#mlkdream50

People always seem to amaze me by the sheer ignorance of the things they say. I can recall an event in high school  where a black student in my biology class walked into class and upon taking his seat said “Miss, you got to be nice to me today because Rosa Parks died” . Even at age 15, I took some offense in this comment. By saying that our white teacher had to be extra nice to him or any other black student more so then any other day of the week because an American civil rights icon died just showcased a lack of understanding of equality. I knew that what Rosa Parks did for the civil rights movement was not exclusive to a certain group of Americans but for the betterment of all American society. I can’t remember if my teacher ever took the time to actually respond to the comment of even paid attention to it but I knew that any honor that my classmate may have been trying to give to Rosa Parks upon her death failed and he did not even know it.

            I think it is fair to say that race relations in this country have vastly improved since the days of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks even though they are far from perfect. Just the fact that in most of the country a black person can do what they please without fear of being attacked or lynched on racial grounds should be enough to extol our former civil rights leaders on a yearly basis for helping to make life better in this country. Of course if you look hard enough you can still see that we have a lot of work to do. I could look into any class in my high school and tell you if it was a lower level, higher level, or honors class by the racial makeup of the students and that should be troubling enough to spur another movement to close the educational racial divide in the country. Another troubling occurrence is that every so often we are reminded that race still matters in this country via death, rape, and other horrible crimes like the shooting of Travon Martin or when Stephen Tyrone Jones was shot by a white supremacist while doing his job as a security guard at a holocaust museum. These events shake us and remind us that there is still an active element of racism in this country that should have been fixed years ago.

            Along with the actual horror stories that make us shudder to think of what horrible event might happen tomorrow, there are the events that make mockery of real racial injustice. These events hurt the cause because they are falsehoods or so trivial that it makes the noble goal of civil rights seem like a news media annoyance. An example would be how Tawana Brawley lied about being raped by a group of white men in the late 80s or the Henry Luis Gates incident”. It is almost as if we as Americans look for something to stand for or something to be enraged about.

            This kind of superfluous and not helpful attempt at trying to be political or important does nothing but hinder and hurt progress on every front.  Today a black student at my university made a comment on a University related Facebook page about how the header in a school e-mail about Martin Luther King Jr. day featured two white college students rather than any minorities. Now, in reality the header is probably just some generic image that the university uses that probably also doesn’t even feature any real students at the school.  The post the student made is as follows:

“To whom it concerns, How come this email is about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and the banner used has two Caucasian girls? Is it that hard for Purchase College to find two black girls boys or one boy or one girl for this email? I am offended. I came to this school in 2010 because of the way the school was represented diversity. The layout captured my attention along with the diverse students on the website. I saw two African American students. I remember their faces perfectly. One was a girl with braids and beads with a creme v-neck sweater, the other was a black male, maybe even a dancer, the way his arm folded around his head was so artistic and creative I admired and appreciated him as a representation of the artistry of the school. I was overwhelmed with joy and applied to SUNY Purchase and Hunter College. The layout of the website at that time was eccentric and colorful. The website consisted of Asian/Pacific Islander students as well. Now, the layout seems pretty bland. I am glad this is my last semester. I understand times changed, but can we put diversity back in the school's slogan? "Think Wide OPEN." Let's be open with how we represent the student body. Sincerely, An African American Anthropology/ MSA Senior- (Name removed). P.S If I am writing this to the wrong individual(s) please forward or send me the email address of the appropriate individual(s).”