Race in America: Ignore It And It Will Go Away

By Damon Gumbert on January 31, 2016

I recently gave a presentation in one of my classes on the movie “Selma” and what it means in regards to how we view Race in America. I showed the scene from the movie of the protesters first march across the Edward Pettus Bridge and are met by the considerable forces of the Alabama State Troopers. I showed pictures of the Ferguson Protests before showing the clip, comparing the way the State Troopers were portrayed in the movie, almost military like, and the photos of the police in Ferguson, also military like. I showed a picture of the Ferguson protesters being tear gassed and compared it to the same thing happening to the Selma marchers 50 years prior. I paused the clip as a man on a horse was seen chasing a black man across the bridge while brandishing a whip. I commented on how director Ava DuVernay slowed the scene down to let you fully grasp the brutality and to let your mind make the connection to pre-Civil War times. Times when white men would chase black men, using whips to punish them for acting up or speaking out. DuVernay added that scene to show people that while almost 100 years had passed since slavery was abolished, the black people were not truly free. I showed the pictures of Ferguson to my class to make a point that while 50 years had passed since Selma, black people were still being treated the same.

Throughout “Selma,” Dr. King is told to stop his plans, work within the system, essentially to shut up and go home. President Johnson, Governor Wallace, Sheriff Clark, and other white men tell the protesters to go home throughout the movie. During the Ferguson Protests the people were told by the Police to disperse and go home. Recently, I was involved in an argument on the social media app Yikk Yakk where someone believed that race was a state of mind, and that if we all just ignored it that it would go away. There seems to be a precedent in this country of people not wanting to talk about race. If you do talk about Race in America, then you’re a part of the problem.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis recently released a song called “White Privilege II” and was met with a large amount of backlash. In the song, Macklemore raps on several different topics from his internal feelings during a Black Lives Matter protest, his place among the rap culture, and the way people talk to him about rap culture. The song is a great comment on white people who are entrenched in the culture of rap as well as white people who are on the outside looking in. There are a lot of different opinions of the song, some bad some good, but the media decided to focus on the least important part of the song. In the second verse, Macklemore raps either as a different person talking to Macklemore or as Macklemore internalizing what I’m sure he’s heard from talking heads and upset fans. In this verse he says, “You’ve exploited and stolen the music, the moment, The magic, the passion, the fashion, you toy with, The culture was never yours to make better, You’re Miley, you’re Elvis, you’re Iggy Azalea.” Instead of focusing on the creativeness and the words that Macklemore uses throughout the song or the very important topic that he picked, the media focused on the names that he used. After the song was released articles read, “Macklemore disses Iggy Azalea and Miley Cyrus”. Instead of talking about Race in America, they change the subject to something that didn’t even happen.

I was in class after Trayvon Martin was murdered, I remember wearing a black hoodie with jeans and a pair of sneakers in remembrance of his death. My teacher made one comment, a sarcastic one about white guilt, and then moved on to a new conversation, because talking about Race in America doesn’t warrant a real conversation, I guess. I didn’t feel any guilt over what happened. I was sad that a teenage boy was murdered because he looked like someone who committed a crime. I remember watching the video of Eric Garner’s death the day after a NYPD police officer choked him while trying to arrest him for something they only suspected him of doing. I’ve gotten in arguments over the Mike Brown shooting, my heart ached when Tamir Rice was murdered, and I cheered when the killers of Freddie Gray were indicted.

I’m not saying I’m perfect. I support the Black Lives Matter movement, but I don’t know if I would ever go to a protest. Much like the first verse in the Macklemore song, I feel like it would be awkward and that I would be more of a distraction. I don’t even really know if I would be going to support the movement or to make sure people know I support the movement. Did I buy a “I Can’t Breathe” shirt because I want to remember Eric Garner, or because I wanted people to know that I remember Eric Garner? I honestly don’t know. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is how we go forward with our view of Race in America.

Racism is one of the most important issues that we face in this generation, and yet we still can’t get a real conversation going about it. People can’t be bothered to hear about the injustices that occur to people of color. Even the growing Islamophobia since the San Bernardino terror attacks has been downplayed in the media. I want there to be a national conversation about the growing hate that is focused on Race in America. I want America to look at the thing that makes them feel uncomfortable and confront it instead of pretending it doesn’t exist. It’s like that old cliché, “The first step is admitting you have a problem”

“We want to dress like, walk like, talk like, dance like, yet we just stand by

We take all we want from black culture, but will we show up for black lives?”

I don’t know. But I hope we do.

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