hurricane. People across the country are speaking out and taking a stand against race violence. Let me be clear with the point I want to make. I believe that all life is sacred and precious and important, however I am a firm supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. I know I have many people who believe that if they say black lives matter than they are dismissing the importance of the lives of people of other skin tones. That is not the point of the BLM movement. It is called Black Lives Matter because in America, black lives are not treated as if they mattered. Believe me, if the roles were reversed and white people were the oppressed minority who were being gunned down by police for being born a different skin tone, there would be a White Lives Matter movement.
What is also sad about these racial tensions is they span far beyond the problems of black vs. white. Native Americans are still being oppressed by the U.S. government and their homes and burial grounds are being overrun for the gain of large corporations. People make jokes about a place being haunted because it was built on an ancient Native American burial ground, but think about how awful that really is. This land in which families laid their loved one’s bodies to rest are being torn up, mutilated, and destroyed so others can make a profit. It is sick and it is selfish.
Please understand that racism isn’t new. It is as old as time itself. I know it is uncomfortable to talk about and painful to admit but the past is written and we must accept what people before us did and try to move past it. The more we sit and squirm and avoid the topic the more we let it slide through the cracks and continue on unnoticed. Racism is alive and well as it has been for many years, the only difference now is you can’t hide from it anymore.
