In the wake of
the "uprising" which occurred in Los Angeles in response to the
Rodney King verdict in 1992, I was a 22 year old college senior one semester
away from graduating. It was April/May
1992 and most of my friends whom I started college with were finishing up their
final semester. At this time, my college
was on the trimester system meaning we did not finish until the beginning of
June, as opposed to some other schools who were finished in early May.
Consequentially, we were in the midst of classes, partying and once the verdict
and ensuing violence began, panic.
I vividly
remember my roommate at the time, a white brother from near Chicago, who
immediately went down to the reconciliation meetings which took place at a
South Central Church. His roommate was a bit apprehensive. Being a Black man in his early 20s,
regardless of my impending college degree, I was afraid of getting caught up in
the mix. I believed that although there were well intentioned Black folk doing
good work down there, I didn't think that the combination of my...being an
outsider and being Black was a good mix.
I struggled with this decision to stay "safe" on campus while
my college community was quick to respond.
Another friend
of mine, one who was associated with a religious organization on campus which
was always performing service, was also quick to respond with a broom, garbage
bags and the like to help in the clean-up efforts. She loaded up her car with
as many friends as she could and proceeded down into the fray, unafraid and in
my opinion heroic. Unfortunately her
family did not see it the same way and she was "requested" to return
her car to her mother because her mother did not want her daughter in harms
way. As a new dad I can understand her
mother's anguish, but would not have responded in the same manner. Her daugher was doing what she was taught,
not just at our liberal arts college, but through her faith. She was performing God's work.
As I reflect on
the 20 years since the King verdict, I am trying to look critically at where
we've come - how far we have come.
Obviously race relations have changed, but to what degree? Not only has America grown over the past 20
years - see OJ trial in the same city a few years later, the increase in the
number of Black politicians and police chiefs (obviously Barack Obama being at
the head of that lists), and the number of Blacks who have graduated college
and matriculated into the middle class. All of these are signs that things have
changed in this country tremendously. However, as the saying goes, the more
things change, the more they stay the same.
For a certain
portion of the Black population, things have become increasingly worse. Unemployment and underemployment,
persistently violent neighborhoods and schools, hopelessness, anger and yes
fear. While many in the middle class of
Black folk have been - in the words of the Jefferson's theme, moving on up, but
at the same time, we are leaving millions behind. As we increase our educational outcomes, one
of the first things we (I'm including myself in this equation on purpose) do is
to leave the neighborhood. This leaves
the neighborhood left with those who struggle to make ends meet, who do not
have the same social and cultural capital and of course the economic and
intellectual capital to make a transition.
What is increasingly
problematic is the type of persistent deficit thinking that has permeated too
many black folk both in the neighborhood AND in colleges and universities.
It is my hope
that as we reflect on 20 years after Rodney King and his infamous words “why can’t
we all get along?” that we take the time to truly begin to get along. Not just with those who sit on the opposite
aisle on the political spectrum, or who are of a different race/ethnicity,
gender or otherwise - but most importantly from within.
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