Kue, Alexander: Diversity

Without a doubt, the era of the Civil Rights Movement was a monumental period in America’s history. However, I was unaware of the savagery of the inhuman acts that the police force – the upholders of peace and justice – exhibited upon the Blacks of America, the land of freedom and opportunity.

Attending school, I was always taught about the Civil Rights Movement, and therein was the problem; I was merely taught. I was not fully exposed to the horrors that Blacks had to endure to attain simple rights such as registering to vote or merely eating in the same place as White people. Yes, I had watched the cruel nature of the police exhibited on civil rights film documentaries, however, that did not truly have an impact on me. I had not acknowledged the sins of the White man – my eyes were still virgin to the subject matter, much like the clergymen who authored “A Call for Unity.” Perhaps, they knew of the evil brought upon the Black “citizens” of the South and chose not to forfeit power, as Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor.”

                 

It was not until I read Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail that I understood the extent of oppression exerted upon people of color. King asked the clergymen to empathize and see the “police curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters,” and how “your speech stammers” as “your six year old daughter” wants to know “why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television” as you witness “tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children.”

                  

They say seeing is believing, I disagree. Undoubtedly, the clergymen had seen their policemen battering and bruising Black people, unleashing their hounds to rip flesh at nonviolent rallies. They had they could hardly “commend” their “law enforcement officials” on the “calm manner on which these demonstrations have been handled.” Therefore I say, to see is to believe. But in order to believe there must first be empathy. Before reading King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, I had no empathy for the Civil Rights Movement and, consequently did not accept or understand the magnitude of the hatred that existed against the Blacks of that era. In a sense, I was much like the clergymen, showing ignorance to the “negro” man who had fought and died for freedom.