Racial inequality has plagued our nation since its beginning. While some citizens may argue that equality was granted in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed, what about the unspoken oppression, discrimination and margininalization against Black people? Centuries of racist ideologies and the effects of those policies cannot be erased by enacting simple laws. The impacts of racism continue to stain our country. The only difference is that now, the media can’t ignore racism. There is raw footage of police brutality and there is proof of racial microaggressions, racial gaslighting, racial profiling and racial stereotypying. While this may have been an extreme eye opener for many people in our country, for others, it has simply been another added mark to the realities we have faced our entire lives.
Brutality against Black people can be traced back to the origination of this country, but some significant tragedies that aided in the specific creation of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has been a huge push towards ending police brutality, involve cases like Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Deborah Danner, Alton Sterling, Philandro Castile, and many more victims of the ripple effects of slavery and racism within this country. This is not meant to be a completely comprehensive and encompassing list of events that have made up or been affected by the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020. This has been an extremely traumatic and trying year for all of us, but it has also been one where our society has finally opened its eyes to the true injustices that the Black community faces and what steps need to be taken in order to reach a truly anti-racist, progressive world.
A lot has happened this year, but we still have a long way to go. We can start by continuing to hold the leadership within CU Boulder and all of Colorado’s college campuses accountable for taking real and meaningful actions towards creating more of an anti-racist and inclusive community. Chancellor Philip Distefano plans to implement his eight action steps. As students, faculty and staff, we need to continue to monitor the effectiveness of the IDEA Plan ourselves and continue to push the leadership team to take more action.
We need to support the Black Student Alliance and any community on campus that is dedicated to the establishment of a more inclusive and accountable campus.
We need to continue signing petitions, educating ourselves, and informing others that the time to act is NOW.
We need to remember that Black Lives Matter is a movement, not a moment. Black Lives Matter has a list of 2020 goals that they hope to achieve, which include vigorously engaging communities in the electoral process, educating their constituents about candidates and the issues that impact us the most, and promoting voter registration among Generation Z, the Black community, and allies.
The Electoral Justice Project of the Movement for Black Lives, which is a coalition of more than 150 groups, is planning a virtual convention on August 28. The convention will vote on a platform that will act as a set of policy demands to be enacted by next year.
As we go through the 2020-2021 school year, it is important to make sure we are doing our own part toward creating a more just society. Take the anti-racist modules and continue to go above and beyond and keep learning. Attend meetings with groups that are doing real work in the communities. Speak with your peers about the importance of educating themselves and supporting these underrepresented communities. Keep up to date with what is going on in the world.
If you truly believe that all lives should matter, then get involved and join the movement because once Black lives matter as much as others, then all lives truly will matter.
