40 Years on

American politics and indeed the American nation will always be divided by two things. Firstly they are divided geographically (as the south continues to claim that it shall rise again), and secondly they are divided by race, in particular colour. And how could they not be? Black Americans retain a genetic memory of centuries of enslavement, of the oppression of their forefathers and the trouble’s that they struggled through. And how could they not? When the supposed ’voteless second class colour’eds’ only triumphed against adversity half a century ago?

What i wish to talk about is not why we should feel sorry for this section of the American public, nor as white people how we should feel the need to ignore history as a bad memory, attempting to pretend that our ancestors could not have been so cruel. What i wish to speak about instead is how do we move on, where do we go from here, and why we as a species need to stop this destructive mentality of doting on the past.

January 1st 1863 and Abraham Lincoln free’s all black slaves forever, black people are now not slaves but are still second class citizens. 1954 and the supreme court makes its landmark ruling on the abolition of desegregation in schools. Finally black people are deemed equals to their white counterparts 91 years after they where given freedom from slavery. 

2007 and the supreme court only votes 5-4 against the use of racial criteria in the acceptance of children to public schools. 2008 and a black man is still seven times more likely to go to prison than a white man and the ‘Black ghetto’ is a permanent feature of many US cities, with their poverty and crime caused by severe unemployement. Have things really improved for the black community over the last 150 years?  

As we remember Dr Martin Luther King 40 years on we have to say no. The black community are not equals, and until they are treated fairly in a court of law or in a job application they never will be. However it is not just the ‘white fascists’ that are causing this problem. It is also the Black community themselves. By doting on the past and constantly reminding the world of their ancestors struggles they can never truly put the past behind them. It is fair to be proud of your past and for a black man to be proud of his roots as i am proud of my own ancestry, but by constantly looking behind is it not impossible to look where you are going? 

My family is from South Africa and as recently as 15 years ago they employed black people as maids, gardeners and other domestic employee’s before coming back to England. Should i then be expected to stand up and apologise for my family following certain social norms during an apartheid regime? Ofcourse not. So why is it that we as white people feel the need to apologise for our ancestors social behaviour 150 years ago and keep bringing up our muddy past? And why do black people want us to? i feel the secret is that neither white nor black people actually want this. Instead we do it as a kind of polite tradition. A polite tradition that i feel will only serve to further segregate our people (and in particular the american people) further.  

And so as we remember Dr Martin Luther King, for the great man, public speaker and humanist he was let us honour his memory, not by looking backwards and doting on the past, but by moving forward together. Trying to put our differences where they belong, firmly in the past.