Racism Response

Throughout American history, whites refused to acknowledge the humanity of blacks. Whites protected their social superiority through physical and psychological abuse of blacks. I think of the whole situation as if it were a large canyon, black Americans in the valley, and for the majority of American history, whites on the top rim. Whites kept blacks down in the valley, suppressed and unaware of life outside the canyon walls, merely submitting to the will and work of those above. Whites developed a superiority complex, no doubt about it. However, all of a sudden, the blacks realized that they did not have to stay in the valley. They began to climb to treacherous walls of the canyon, with each step they found themselves closer to the wide, beautiful, fertile plains of respect and common decency.
However, whites would not watch their animals become their equals quietly. Whites fought to keep the status quo, pushing mountainous boulders onto the heads of the ascending blacks, cheering when it crushes a skull and laughing as bodies tumble back into the void of submission.
During the time of Malcolm X's Harvard speech and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail, one can see that blacks had just about reached the top of the canyon. On one side are the blacks, exhausted from the climb but no where near giving up now; on the other side are whites, aghast at the progress of their former slaves; in the middle lies emptiness, space, nothingness. There is no bridge connecting the two sides. The only communication found between the two sides is yelling, people screaming from full lungs, spit flying from their pointed mouths, neither side able to listen to what the other is saying.
Dr. King said that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." He knew about the lack of respect that whites showed to blacks because he had seen it his whole life. Malcolm X had seen evil through the eyes of a victim, and his mission was to hold a mirror up to the faces of the oppressors. The blacks were toeing the edge of the cliff, trying any way they could to build something to bridge the gap.
Today racism is far from over. The canyon still exists, although many have tried to say it no longer does. The best solution is to continue supporting the building of bridges over the canyon, connecting one side to another. But it is important that it is a bridge. Concrete will not do. We cannot fill up the canyon and act like it never existed--that would be just as terrible as when blacks were still down in it. We need to build bridges because it not only creates a pathway between the two camps, but it also recognizes the existence of a troubled past and reminds us often from where we have come.