Rethinking Race Politics

Everything I assumed about my community and neighbors broke down as I sat in a meeting hosted by the New York Civilian Complain Review Board. I heard Black members of my community tell their personal stories of how friends and family were unjustly abused. Initially, I listened with great skepticism, but as each told their accounts, I could not believe that I lived in the same neighborhood they did. I was completely unaware of the problems in my community until that day. A simple distinction, skin color, had separated me from the hardships of my neighbors.

While many of us would never think of being racist, we indirectly support racist institutions through our tacit indifference toward, and doubt of, the existence of systematic racism. Our simple acquiescence perpetuates racial oppression.

Against the empty sayings of our politicians, this ethos of racial oppression and indifference is pervasive in the U.S. For instance, A 2013 Pew Research Study drew the astonishing results that half of white people do not sense black people are treated less fairly than whites -- by police, employers, doctors, restaurants and schools, and at the ballot box.

This statistic is even more staggering considering the disproportionate murder of innocent Black people by racist cops. Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Michael Brown are just a few recent cases that point to the pervasive racism in the U.S. A Guardian study indicates that despite making up only 2 percent of the total US population, Black males comprised about 15 percent of all deaths logged in 2015. It is clear that the U.S. justice system is a tight network of laws, policies and institutions that operate to ensure the subordinate status of Black people, but whose clear racism is ignored by almost half of White people.

There are three main ways we can go about ending racism: Regeneration, Reform, and Revolution. Regeneration regards culture as simply a collection of individuals. Ending racism would require the changing of the individuals who compose our culture to become more aware of racism.We can also regard racism as something larger than individual human wills and therefore must be handled by using a broader base than individual regeneration:Reformation. We can elect legislators who will pass laws to end racism or at least the conditions that constitute structural evil. Other strategies such as placing economic pressures on racist institutions, civil disobedience are means of seeking form. [So this is the Reform approach, yes?]

Lastly,the most radical approach to ending racism would be to destroy or remove racist structures of society, using force if necessary. This assumes that whatever will arise in place of these racist institutions will be basically good. An idea clearly refuted by the South instituting Jim Crow laws after the slavery amendments were passed.

Instead of exclusively adapting one model of change, I propose that BLM should follow a model that includes reforming institutions and converting individuals. In order for oppressed Black people to regain their identity, they must be viewed as human beings with dignity and the ability to carve out their own destiny. We can move toward this ideal if BLM commits to raising awareness of the pervasive extent of racism in our society, getting White people to acknowledge their own personal failings, and strengthening the resiliency of Black communities. This means that BLM will have to move beyond its current model of scattered protests and rebellions and toward an organized movement that seeks reform through social, political, and economic channels. ] These actions will make Black people the doers of their own liberation and will carve a society where Black people are free to determine their own future.

BLM is a movement of hope: not the hope that White people will change the structure of oppression, but the hope in the resilience of Black people. It is a movement to make aware the evil institutions of our society and fight for the freedom of all Black people.

While it is easy to say, “Racism is not my fault,” or “I am not responsible for the country’s oppression of Black men,” it is simply an escape from guilt. As long as we tolerate racism in educational, political, economic, and social institutions, we are directly responsible for racism. As a community, Stuyvesant students need to participate in ending racism. This begins by acknowledging the incalculable amount of racism in the U.S. and our responsibility for its perpetuation because of our indifference. This includes working with students from impoverished communities to increase their academic success and achievement. Black persons should then push for reforming the racist institutions that oppress their communities and families. While we are a long way ahead from reaching this ideal, it is imperative that Black men and women do not concede to despair, but stop at nothing to express their distaste for oppression.