The Black Lives Matter movement is a hot topic nationwide. I agree with Marissa Johnson and Mara Willaford for taking a stand for what they believe in. Both are fed up with our failed criminal justice polices and the miscarriages of justice by our judicial system. They did what they had to do.
Many African-Americans, however, take a step back from taking a stand because of their comfortable lifestyles. Most black people are not willing to risk the loss of employment for speaking out against racism and injustice. After reviewing historical footage from the civil rights movement and movies based on our struggles, I have wondered sometimes what happened to black people. The baby boomers and the Gen Xers benefited from the movement’s implementation of affirmative action, and that is how African-Americans are now able to work within city, state, county and federal governments, own their own homes and cars, and take nice vacations each year.
They feel they have “arrived,” while their brothers and sisters are killed by police and spend their lives in despair.
The number of African-Americans represented within the jails and homeless shelters is disproportionately high. I have researched this reality from public record statistics on arrest, incarceration rates and the book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander (2010).
We have not “arrived” as a race of people since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We are still being labeled as “felons,” “drug addicts” or “mentally ill,” which has created quite the disparity for African-Americans. The mere fact of having a drug or violent-crime conviction will almost always result in the inability to obtain public housing, food stamps and federal student aid. That said, most African-Americans in this situation will reoffend or spend their lives in homeless shelters or on the streets.
I asked my dad during the 1990s, why he didn’t speak out for civil rights. His response was, “Your mother was having a baby every year in the 1960s. I had to work to support the family. We hardly had any vacation time. If personnel found out I took off from work to attend a march, sit-in or other demonstration, I would have been fired. I believed in the changes that were coming.”
Changes will continue to arrive. Our voice is our right. What we have to say is powerful. Our opinions are valued. Talk to me.
Leanna Adams is a Seattle artist and activist. Email Leanna at [email protected].