Friday, February 26, 1999
Letters
The struggle
is far from over
Under the United States Constitution, civil rights are protected
by the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. The civil rights movement
was not about getting civil rights, but having our civil rights
recognized and protected. Was the civil rights movement successful
in this? Not entirely and, others would say, not by a long
shot.
Many of those who sit in the latter camp continue to see
injustice in law enforcement, education and the work place, and
lynchings nowadays are not too uncommon.
Many would point out that segregation is now illegal and
integration reigns supreme. Yet we still see predominantly black
and brown children getting miseducated in schools that are
outmanned, ill-equipped, and falling down, "never to rise again if
the wind blows." Though the police can’t stop you without probable
cause, we see that the war on drugs is actually a war on black and
brown youth.
If life is pretty much just as it was 35 years ago, except a
little browner and marginally more tolerant, how many civil rights
did we get? How far have we traveled? It seems like we did a
two-step jig that left us three steps behind; we went from the Mash
Potatoes of the ’50s to the Electric Slide of the ’70s, only to
stutter step back three times to do the Charleston of the ’20s.
It is difficult for me to answer the question, "Did we achieve
great gains in civil rights?" Many point out the fact that white
people and people of color can sit together at lunch counters and
buses, travel together on trains and airplanes. I only wonder, if
we had missed the point. If we had "great gains in civil rights,"
why was it necessary for 88 students to get arrested last year for
taking over Royce Hall in defense of education as we know it? It
could not have been because of any gain of civil rights. Was the
civil rights movement of the ’60s enough?
If the civil rights of all citizens in the United States were
recognized and truly protected by the law (as opposed to being
assaulted by the law), people would have little else to complain
about – aside from human rights abuses committed by the United
States in the rest of the world.
Terelle Jerricks
Editor in chief
Nommo magazine
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