Today’s Civil Rights

I love a good civil rights movie. I recently saw a newly released one, Rustin, about the gay, black organizer of the March on Washington, where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I have a dream” speech. Movies such as this (and Selma, Hidden Figures, The Green Book, Judas and the Black Messiah, The Help, and Loving, etc.) highlight the myriad of injustices and persecutions borne by African Americans in the 1960’s, and in so doing they give voice to the struggles of African Americans to overcome systemic racism, and they remind us of how far we’ve come.

It's healthy to celebrate progress – and it’s also important to remember that systemic racism still exists today, including:

·       Housing: Black applicants are denied home loans at 2.5 times the rate of white applicants (New York Times , 2022).

·       Employment: Black Americans with “black-sounding” names receive 50% fewer callbacks for their job applications than those with “white-sounding” names (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2023)

·       Pollution: Black Americans are 75% more likely than white Americans to live near industrial plants that produce hazardous chemicals and waste (Johns Hopkins University, 2020).

·       Policing: Black drivers are 20% more likely to get stopped than white drivers (New York University, 2020).  

·       Police Violence: Black people are more than three times as likely than white people to be killed by police during a police encounter (Harvard University, 2020).

And the list goes on – you can read more here. It makes me angry, and it also makes me feel powerless. But I’m not powerless. So I do what I can to support the Black people in my life and to support current efforts to create equity and justice for Black/African American people. Sometimes it’s going to a march that “I don’t have time” for. Sometimes it’s listening well to them, or asking others to listen to them. Sometimes it’s working on my own unconscious bias. And sometimes, it’s giving money to Black-led organizations who are doing the hard work of supporting and advocating for their communities.

Activists in the Civil Rights movement fought and won laws that have improved opportunities for African Americans and other minority populations. However, there is still a long way to go, so let’s continue to practice allyship by taking real action to support justice and equity for Black/African American communities.