The Romanticization of the
Civil Rights Movement is
Damaging Our Society
"Racism can't exist because we have a black president."
Having a black president didn't stop people from using racial slurs against him.
"Racism can't exist because there are famous and successful black people like Oprah and Beyonce."
One person overcoming obstacles does not mean that those obstacles stop existing for everyone. And once again, gaining popilarity or status has not kept successful black people safe from racial slurs.
"Slavery and discrimination happened forever ago. Black people just need to get over it already."
Slavery went on for over 200 years, and segregation went on for another 90 years after that. It has only been about 70 years since then. There are people alive today who remember when segregation was common.
"Racism and discrimination will never go away if you keep talking about it."
Avoiding the problem will not get rid of it. It will cause people to accept it as reality. That is what we want to avoid. We don't want to ever pretend or start to believe that racism or discrimination is okay.
"There is no need to teach anything more than we do about the civil rights movement because we are already experiencing the results of it. Schools are diverse."
Granted progress has been made, but that doesn't mean that we can disregard the past. Also, the civil rights movement wasn't just about diversifying schools. It was about gaining complete equality for black people. Until then the civil rights movement will never lose it's relevancy.
"Officers are simply doing their jobs and trying to protect us. Deadly force is sometimes necessary."
While deadly force is necessary in extreme occasions, officers are supposedly trained to avoid using deadly forces at all costs. Officers are supposed to be trained to use other forms of self defense and how to disarm and aprehend someone without needing to kill them. We know that many officers are skilled at this because in cases of mass shootings and armed assailants, officers are able to aprehend, arrest, and transport them without doing any harm. The only difference in the cases mentioned is that the suspects were black and unarmed.
"Learning about the past is not going to help the future. We should just address what's happening right now."
To fix something you must first understand why the problem exists. To find out why something is happening in society you must look into our history and media. History will tell you why and when something started, and our media will tell you why it's continuing to happen.
Here's a simple Example: If you were to go into anaphylactic shock (a very serious and potentially deadly allergic reaction) using an Epi-Pen (a brand of auto-injectors to release hormones into your body that can combat allergic reactions) may help you and fix the situation for the time being. But it will then be important to LOOK INTO THE PAST and determine what caused the anaphylactic shock. Once you determine the cause you can avoid it and will not need to worry about it causing you to go into shock again.
"All Lives Matter."
This is true, but all lives are not being lost and ignored. The Black Lives Matter movement is not meant to imply that black lives are more important than others, but rather to remind us that they are just as important as others.