Changing our laws is like changing our clothes. The outside changes, but the inside doesn’t.
—
The protest at the University of Missouri is another beautiful opportunity to grow as a community.
On Monday amid civil rights protests on campus, both the school chancellor and the head of the University of Missouri System vacated their administrative positions.
Mizzou’s campus has become the stage for civic discussion and movement, and refreshingly so. But still, many disapprove of the intentions behind the protesters’ movement. We don’t have to look very hard to find those who are displaying an “Oh-this-again?” attitude.
Collectively, we watched the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, as many took to the streets and some took to looting. We witnessed altercations between law enforcement and Eric Garner in New York, Freddie Gray in Baltimore, and Walter Scott in South Carolina.
Regardless of which position you take on these individual cases, the community reactions can’t be ignored.
Thankfully, these situations weren’t ignored. They became famous. Unfortunately, much of the attention they’ve gained has been of disapproval. With every recurrence of racial unrest comes a healthy dose of the “oh-this-again?” attitude.
I’m not fabricating the “oh-this-again” attitude out of thin air.
Someone said it to me as we sat scrolling through our Facebook feeds. His reaction didn’t surprise me, but my reaction surprised him.
“Oh, this again?” he lamented. He couldn’t comprehend why they were protesting again.
“Can you believe it, man?” I replied as I shook my head. “Can you believe that we haven’t solved much since Ferguson? Can you believe we haven’t solved much since New York, Baltimore, or South Carolina?”
What we’re seeing is a pattern, not a phenomenon.
Oakland, 2009. Cincinnati, 2001. St. Petersburg, 1996. Los Angeles, 1992. York, Pennsylvania, 1969. Baltimore, 1968. Detroit, 1967. East St. Louis, 1917.
None of these cases are exactly the same, but the community reacted with protests, sometimes with riots. There’s something deeper than the reactions. There’s a reason.
Much has changed, but nothing is new.
Every incident we’ve witnessed in the last year is like ripping a scab off of a wound that has existed for a long, long time. And it doesn’t matter if that scab was torn off intentionally or by accident, the blood and pain are real.
Perhaps our laws have changed since the L.A. riots or the uprising in East St. Louis so long ago. But different laws don’t make us different people.
|
Perhaps our laws have changed since the L.A. riots or the uprising in East St. Louis so long ago. But different laws don’t make us different people. Believing that racial inequality is gone simply because it’s no longer in our rule book is like believing we can become different people by simply changing our clothes.
Changing clothes doesn’t change our hearts.
What we’re seeing at the University of Missouri is a beautiful thing caused by a persistent injustice, and we’ll see it again until we create change inside of our own communities.
Inclusion isn’t justice.
When we were children, our teachers would encourage us to include someone new into our play group. In high school, we would have to include a bad student in our group project because we were assigned to do so. As adults, we might invite a friend’s spouse to a dinner party because we have to.
Don’t confuse inclusion with justice.
Think back to the recent movements in Ferguson, Baltimore, and New York. These weren’t calls for inclusion. People weren’t battling to drink from the same fountain or sit on the same train. People weren’t fighting for the right to marry someone of a different color or to move into a white neighborhood.
These protests, marches, and riots were the reaction of a people who want to be welcomed and accepted.
To include someone is to greet them at your front door, only to tell them, “So glad you’re here! Come on in. Just don’t touch the furniture.”
To welcome someone is to offer your entire house, then to make plans to hang out later at theirs.
The sinister aspect of systemic oppression is that perpetrators can’t see it. But it’s there, alive and well. If it weren’t, then the same people wouldn’t rise up over and over again.
For real, tangible justice to take root, it’s up to us to do more than include.
We must welcome.
—
Photo: Flickr/Z S
“again” vs. “still”
I was just struck by how much of the conversation about race between white people and black people runs aground on this basic difference — the difference between the word “again” and the word “still.” For many white people, bringing up racism seems like bringing up something that ended (this again?), while for many black people, racism hasn’t gone away (this still!).
LOL, I’m running around with the wrong black people because all i hear is “again.” In fact several have made comments that they’re becoming embarrassed by it all. But then again, they live in middle to upper middle class suburbs .