February 22, 2O()6
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH and the American Experience
Page A5
Civil Rights Activists Urge Look Forward
Worry about
focus on past
o f the y o u n g e r gen eratio n m ostly - the
post-civil rights g e n e ra tio n .”
A dv o cates note that it d o e sn ’t take
m uch searching to find social ju stic e
battles left to fight. H urricane K atrina
unveiled stark racial disparities in N ew
O rleans, and blacks still have m ore
than d o uble the rates o f infant m ortal­
ity, u n em p lo y m en t and poverty as
w hites, said G ordon, w ho took the
leadership post at the N ational A sso­
ciatio n for the A dvancem ent o f C o l­
o red People last year.
T hat K ing's death occurred on the
sam e day that Sam uel A lito - whose
nom ination many civil rights advocates
bitterly opposed - w as co ntinued to the
U.S. Suprem e C ourt illustrated that the
work o f Coretta Scott King and her
h u sb a n d is n o t o v e r, sa id W ad e
H enderson, executive director o f the
Leadership Council on Civi I Rights.
(A P ) - C ivil rights ad v o cates say
that the recent death o f C o retta Scott
King u nderscores a g row ing concern:
A s the m o v e m e n t's iconic leaders
fade into history, m uch o f the focus is
on honoring the past rather than p u sh ­
ing fo re q u a lity today.
"W e should be very respectful o f -
and enco u rag ed by - the substantial
progress that has been m ade. But in
no w ay, shape or form should we
conclude that the civil rights m ission is
co m p lete,” said Bruce G ordon, p re si­
dent o f the N A A C P.
T h e re ’s a sense am ong adv o cates
that m odern activism is being o v er­
shadow ed by a n ear-constant string o f
co m m em o ratio n s for bygone v icto ­
The late Coretta S c o tt King, the wife o f Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.. with form er p re sid e n t Jim m y Carter. 4 s icons o f the
ries: the 50th anniversary o f Brow n v.
civil rights m o v e m e n t p a s s into history, activists worry about a lack o f progress for th e future.
B oard o f E ducation in 2004 and, last
"P art o f that over-focusing on his­
year, the 4 0 years since the historic
tory' and not looking at current realities
m arch from Selm a, A la., to M o n tg o m ­ o f racial discrim ination is another form
ery, A la., to w in voting rig h ts for A f­ of d e n ia l,” said B arbara A rnw ine,
rican -A m ericans.
ex ecu tiv e directo r o f the L aw y ers’
Inevitably, such rem em b ran ces in ­ C om m ittee on Civil Rights U nder Law.
tensify in the first m onths o f each year “ M any people find com fort in the no­
w ith the m id-January holiday for M ar­ tion that racial discrim ination in a m at­
tin L u th er K ing, Jr. that his w idow
ter o f the past - it’s ‘O h, look at how
fought to w in and w ith B lack H istory
fa r w e have c o m e .’”
M onth. In addition, each tim e an im ­
R onald W alters, a professor o f po­
portant civil rights figure dies - be it litical science at the U niversity o f
R o sa P ark s, O ssie D a v is o r now
M ary land, said h e ’s also “suspicious
C o retta Scott K ing - it renew s the o f co m m em o ratio n s.”
focus on the m o v e m e n t's history.
“ In som e quarters, th e re ’s a feeling
S o m e a d v o c a te s a re c o n c e rn e d
th at the m o v em en t has p a sse d its
about that eagerness to look back.
c o u rse ,” he said. “T h a t’s the reaction
continued
on page A9
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Mark A nthony Neal
The observance o f Black History
Month is less edgy today than in the
past, partly because A m ericans’ collec­
tive memory of racially charged histori­
cal events has become a sanitized, feel­
good version of the Civil Rights m ove­
ment. according to Duke University
experts in black culture and American
history.
And, as Americans consider the sig­
nificance of Black History Month, they
need to recognize that the simple d y ­
namic ot black and white no longer re­
flects the com plicated racial makeup of
American society, added a Duke soci­
ologist.
Historian Tim Tyson said Americans
remember the Civi I Rights era as a “self-
congratulatory fable that is soothing,
moving and politically acceptable,” but
bears “no resem blance to what actually
happen ed .”
He said Martin Luther K ing's radical
message o f econom ic and political ju s ­
tice has been replaced in the popular
memory with an image of Dr. King as "an
innocuous black Santa Claus, genial
and vacant, a man who w anted us to be
nice to one another."
T y so n , a v isitin g p ro fe sso r and
scholar at Duke and a professor of Afro-
American Studies at the University of
W isconsin-M adison, is the author of
"Blood Done Sign My Name,” a memoir
about a 1970 lynching in T yson's hom e­
town of Oxford. N.C.
Mark Anthony Neal, associate pro­
fessor of black popularculture at Duke,
said that Black History Month has be­
come watered down over the years. Chain
stores decorate with Black H istory
M onth-themed posters, publishers put
out books on African-A m erican sub­
jects and high-profile black speakers
Jim Tyson
are in high demand for a short space of
time in February, he noted.
“ Black History Month has become
part of the marketing o f the idea of
m ulticulturalism and pluralism in the
United States,” Neal said. "It's a selling
point, not necessarily a lived reality.”
Duke sociology research professor
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva said Americans
need to not only acknowledge the real
struggles and conflict of the Civil Rights
era, but face up to the racial realities of
today.
“First, we must acknow ledge that
blacks, despite the advances made in
the 1960s and 1970s, lag still well behind
whites in almost all social indicators,”
said Duke sociology research profes­
sor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, who special­
izes in the study of racial stratification
in the United States.
"Second, we must also realize that the
face of the nation has become increas­
ingly more brown.”
The bulk of this new Latino popula­
tion is fast joining the ranks of the
working poor and. thus, socially, eco­
nom ically and sym bolically becoming
“black-like," Bonilla-Silva said. But a
small segment o f the Latino population
— usually Latinos with lighter skin —
are treated as "honorary w hites" by
white America, and are more accepted
and assim ilated, he said.
“The historical black-w hite divide
may remain, but it may become more
complex and even add a little bit o f gray
in the m iddle,” he said. “Thus, in this
y e a r's Black History Month celebra­
tion. we may want to take account of
both the new ‘black-like,' as well as the
‘hon o rary w h ite ,’ segm ents o f the
Latino population, and exam ine the role
they will play in the future o f A m erica."
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