Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Civil Rights Movement

My blogging for this semester will concentrate on the Civil Rights Movement. Something of particular interest to me concerning this topic is the notion that this movement is something of the past. Doing some simple research on the topic confirms this. After doing a search of "Civil Rights Movement", the first page of results was filled with timelines and dates marking the beginning and the END of the movement. The word "history" is visible within the first three lines of the description of most of the websites, reaffirming the notion that it is simply an event that existed in the past.

For those that do not know, the movement was formed in the 1950s due to the racial discrimination and marginalization of African Americans. Some of the defining events of the movement were the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education, the lunch counter sit-ins, and bus boycotts (specifically Rosa Parks'). The notable leaders of this movement were Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I think that will suffice as a mini history lesson, so let's switch gears and discuss this notion of the movement being "history."

As I think about possible reasons for this widespread idea that a Civil Rights movement no loger exists, I increasingly attribute it to the following reasons:

1) Society (generally speaking) has been, in a sense, tricked into believing that there is no longer any reason for a Civil Rights movement.

2) Many important events happening today are not interpreted as advancements in/violations of Civil Rights.

While I do believe the second reason to be true, I want to focus on the first because I think it is far more important due to its implications. There is evidence all around us that people no longer think racism and discrimination are problems (i.e. The Don Imus incident, when so many people found it outrageous that his comments were seen as racist). It pains me when I hear people jumping all over Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson when they speak out against racism. The most common outburst I hear goes something like: "Shut up already! All he wants is exposure, he doesn't care about the issue at all." It is true that when a major event involving race occurs, you are likely to see Sharpton and Jackson speaking out against it. But take a second to think about why that is....TV exposure? A desire to be seen in public?....Or is it because they are the only consistant voice speaking from the other perspective? While the news networks prefer to portray African Americans as criminals and savages, Sharpton and Jackson try to speak on behalf of those who are otherwise unheard. Do they speak for everyone, of course not, even if at times they claim to, but they are nonetheless important. I ask you this, if they never spoke out, WHO WOULD? I welcome individuals who wish to speak out in the face of racism, but to this point i have not seen many.

I know this post is somewhat long and possibly confusing, but we are dealing with a long and confusing issue here. In order to give it the attention it deserves, I think we must look at many different details so that we can have an understanding of it from many different angles. i plan to post more throughout the semester, but before I do again I would like to wait to see what kind of feedback this post receives in order to generate some talking points for the next post. I look forward to hearing from everyone, whether the feedback is positive or negative.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

My only issue with Sharpton and Jackson is that they pick and choose when they want to support something and when they don't. They're not very consistent in their support and as minorities themselves, Sharpton actually suggests that other minorities such as homosexuals should still be allowed to be considered second class citizens by opposing same-sex marriage. To me, that's very hypocritical and completely discredits any argument he has to make.

mihwick said...

I do agree that there seems to be a degree of hypocrisy concerning the issue of sexual orientation. It is very disturbing to me and something I believe is a complex issue in itself. Perhaps I will focus on that in a future post...?