Letters

Published: Friday, February 26, 1999

Friday, February 26, 1999

Letters

The struggle

is far from over

Under the United States Constitution, civil rights are protected by the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. The civil rights movement was not about getting civil rights, but having our civil rights recognized and protected. Was the civil rights movement successful in this? Not entirely and, others would say, not by a long shot.

Many of those who sit in the latter camp continue to see injustice in law enforcement, education and the work place, and lynchings nowadays are not too uncommon.

Many would point out that segregation is now illegal and integration reigns supreme. Yet we still see predominantly black and brown children getting miseducated in schools that are outmanned, ill-equipped, and falling down, "never to rise again if the wind blows." Though the police can't stop you without probable cause, we see that the war on drugs is actually a war on black and brown youth.

If life is pretty much just as it was 35 years ago, except a little browner and marginally more tolerant, how many civil rights did we get? How far have we traveled? It seems like we did a two-step jig that left us three steps behind; we went from the Mash Potatoes of the '50s to the Electric Slide of the '70s, only to stutter step back three times to do the Charleston of the '20s.

It is difficult for me to answer the question, "Did we achieve great gains in civil rights?" Many point out the fact that white people and people of color can sit together at lunch counters and buses, travel together on trains and airplanes. I only wonder, if we had missed the point. If we had "great gains in civil rights," why was it necessary for 88 students to get arrested last year for taking over Royce Hall in defense of education as we know it? It could not have been because of any gain of civil rights. Was the civil rights movement of the '60s enough?

If the civil rights of all citizens in the United States were recognized and truly protected by the law (as opposed to being assaulted by the law), people would have little else to complain about - aside from human rights abuses committed by the United States in the rest of the world.

Terelle Jerricks

Editor in chief

Nommo magazine

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