In a speech by Ruth Bader-Ginsburg in 1993 (Speaking in a Judicial voice), she highlighted that “Courts enabled the laws catch up with a changed society” by forcing legislature to re-examine gender based laws. This is an interesting point noted by justice Ginsburg and premise on which I will try to draw some lessons. The first crucial point for me in the above statement is the awareness of Justice Ginsburg that there are pervasive injustices and marginalization against varying groups of people – minorities, people of color, gender, religion or other indices in our society embedded in social norms and because legislation is made by members of society who are themselves flawed, these injustices are enacted into laws which then give force to these injustices to be further entrenched.
“Courts enabled the laws catch up with a changed society” by forcing legislature to re-examine gender based laws.
The second crucial point is that in time and through multiple agitations the society changes. How do I know that society eventually changes? I watched a video clip of Oprah’s visit in 1987 to interview a county where no black person has lived for 75 years and the residents confidently gave reasons why this was okay and should be kept that way using extremely racists and demeaning words against African-Americans. They made statements which to any right thinking human being would be considered totally unacceptable and I would say if the clip was played back to them today, they would be totally ashamed of themselves. Another evidence of how our society has changed is the story of Ruby Nell Bridges Hall. On 14 November 1960 she became the first African-American child to attend an all white school in Louisiana in an attempt to enforce the landmark judgement Brown v Board of Education in 1954 which declared the segregation of school children based on race as unconstitutional. She is just 65 years old.
However, while the society changes rapidly, there is a significant lag between when the society has changed and the ability of the “system” to adapt and accommodate these changes. The task before everyone who would be part of building a progressive society therefore is to push the system towards these progressive ideals we now value.
This then brings me to the issue of systemic racism and the current agitations in the United States. What is clear and obvious to many black people in America and in many other countries across the world is the systemic racism which they have had to endure for decades on end and against which they have continually pushed. Many societies have however ignored these agitations, rationalizing it, explaining it away and refusing to deal with it. In fact, overt police aggression against black men often resulting in extrajudicial killings is nothing new, the statistics of incarceration of black men bears witness to this. And many people across the divide who today are at the forefront of the protests, wouldn’t have cared one bit a few years ago. In fact, the court refused to convict the killer of Trayvon Martin, with the press running over themselves to criminalize the 17 year old teenager. So what changed? I guess in the eternal words of the song from Sam Cook, The change has simply come, the society has changed and the system which we have all carried with pride has now been exposed as racist and unjust.
We must chose to stand together and not apart One World, One Race
With these understanding of a fast changing society, often times as individuals we become lost in the noise and wonder how we can play a positive part in this future and avoid being on the wrong side of progress. I make a few suggestions. The first bit is to fight ignorance, especially your own ignorance of how systemic racism works and it’s impact on black people. Also don’t be afraid to own up to past failures, while today you may be a campaigner for equal rights and justice it doesn’t erase the periods of your past where you may have contributed to the systemic racism or taken advantage of the privilege of your race. Thirdly use your privilege and position to call out racism wherever you see it. Finally, we must realize that the lag will be there in the system, our laws, rules, regulations, norms have been designed to keep people out, we will all need to put in the effort to dismantle these laws and move the system towards the direction our society has shifted to.
The destiny of everyone on this globe is collective, and no amount of segregation or apartness can shield you from the effect of detrimental practices across the globe. We must chose to stand together and not apart One World, One Race.
THE EDGE 