“As it is, today’s protesters often act like they are starting from square one. This disconnect cannot be dismissed as the hubris of youth; it is a symptom of our failure to teach this generation about black history and the way our economic and social systems actually function.” (Ilyasah Shabazz, 2015)

Not much longer than fifty years ago, an entire population of the US was not given the basic rights to go to school, to vote or to simply take public transportation as they please. Were these people condemned because they were criminals, deviants or heretics? Shamefully, the reason was much more superficial. Literally speaking, it was “skin deep”. Even after the abolishment of slavery, black American citizens were barely treated as “citizens”, let alone, viewed as human beings deserving of equal opportunity.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s is popularly seen as a successful movement that guaranteed black American citizens with all the basic rights that they had been deprived of for so long. Recalling this movement, we see the empowering and hopeful images of the ridiculed Little Rock Nine being guided by a swarm of federal troops to the previously all-white high school, the buses that transported the Freedom Riders that were lit on fire by white supremacists, and the attacked and hosed down non-violent protestors in Birmingham. These moments of both bravery and inhumanity brought African Americans the right to education, access to public transportation and outlawed segregation. History has taught us that it takes masses enduring the lowest of realities in order to provoke necessary social change.

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The Civil Rights Movement is seen as a part of our history, something that happened, a movement that ended at some point in our past. Yet, this movement is very much part of America’s current story, a story that has not seen it’s end, because some issues confronted by this movement have yet to see it’s resolution.

Issues of The Past Remain Concerns of the Present

To note, many lynching cases of the past have only recently received appropriate sentencing. Lynching that occurred 50 years were properly addressed 40 years later. One notable case was the murders of three civil rights workers associated with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Mississippi. Although the federal court convicted seven men possibly connected to the murder, it was not until 2005 that one of these men were finally prosecuted for this case. This man was convicted of manslaughter at the age of 80.

Although equality is guaranteed to the black American, in black and white, as words written in the Unites States Constitution, there are inequalities that continue to proceed in present day society. Some of these inequalities are not as visible to the everyday American as others, as they are only being noted through statistics regarding incomes, education and judicial inequalities. Other inequalities, such as police brutality and hate speech, are being seen by all as they span across newspaper headlines and twitter updates.

The Lesser Seen Inequalities Pew Research Center, an American research organization, conducted a poll in 2013 regarding financial, social and educational disparities between different races within the US. Here are some areas where African Americans are shown to be unequal according to American opinion and demographics: Income – Black Americans are close to three times as likely to be living under the federal poverty line than white Americans. The average three-member white household makes 27 000 more dollars per year than the average black household of the same size. Education – A majority of black Americans state that they are treated less fairly than white students and co workers in both the school and workplace. Although their college completion rate has increased, it is still only 62 per cent of the white American college completion rate. Justice System – Over fifty years ago, black men were five times as likely to be in jail than white men. Considering that this was during the Civil Rights Movement, an improvement is to be expected since then, right? Today, black men are now six times more likely to be in jail. This worsening situation is acknowledged by both white and black Americans. 70 per cent of black Americans and 25 per cent of white Americans agree that black people are treated unequally by the criminal justice system. Progress – Overall, nearly half of Americans (79% of black Americans, 44% of white Americans) state that much more progress needs to be made in achieving the colour blind society desired by those of the Civil Rights Movement. Why do these disparities continue to exist in a society that claims to guarantee equal rights for all? The truth is, in the US, residential segregation in society has not ceased to exist. Today, black and white Americans inhabit different neighbourhoods of vastly different quality. In “the ghettos” or “the projects” of the US exists more poverty and less opportunity. Social isolation or seperation can be just as crippling as blatant racism.

Inequalities Seen By All “How could the news be blowing up the Trayvon Martin case while hundreds of these Black on White murders got ignored?” (Charleston Church Shooter’s justification behind his mass murder) Trayvon Martin and his story have become the driving force behind a newly revived civil rights movement in the US. This movement exists under the hashtag and title, “BlackLivesMatter”. Trayvon’s murder brought to light the harsh reality of police brutality suffered unfairly by the black population in the US. His story initated the growing interest in revealing more and more police brutality cases in America. Headlines such as “Beyond the Chokehold: the Path to Eric Garner’s Death” (New York Times, 2015), “The Shooting of Michael Brown” (The Star, 2014) and “Ezell Ford: The mentally ill man killed by the LAPD” (The Washington Post, 2014) were soon spanning across well-read newspapers across the world. This soon became an issue that the average American with access to the internet or cable TV couldn’t ignore. Black Americans soon began protesting, rioting and publicizing their concerns on the issue. Politicians began stating their beliefs on the causes of this dilemma. Divides caused by race soon became much more obvious as the debate of whether police brutality was truly an issue of race were taking place across America. Looking at the unadjusted stats, 49 percent of those killed by police men between May 2013 to April 2015 were white, compared to 30 percent being black. Those arguing that police brutality is not a race issue would look at this stat and say, “See? It’s appalling to focus on skin colour as a motive” (cough, cough, Mike Huckabee). However, it is important to adjust the stats to better represent reality. When recognizing the fact that 69% of the American population is white, while only 33% is black, the stat proves that black Americans are in fact 3.5 times more likely to be killed by a cop. The Washington Post also reports that unarmed black men are seven times more likely to be killed by police than unarmed white men.

What Would Malcolm X and MLK Jr. Say?

The likes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X would be shaking their head at the inequalities that have both continued and escalated since their efforts more than fifty years ago. Society hardly resembles the hopeful image of the future that MLK Jr. had painted with his words on August 28 of 1963:

This speech has proven to be ageless as MLK Jr.’s desires and pieces of advice can be applied to our present day issues and the issues we will undoubtedly face in the future if we don’t change.

In regards to the current hostility between the discriminated and their discriminators in America, King would say “let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred”. We can not continue with the mentality of “us versus them” anymore, because with said mentality, there will continue to be a divide in a society that would function better as whole.

In regards to the self destructive riots that eventually broke out in cities like Ferguson and Baltimore, King would say that “we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence”. We should not need to destroy the places we call home in order to provoke social change. Although violence may seem like the quick and easiest to bring an issue to light, it also distracts authorities from the real message, once again creating an “us versus them” mentality.

And in regard to our shortening attention spans that quickly move on from yesterday’s news and accepts these past harsh realities until another travesty comes up to remind us, King would say that we can’t be satisfied “as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality”. A single protest can only draw attention for so long, especially in a world where there’s endless amounts of news to be consumed. In order to make change, we must constantly remind ourselves of the change we desire and why we desire it. Our efforts must be long term.

In looking at America’s current situation, King would be disappointed that his dream of a nation where people will “not be judged by the colour of the skin but the content of their character” has yet to become a reality. However, our hopes aren’t lost as it is the time to continue King’s work and use the growing resources we have to reach out to people who can implement change. We must take the powerful tools of the internet and artistic expression beyond a simple hashtag and be creative in our ongoing protests against inequality.

Malcolm X was also a prominent human rights activist during the 1960’s who would have many words of advice to our present day activists. Although his separationist views may be viewed as extreme, his message of never taking the path of least resistance influenced masses to actually take action. No one could put how Malcolm X would view the current American situation into better words than his own daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz. Ilyasah comments on the sad reality of police brutality and how Malcolm X would advise black Americans to handle this situation in this New York Times’ article. Ilyasah highlights what is most important in her father’s past message of social advocacy when she writes:

“The key to creating change is a critical mass of ready and angry people whose passion doesn’t ebb and flow with the news cycle.”

Let’s not let the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X remain in vain. Let’s not forget the efforts of the masses that stood behind these leaders’ messages and the sacrifices they made in order to guarantee the black American population their basic rights. Let’s not waste all the resources we have available to us to reach out to others in creative and effective ways. It is important to work as a mass willing to make sacrifices just as those that went down in history, until we create that “colour blind” society that Martin Luther King Jr. had dreamt of.