An explosion of voices calling out for justice in the name of George Floyd reached a pitch we haven’t seen since the Vietnam era. The message was loud and clear…we will no longer be shackled by the chains of racial injustice.
As I watched protestors gather in streets nationwide, I began to reflect on my own college years that were filled with rallies and heated debates. It was a time of awakening as I learned about the history often left out of text books, and now several years later, another young generation was confronted with the legacy of race in the U.S.
Yet admittedly, my own priorities changed over time as I dove into a workforce defined by competition and where no one gave a shit about the Movimiento. I took down posters of all the heroes on my bedroom wall and somewhere along the way, I grew up and realized that none of them were going to fight my battles for me.
Now in the years after…
I find myself at odds with the deafening sound of resentment aimed at a bunch of white people I’ve never met. The demand for police reform has morphed into something much larger. It’s about holding folks accountable for 400 years of history and rewriting the rules of a game that no one seems to agree on or fully understand.
I studied the legacy of race in college and law school, and I also had the experience of living in white and black communities. Through it all, I realized that not every injustice can be explained through the prism of race, nor will it be resolved through it.
While demonstrations serve as a catalyst for institutional reform, the protests will eventually fade away and the streets will reopen on Monday. The rent will come due at the end of the month and the pay checks will not look any different. Rest assured, no one will cut you a slice of their salary in the name of equal rights.
Beneath all the legislative reform and police accountability, most of the tension that was there before will simply manifest into hushed conversations held behind closed doors as people fear for their jobs. The deeply ingrained stereotypes we harbor in some form will not magically disappear overnight despite the inspirational posts flooding your Facebook page as we speak.
The stark reality is that our own attitudes tend to undercut progress at a time when opportunities are more abundant than ever. There’s no sidestepping that fact that we still kill each other much more frequently than police do, and our diets, finances, and family planning, have not evolved with the times.
Black and brown communities still fall behind in almost every metric available related to income, health, and education, and we share the worst living conditions with millions of other white folks who aren’t exactly feeling the privilege we insist they have. We seem to forget that millions of them struggle just like the rest of us.
At the end of the day, the rules of any given neighborhood are defined by the individuals who own it. Owning a home or a business will always hold more power than burning it down in protest. True progression will not be won on the capitol steps, but rather in our own living rooms and neighborhoods.
As the fight rages on for equal rights, one generation after the next, I have to wonder if a world where everyone walks away with a trophy is even possible. No playing field throughout human history has ever been level, and we are reminded of this each time we watch inner-city streets burn on one end of town while the folks at Space X launch into orbit on the other end.
The debate to this question may never be settled, but there are certain things we can all agree on:
For one, those who collaborate well, celebrate well. An individual is nothing more than a sum of the people they are surrounded by. So get with a crew doing positive things and be a good team player.
Secondly, it’s only rational to start with our own attitudes before we go about asking others to change theirs, and that means compromising with people who don’t always look and think like you. There is nothing more oppressive than being stuck in your ways as your best days pass you by.
Last but not least, it’s important to keep in mind how supremely lucky we are to be living in the modern era despite all the challenges that confront us. At no other time in history has access to information been so freely available with more opportunity to change the world from the comfort of our own living room.
To everyone we lost in 2020–21, and to those who will find inspiration from it, here’s to you.
