I know this because having reported from America for nearly a quarter of a century, I'm seeing the same stories of police brutality, discrimination in housing and jobs, and black voter suppression, as I saw back in Los Angeles in the s.
Suspicious deaths in police custody followed by rudimentary inquiries, followed usually by the exoneration of the officers involved. It's a pathetic cycle of indulgence that allows, even condones and encourages, bad behaviour. There's another example of the past being the present.
I've already mentioned my first US presidential election in A big issue in the campaign was urban crime and the Clinton administration's controversial Crime Bill that critics say increased mass incarceration and led to the disproportionate jailing of tens of thousands of black men.
Joe Biden helped get that legislation on the books, and his involvement has come back to haunt him. It's meant some African Americans view the Democratic Party candidate suspiciously, despite his time serving eight years as vice-president to Barack Obama. And it's part of the reason a minority of African American men say they'll vote for Donald Trump in this election. Polls suggest African Americans overwhelmingly back Democrats in elections.
But in the race for the White House, many failed to show up at the polls for Hilary Clinton, choosing instead to stay at home, and thereby helping to hand Donald Trump the presidency. I've been talking to a new breed of young, engaged African American civil rights activist, fired up to turn out the vote. People like Percy Christian in Phoenix, Arizona, arrested on a peaceful civil rights March and jailed for seven days.
He says he's committed to fighting for a better future for black people and will continue to take to the streets. I'm willing to put my life on the line to raise awareness about the issue that police brutality is real Another activist, Jazlyn Geiger, who's 21, told me that the fear of a bad encounter with the police lives in the mind of every African American.
Johnson offered the Selma protesters his support and introduced legislation aimed at expanding voting rights. Along the way, interior designer Carl Benkert used a hidden reel-to-reel tape recorder to document the sounds—and specifically songs—of the event. The protests of the early and mids culminated in the widespread unrest of and By the end of the riots, 43 people were dead. Hundreds sustained injuries, and more than 7, were arrested.
The Detroit riots of prefaced the seismic changes of On February 1, black sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker died in a gruesome accident involving a malfunctioning garbage truck. Though King is lionized today, he was highly unpopular at the time of his death. According to a Harris Poll conducted in early , nearly 75 percent of Americans disapproved of the civil rights leader , who had become increasingly vocal in his criticism of the Vietnam War and economic inequity. In all, the Holy Week Uprisings spread to nearly cities, leaving 3, people injured and 43 dead.
In May, thousands flocked to Washington, D. Racial unrest persisted throughout the year, with uprisings on the Fourth of July , a protest at the Summer Olympic Games , and massacres at Orangeburg and Glenville testifying to the tumultuous state of the nation. Other aspects of modern protest draw directly on uprisings of earlier eras.
A black woman who identifies as a lesbian, for instance, may face prejudice based on her race, gender or sexuality. And the traffic running through those roads are the practices and policies that discriminate against people.
Now if an accident happens, it can be caused by cars traveling in any number of directions, and sometimes, from all of them. So if a black woman is harmed because she is in an intersection, her injury could result from discrimination from any or all directions. Understanding intersectionality is essential for teasing out the relationships between movements including civil rights, LGBTQ rights , suffrage and feminism.
Consider the contributions of black transgender activists Marsha P. Individuals striving to become better allies by educating themselves and taking decisive action have an array of options for getting started. Historical examples of allyship offer both inspiration and cautionary tales for the present.
Griffin, however, had the privilege of being able to shed his blackness at will—which he did after just one month of donning his makeup. Sixty years later, what is perhaps most striking is just how little has changed.
History is a guide to a better future and demonstrates that we can become a better society—but only if we collectively demand it from each other and from the institutions responsible for administering justice. In fact, the 3. We regret the error. Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history.
Website: meilansolly. Race in America A Smithsonian magazine special report. History June 4, Resources to Understand Racism in America These articles, videos, podcasts and websites from the Smithsonian chronicle the history of anti-black violence and inequality in the United States.
Meilan Solly Associate Editor, History. Table of Contents 1. Data on police and public encounters isn't always clear, but several studies provide insight on how race might influence the outcomes. July 22, Elaine Waxman. Acutely tragic, high-profile incidents only scratch the surface of the more complex relationship between policing and the mental health needs of both citizens and off.
July 29, Ellen Paddock , Nancy G. One goal of the My Brother's Keeper initiative is to keep boys and young men of color safe from violent crime. Given recent events, this is a formidable challeng. August 01, Margaret Simms. The link between race and debt sustains even after accounting for area income, unemployment, levels of education, and home values, all of which explain why some place.
July 25, Steven Brown. A black child who grew up in poverty in the late s was twice as likely as a white child who grew up in poverty to also be poor as an adult. July 22, Diana Elliott. Often, the response to police killing African Americans has been to provide more training to police forces. But we need a deeper change to transcend bias and disrupt. July 14, Kilolo Kijakazi. The events of the past week give us no new data—the stories are now tragically familiar. But each name added to the list of victims increases the urgency for though.
July 08, Steven Brown. More than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, structural racism maintains advantages for some and not for others, inside and outside of the public school syst. June 06, Shiva Kooragayala. Current enforcement methods can hinder fathers' ability to find work and save money, and failure to pay can lead to incarceration. That cycle hurts kids too. June 16, Eleanor Pratt. African American boys are the most likely student group to face school discipline, but the disparity between African American girls and white girls is huge.
May 25, Margaret Goff. May 11, Elaine Waxman. Without information about criminal convictions, an employer might make judgments about job candidates based on perceived likelihoods. May 11, Christina Plerhoples Stacy. How can we hold students, parents, and schools accounta. May 10, Margaret Simms , Ronald F. Most people in a diverse society display some subconscious, implicit racial bias. But conscious, explicit racism still exists and shapes decisionmaking in the Chicago.
May 09, Andrew Karas. Boys and young men of color suffer from substantial inequities in sexual and reproductive health. But most clinical services are directed toward women. May 06, Nan Marie Astone. How can the private and public sectors ensure youth get the most out of their sum. May 05, Shayne Spaulding , Don Baylor.
Until the Fair Housing Act, an exploitive, secondary housing market was allowed to thrive. On the heels of the housing market crash, some of those practices are. May 05, Steven Brown. Eighty-five percent of all civilian jobs are in the private sector.
The best way for corporations to help boys and young men of color is to employ them. May 04, Margaret Simms. Policies that focus on victim blaming and individual behavior change won't eradicate the problem because they don't address the entire picture.
In , at least 21 trans women were murdered; 19 of them were women of color. April 12, Eleanor Pratt. For the middle class as a whole, the evidence on financial progress is mixed. The black middle class, however, is decidedly losing ground. February 10, Steven Brown. February 09, Steven Brown. Acknowledging that white people get a leg up requires wrestling with a concept integral to the American psyche: notions of fairness. February 23, Margaret Simms , Elaine Waxman.
February 17, Solomon Greene. New mortgage lending data show that minorities are still largely locked out of the housing market, partly as a result of tight lending standards. Reflections from Urban's president on the Institute's recent work. June 01, Sarah Rosen Wartell. Concrete solutions to close the wealth gap faced by people of color. May 26, Kilolo Kijakazi. How to stop the cycle of disadvantage and exclusion of Latino communities.
May 26, Maria E. No silver-bullet solution can address decades of neighborhood segregation, but working on multiple fronts could. May 22, Margery Austin Turner. Promising solutions to lower barriers to homeownership for people of color. May 21, Taz George , Bing Bai. Whites and blacks younger than 30 are less likely than their older counterparts to say their race is at least very important to their overall identity. And while relatively few whites across age groups say being white is central to how they think about themselves, whites younger than 30 are among the least likely to say so.
Among Hispanics, those born abroad are more likely than those born in the U. Hispanics and Asians are more likely than whites to say each of these have happened to them. Asians are more likely than any other group to say they have been subject to slurs or jokes because of their race or ethnicity. The survey asked black and Hispanic respondents to identify the skin tone that best resembles their own using a modified version of the Massey-Martin scale.
Among blacks, those with darker skin tones are more likely to say they have experienced racial discrimination generally, but skin color is not necessarily associated with having faced specific situations because of their race or ethnicity. In fact, for blacks, being male and having higher levels of education are more consistently associated with the specific forms of discrimination asked about in the survey. This survey includes an oversample of Asian respondents, for a total sample size of Asians.
The sample includes English-speaking Asians only and, therefore, may not be representative of the overall U. Asian adult population overall. Despite this limitation, it is important to report the views of Asians on race relations and racial inequality, as well as their personal experiences with racial discrimination, as the U.
Asian population is growing faster than any other major racial or ethnic group. Measuring the attitudes of Asians on these topics is an important piece in understanding the state of race in America today. Asians are shown as a separate group when the question was asked of the full sample.
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