The Need to Succeed and Move Forward

The desegregation of schools has been one of America’s most difficult coming of age journeys. People often make claims that modern day America is no longer racist and that the days of segregation and extreme racial tensions were long ago, but they are anything but that. In 1950, it was dangerous and legal in 17 states for ethnic minorities to attend predominantly white public schools. This move towards desegregation was not even 60 years ago! People to this day are old enough to remember the days of segregation and what it was like when they themselves lived through it.

People of color to this day have been targeted by those of the privileged majority. There have been cases where people of color have been violently attacked simply for them existing and trying to go about their everyday lives. In the September of 1965, Mae Bertha and Mathew Carter’s children were able to be some of the first students to desegregate an all white school in Sunflower County, Mississippi. The response to their mere coexistence in the school was met with bullets being shot at their home in the middle of the night, their landlord throwing them out of their home, and their children being tormented by their peers while at school.

People of color live typically have to live their lives unapologetically because if they catered to the word of the white man, they would not be leading successful lives. People, such as the Carters, know that they must endure the obstacles of a racial bias society because what is the point of living if you do not make it worth living by taking education by the horns and making it their own. Melba Pattillo Beals, a woman who as a teen in 1957 was one of 9 teens to integrate a high school in Little Rock, had shared her frightening story of her battle with establishing the cornerstone of public school integration. She had to escape a mob that tried to lynch her with a noose, avoid the explosions of dynamite, and had to quickly wash her eyes after having burning acid thrown in her face. These are some of the threats we hear on a day to day basis from very conservative and racist white people. Why are people of color so compelled to pursue an education and rage against the wheel of oppression? Because living a life of silence and belittlement is not living a life at all.

People of color have never wanted to take anything from their white peers. The pursuit of equality has always been a battle minorities have fought to obtain for years; equal opportunities for education, work, networking, and the endless laundry list of privileges white people are often born into. When a black student goes to school, they want not to just benefit from the quality education, but the chances to partake in activities and be more than just a student. Engagement and being actively involved in their communities is such a major component in the betterment of the lives of ethnic minorities.

White people for the longest have felt the feeling of fear and worry towards minorities as they see them as invaders in their communities. It feels like a fight for status, wealth, space, jobs, representation, and yet people of color could very well care less about the whiteness of white people. Whiteness has been seen as the default avatar people have to try to form to, but with the integration of schools, it should bring to light that students come in a beautiful palette of colors where they are all equally capable in competing in this world for their place. Living a prosperous life should not share a relation with race, but rather the drive and will to earn that place regardless of their identities. White people need to learn that their whiteness should not be seen as a weapon, and they should be building up their follow brothers and sisters of color. If those who claim racism is really dead wholeheartedly believe this, then they should very well be part of the system that helps remove the stigma towards people of color and begin to help them not fear the white man and feel the presence of true coexistence.