2A — Tuesday, January 16, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Race and Ethnicity Distribution of Undergraduate Students
Fall 2016
17,630 students
identified as White
3,931 students
identified as Asian
American
2,061 students
identified as
International
1,495 students
identified as
Hispanic
1,255 students
identified as African
American
national anthem before football
games last season, for example,
is extremely polarizing. Yet,
he has ignited a discussion
about race that most Americans
would have preferred to not
discuss. Like King and many
other leaders of the civil rights
movement, Kaepernick faces
negative
consequences
for
taking a stand. Despite having
been villainized and losing his
job, he is unapologetically a
force for justice. History will
remember his sacrifice.
King believed in building
bridges instead of walls, but
he didn’t turn his back to
injustice just to appease the
attitudes of moderates. And, if
he were alive today, he would
probably be one of the most
vocal critics of the current
administration and, frankly,
the nation’s blatant regression
on the issue of race. President
Barack Obama’s historic 2008
presidential victory was seen
as a breakthrough in the state
of America’s race relations, a
sign that most Americans were
finally over the idea of skin
color.
how hard it may be for someone
to be physically or emotionally
present in those spaces, which
aren’t always the most welcoming.
As
a
Black
woman
who
practices Islam — and yes in
that order from my most to least
salient identity — I never feel
comfortable at the front lines of
protest. I feel like I’m expected to
act a certain to correctly portray
my identities. Advocates love to
talk about the burden of labor and
how the oppressed shouldn’t have
to explain how they’re oppressed
to their oppressors but then still
expect them to participate in
the labor of protesting. I used to
not consider myself an advocate
because I never attended protests.
I felt more emotionally drained
than uplifted by the thought of
the masses participating in the
same activity. I would rather write
down how I feel than yell it in a
march.
I think we’ve forgotten about
the less flashy forms of advocacy.
We are in the age of instant
gratification. If it’s not headlining
the news, gone viral or trending
on social media, we don’t know it’s
happening. We take movements
and turn them into convenient
hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter
only for them to be repurposed and
their meaning stripped away into
something like #AllLivesMatter.
Once it’s out of the spotlight
we forget about it. Without a
documentary here and a movie
there, we wouldn’t know that Flint
still doesn’t have clean water along
with 32 other cities across the U.S.
We
volunteer,
which
is
great,
then
post
a
picture
to
validate
our
labor.
When I first wrote this piece, it
wasn’t in response to any event in
particular. Rather, I was motivated
to write after listening to the
dialogue happening on campus and
around the country about activism
during the Trump era. All too often,
people — our classmates, neighbors,
friends and family — eschew
justice in favor of the status quo.
As the article goes on to mention,
Martin Luther King Jr. rejected this
stance. In fact, the reverend went
on to claim that the people “who
constantly say, ‘I agree with you in
the goal you seek, but I cannot agree
with your methods of direct action’”
(not the Klansmen, nor the “alt-
right” nor the Donald Trumps of
the world) pose the greatest threat
to racial equality. As we begin the
50th year since Martin Luther King
Jr.’s assassination, and celebrate
his life 89 years after his birth, it’s
crucial to look back and reflect on
his words. Though our modern-day
struggles don’t manifest exactly the
same as the ones that faced King,
their root causes are the same:
hate, racism and bigotry. It’s our
job to do what we can to fight these
forces, even if the fight makes us
uncomfortable. We cannot let the
Trumps and the Richard Spencers
of the world prevail, but the only
way to effectively stop them is if
everyone takes a stand.
Imagine this: It’s a Sunday
afternoon and you’re on your way
home for the evening. To your
annoyance, the route you normally
take has more traffic than normal.
Initially, the bumper-to-bumper
backup is inching along, but it
quickly grinds to a complete halt.
After a while, you turn on the
radio to find out what’s causing
the holdup. Surprisingly, you
learn it’s not due to an accident
or overturned truck; it’s due to a
protest organized against racism
and discrimination. How would
you respond?
Now, how would your response
change if this were on March
7, 1965, and the road you were
stuck on was Route 80, just
outside of Selma, Ala.? The day
is “Bloody Sunday,” and activist
John Lewis is marching with
about 600 protesters from Selma
to Montgomery. Regardless of
how you claim to feel about the
civil rights movement, chances
are that your current reaction to
anti-racism demonstrations (from
Black Lives Matter protests to
NFL players taking a knee during
the national anthem) would be
identical to how you would have
reacted during the civil rights
movement 50 years ago.
Don’t believe me? According
to a Gallup poll conducted in
October of 1964, almost three-
fourths of Americans believed
civil rights demonstrators should
stop protesting, despite many of
their demands being unfulfilled.
Additionally, a New York Times poll
conducted during the same year
found that a majority of white
New Yorkers felt civil rights
protesters had gone too far,
with common complaints about
“negroes receiving ‘everything
on a silver platter’” and the
growth of perceived “reverse
discrimination” against whites.
These sentiments are still cited
by Americans who denounce
efforts
to
create
a
more
inclusive country, from critics
of kneeling to people against
affirmative action. Ironically,
while these people probably
would have been against the
civil rights movement had they
been alive at the time, they are
the first to wistfully compare
today’s
demonstrations
to
demonstrations of the past, as
if their attitudes would be any
different.
In addition to those who are
seemingly against any form of
protest, there are even more
people who support the cause
of racial equality but do little to
support it. In fact, they’re often
more critical of the methods
demonstrators use to achieve
equality than about the issues
being protested in the first
place. Usually, you can spot this
happening when someone wishes
protesters used less obstructive
means. While they may explicitly
say something along the lines of
“I get where they’re coming from,
I just wish they didn’t protest like
that,” what they’re really saying
is “I acknowledge an issue exists,
but I’m not willing to do anything
to solve it because it doesn’t affect
me.” As a result, demonstrators
are forced to use “obstructive”
methods
—
blocking
roads,
holding sit-ins and interrupting
the status quo — to ensure
people actually listen to them.
Otherwise, their message would
likely be ignored by the apathetic
masses who prioritize their day-
to-day convenience above the
issues
affecting
marginalized
communities.
Martin
Luther
King
Jr.
famously wrote about this in his
1963 “Letter from a Birmingham
Jail.” In the essay, King argued
moderates who sit idly by and
allow
oppression
to
happen
(despite being ostensibly against
racism and discrimination), are
more dangerous than Klansmen.
Those “more devoted to ‘order’
than to justice; who (prefer)
a negative peace which is the
absence of tension to a positive
peace which is the presence of
justice; who constantly say, ‘I agree
with you in the goal you seek, but I
cannot agree with your methods of
direct action’” present the greatest
danger to those seeking equality.
This is just as true today as it was
half a century ago.
All of this begs an important
question:
How
will
you
be
remembered by history? While it
was acceptable to be against the
civil rights movement in the 1960s,
pictures
of
counterprotesters
standing outside of integrated
schools
draw
disgust
today.
Anybody who currently thinks the
civil rights activists were out of line
is rightfully seen as bigoted — and
I firmly believe 50 years from now,
critics of today’s campaigns for
racial equality will be seen in the
same light. Now is your chance to
stand on the right side of history,
even if you have to stand alone.
LEGACY
From Page 1A
ADVOCACY
From Page 1A
Your place in the long arc of history
JASON ROWLAND
MiC Managing Editor
TUESDAY:
By Design
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