The culture of racism both institutional and individual has changed but it is in no way without the need of conversation. There may not be a time in America when anyone can say that racism is truly eradicated but it can be further minimized. As for the current time period, institutional and individual racism are still major problems in society and deserve to have research put to them. Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power speech was written in 1966 but its contents can still be applied to today’s racial climate. The current political race is glorified pissing contest between two candidates who seem to have lost sight that the issues in the United States are more important than whether one of them can embarrass the other more. Stokely Carmichael talked about a similar situation in 1966 in his Black Power speech, he says:

Can the white society or the white activist disassociate himself with two clowns who waste time parrying with each other rather than talking about the problems that are facing people in this state? Can you disassociate yourself with those clowns and start to build new institutions that will eliminate all idiots like them? (Carmichael) 

The reason for this speech was to wake up the people of America, black and white, to the evil of racism. Stokely Carmichael wanted to prod the black community to fight against the institutional chains that were put upon them. The Black Lives Matter movement is similar in that respect. The movement is there to show people that racial injustice will no longer be tolerated. Many try to dismiss the Black Lives Matter movement by generalizing that all lives matter. The idea of this essay is to connect two time periods of struggle and explain that there is an ailment in this country that still needs to be cured.

Stokely Carmichael was the age of 25 when he spoke to a group of college students about the new philosophy of Black Power. Carmichael’s speech talked about the injustices in the United States and that the black community should not take being treated inhumanly. He wanted to make it known that black people were born free and therefore, no law should have to be made to grant them freedom and civil liberties: 

I knew that I could vote and that that wasn’t a privilege; it was my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived. So somebody had to write a bill for white people to tell them, ‘“When a black man comes to vote, don’t bother him.” That bill, again, was for white people, not for black people. (applause) So that when you talk about open occupancy, I know I can live anyplace I want to live. It is white people across this country who are incapable of allowing me to live where I want to live. You need a civil rights bill, not me. I know I can live where I want to live. (Carmichael)

How indeed can you give a person freedom when they were brought in the world with no restraint? Not only did Carmichael’s speech preach to the liberties that blacks were granted by birth but also the crippling effects of conscious and unconscious white supremacy. Missionaries visited Africa and clothed its people for their thought that the Africans were uncivilized compared to their white, western culture. Unconsciously the missionaries were exhibiting white supremacy to the Africans and that is similar the problems seen in America at the time. White people could not understand the culture of people of color so they imposed rules upon them to make them suitable to what American society wanted them to be, Jim Crow laws for example. Carmichael’s speech challenged the institutions in American culture that buried the by wanted to make a difference in the divide of race in the country and asked the question of whether or not white people in America were ready for change because there would be no more waiting. “The question is, will white people overcome their racism and allow for that to happen in this country? If that does not happen, brothers and sisters, we have no choice but to say very clearly, ‘“Move over, or we goin’ to move on over you.’ Thank you” (Carmichael).

Black Lives Matter started as a hashtag after George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012 (Black Lives Matter). The organization was founded by the three ladies Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza to fight against the dehumanization of a race. The movement also wants to involve everyone in the fight, not just black males like in traditional factions and protests. The movement has a plan to rebuild black liberation to build the black community. Every black person from transgender to the disabled are involved equally in the movement (Black Lives Matter). The Black Lives Matter Movement is unfairly judged by media outlets as a terrorist organization and much more that has no business being associated with the movement. This stems from the lack of understanding that people have towards the movement and the racism that stops some from believing that it is at all beneficial. As explained by its founders: “Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise.  It is an affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression” (Black Lives Matter). Similar to the Black Power movement in the 1960s, the Black Lives Matter Movement also seeks to build the black community as a whole. It stresses the need of black people to stay together as said earlier and stand by each other in the face of a country that still does not care about them: “When we say Black Lives Matter, we are broadening the conversation around state violence to include all of the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state” (Black Lives Matter). To be put simply, as said by the movement leaders, the Black Lives Matter Movement is unapologetically black and plans to stay that way. 

Black Lives matter is fighting against two evils that still strongly affect American society and those are institutional and interpersonal racism. The two were rampant in the 1960s and still cause problems in modern society. Institutional racism is racism that is enacted by a social or political institution against a certain race. Individual racism is racism enacted by a person or a group of people against a certain race Institutional racism was seen widely in the 1960s when poverty stricken areas, filled with mainly minority residents were forsaken by the government. In Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton explained institutional and individual racism perfectly in their book titled Black Power: The Politics of Liberation:

When white terrorists bomb a black church and kill five black children, that is an act of individual racism, widely deplored by most segments of the society. But when in that same city, Birmingham, Alabama, five hundred black babies die each year because of the lack of power, food, shelter and medical facilities, and thousands more are destroyed and maimed physically, emotionally and intellectually because of conditions of poverty and discrimination in the black community, that is a function of institutional racism. (Carmichael & Hamilton)

Institutional racism sucks the life out of black communities. Instead of overtly destroying the community by burning it down, essential needs are taken away from the community so that it does not receive the proper nourishment. Essentially, the black community is the unwanted, abused child of America. When we cry, no one bothers to come to our aid because they choose to neglect a child that they made in the first place. 

Today shows very little difference in American society as mass incarceration is the largest form of institutional racism. As Michelle Alexander said in her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, the United States incarcerated a higher percentage of the black population than ever imprisoned in South Africa during the heights of apartheid (Alexander). Mass incarceration cripples the black community because those individuals are now restricted by law to truly live a normal life. This type of racism to harder to see because institutional racism is more covert than overt. The fact that it is more covert is also a reason why it does so much damage. When racism is covert, it becomes easy to get distracted on other “issues” that detract from the topic of oppression. When Black Lives Matter proponents protest in the streets, the media pays more attention to the havoc in the protest rather than why there is a protest in the first place. Individual racism is the main driving factor that keeps racism ongoing through generations. Racism is not an innate behavior, it is taught to children by those who want to keep a culture of hate and fear. When a black male is walking in a parking lot and a Caucasian mother shields her child from this man who does nothing, that is a taught behavior. That interaction also comes as a teaching moment for a child who has probably never thought of a person by their race first. Ideally, stopping the spread of individual racism could end institutional racism but ideas do not die easily. Just as a war on terror can never be fully won, a war on racism can never be fully won however race relations can always improve. Having conversations on racism is also a major key to improving race relations. You may never change someone’s stance on racism but with conversation comes awareness of a problem. The Black Lives Matter movement is not only protesting racial injustice but also expanding the conversation of racism. If the culture of racism is continuously broken down, we may see the kind of world Dr. King talked about in his “I Have A Dream” speech.

The topic of racism is very personal to me. As a young black male in the southeastern United States, the terror of racism is very real. I live with my grandparents, who had the chance to live through the civil rights era and lived through Jim Crow laws. From my personal experience and the stories that I have heard from them, I realize that the issue of race hasn’t really progressed as much as people would have hoped. The reason for this is because some of the same people who enforced and agreed with Jim Crow laws in the 50s and 60s are still alive today. Those individuals spread their ideals to the next generation and the result is little forward progress. My grandparents would much rather me date inside my race for the fear that someone would harm me for dating outside of my race. I would like to think that there would be no problem with that but in reality, my grandparents are not wrong. 

My grandfather was in a theology class a few years ago, with a Caucasian man that said he would rather have his daughter date a white man who beat her than a black man that treated her well. Why a man would allow that kind of extreme hate to be in his heart is beyond my understanding. While sitting in my third-grade class, a boy came up to me to simply tell me that he hated black people. I didn’t understand where he could have gotten that from then but I fully understand where it came from now. All of the racism that exists is passed down behavior and it’s disgusting. Who is really superior when we all are born with nothing and die six feet under? Is it really that hard to believe that all humans are created equally, or is it just overly complicated by individuals who think they are better? I am writing this essay as a call for awareness because I feel like that is my duty as a black male in academia. It wouldn’t make sense for me to believe in the Black Lives Matter movement and consider myself an activist if I was just unhappy and said nothing. Good things come to those who wait but nothing comes to those who stay in dark. 

I feel that the key to overcoming racism is having an open heart and mind. The idea of racism is passed along by those who refuse to accept another human being for who they are. I believe we have to abandon the stereotypes in order to really make a change. In our current state, I feel like the races are coexisting in the same place without tolerating each other. It is true that we can all go to the same schools and live in the same neighborhoods but how much further does it go than that? It is also true that there are interracial couples that are truly in love, but being in an interracial relationship is still an uphill battle. Is the idea of tolerating a person of another race really so far-fetched that parents still have to tell their children to be cautious of a traffic stop? It shouldn’t be that difficult but it is and something has to change. Everyone has to be able to put any cultural differences aside and look through a clear lens at the people around them. The people that preach racism can simply no longer exist because it has lasted too long. Racism is not a one-way street, so if the majority of people can learn to love each other, I think the world can see some major growth. 

The ailment of racism in America will not be cured soon. However, if the right steps are taken by all races, there is hope for a better tomorrow. Stokely Carmichael had the right idea for change in America when he spoke to the University of California-Berkeley. What he said in 1966 can still be used as a key to change the racial in 2016. The fact that institutional and individual racism are still prominent do not help but nothing is immune to change. When the people in America change, so shall the institutions that shackle minorities. With the help of the Black Lives Matter movement, black communities will be strengthened to a point where there will be a lesser need for protest outside of government building for fair treatment. Hopefully the next one hundred years won’t feel so similar to the past.
