Contemporary Connections

>>The Subject: Repeating Racism in the 21st Century


This one strikes pretty close to home for me.

I can still remember exactly what I was doing when the Ferguson Riots were exploding all over the national news. I remember being at my dad's house, and looking at my stepmother to say, innocuously, "What do you think about all of this?" I expected her to have some kind of sympathy for what was happening, for the broken family and community, for the wasted life. I didn't expect to hear something along the lines of, "He got what he deserved." Whether you agree with me or not, that's not what I'm here to discuss. With the #BLM movement gaining steam and only getting bigger and more widespread, it's time we looked at the racial implications of it all. And how things really haven't changed since the time frame Morrison set Beloved in. Maybe they've gotten prettier, but racism is still alive and well.

The first article I read talked about Dartmouth University, about how they rallied together despite being such a small community (2% minority in the entirety of Hanover, 7% minority undergraduates). It reminded me of the end of the book, seeing the entire black community gather around 124 and lend support to Sethe. While not exactly for the same reasons, it still strikes a powerful chord. People will always rise up to protect one another, support one another, even if they are a small community.

Ferguson and #BLM also became a platform for teaching. By showing the inequality faced by blacks and minorities overall, #BLM wants to even the playing field and expose the injustices they face. Morrison wanted to do much the same with Beloved; she wanted to expose the sufferings of the slaves. What they went through was horrendous, and she waned to expose it to the world once again, without the pretty veil history tried to put on it . Without white people trying to brush it off as "a thing of the past". Both Morrison and the #BLM movement want to keep the truth out in the open. Racism is a live and well, and the voices it tries to oppress won't be silenced.

In a way, they're parallel. Morrison stated in the interview we watched that she writes to give a voice to the black community and the struggles they face, without the white-tinted lens over it. It's hard to really understand someone's struggles if  you cant actually experience them. But putting them on blast, putting it down for people to face as cold, true facts, it about the best you can do. Both Morrison and #BLM achieve this-- putting the racial issues down as true facts, without the pressure of making it "clean and acceptable" for the public, without fear of presenting it in a   nonthreatening way, helps it succeed. Racism isn't pretty, but the more we face it, the more we work to solve it, the quicker we can reach racial peace. Maybe it's too idealistic, but I'd like to think we can all play nice. And I think that's all Morrison wants, too. I think that's why she writes, so we can all see the injustices and think to ourselves, "how can I fix that?"