I am struggling to understand the senseless hatred and ignorance that clearly still grips this country. I don’t know what it’s like to be black, but I wanted to write to say that if you are and are reading this, I am on your team. Here’s why:
In 1963, at age 17, my father took a bus from New York, where he lived, to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. There he heard Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and listened to other civil rights leaders and musicians condemn a society that still abused the descendants of former slaves. He then visited the capital again in 2013, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event. He was one of approximately 250,000 the first time, and in 2013, he was asked to walk toward the front of the line. That summer day in 63 had a huge impact on him, and he later decided to become a lawyer in order to help fight for civil rights, and in all his work since then he has fought for the “little guy”.
Along with my mother, my father raised me to see people as people, and never judge anyone by the color of their skin (or for any other mark of appearance). It didn’t take long to realize that racism is taught, and that it can be unlearned, which is why I am myself committed to teaching the historical context in which race and racism emerged, and using sports as a tool to interrogate its illogical basis. Although I teach in kinesiology departments, I don’t have a background in this field, but rather in political theory, philosophy, and cultural anthropology, and I teach many sections of a course called Sport, Ethnicity and Racism at CSU, East Bay.
It is inexcusable that so many Americans of color continue to experience discrimination and bigotry in their own country. But it’s not enough to talk about it, or think about it, or even send thoughts and prayers. We must each find our own way to do something about it, too.
For me, the action I take is facilitating conversations among diverse groups of students about racism in sports and society, and making it clear to anyone I know that I do not condone the slightest bit of “racialized thinking”. After all, to think with race at the front of one’s mind is to ignore the many possibilities that each human being embodies. But to misuse one’s privilege is to not think at all.
(This educator’s views– which recently went viral via Occupy Democrats – speak to my own.)
