Segregation Won't Result in Unity

Yesterday, I read an article written in response to the hate crime that occurred at Harvard Law School. The article was written by a student of Harvard, hence the title, "This Morning at Harvard Law School We Woke up to a Hate Crime." The piece was well-written, as it described the occurrence without bias, and related it to broader issues.

To summarize the act, Harvard has a hallway lined with portraits of every tenured professor in the history of the university. Sometime between the night of November 18th and the morning of November 19th, the portraits of black professors were defaced. A single piece of black tape was placed over the face of every black professor's portrait. The author, Michele Hall wrote, "their faces were slashed through, X-ing them out, marking them as maybe unwanted or maybe unworthy or maybe simply too antithetical to the legacy of white supremacy on which Harvard Law School has been built." She then goes on to say that the legacy of white supremacy "drips from every corner of the campus," but yet, they [black students] are not afraid.

Her words are powerful, emotional, but relatable and accurate. Because her writing had traces of her feeling personally attacked, I predicted the comments would, too, attack her. Usually, when we read pieces reporting a crime the author distances themselves and objectifies the situation. Hall did not do this, and I'm glad she didn't. As a black student at Harvard, she does have a direct connection to the crime and should be able to voice her hurt in a rational way.

After completing the article I went on to read the comments. At the time I joined in there was nothing outright inappropriate being said. A little controversy, but nothing blatantly disrespectful (I don't know about now though). As assumed, people did criticize her approach to the "crime." One person said that she shouldn't label it a hate crime until it is proved to be such, and another commentator advised her not to assume a white person committed the crime.

Another commentator, whom I am most interested in, responded to Hall's concluding remarks, "This morning at Harvard Law School we woke up to a hate crime. And what we do next will shake will supremacy at Harvard Law School to its core," with the suggestion that black students "exclusively attend Historically Black Institutions."

Although this comment was made with good intentions, I couldn't help but to find it to be one of the most damaging. I understand the call for unity and nationalism, but I can't stand by the plea for segregation. That's what we've been fighting against this whole time, isn't it? Do we really want to re-visit this notion of separate, but equal?  Suggesting that we just "stick together" moves us away from victory, not closer to it.

Isolating ourselves won't solve the problem, it will just make it easier for us not to be a problem.

We must remember that racism is now more pervasive at the macro level, than at mirco level. It has become structuralized, rather than just individualized. Yes, some people are just  racist, but institutions and ideologies had a strong hand in teaching them to be that way. We have to fight against the institutions, and let the change trickle down.

Also, by secluding ourselves we will only be able to appeal to advocate amongst each other. It is imperative that our conversations take place amongst a diverse group of people. We need to hear other voices, consider the advice of other people. What fruitful conversation can you have with people who all hold your same opinion? Yes, you'll move in unison, but will your methods be absolutely effective?

Like Hall said, we need to shake white supremacy to its core, that way we will have the choice to attend whatever institution we want and be valued, respected, and educated equally. Unity is not segregated, and neither should we be.

Be a Threat

At point in middle school my friend and I were asked to step outside of the classroom and speak privately with the teacher. She wanted to discuss our attire. It was close to the end of the school year and it was hot. More than once we made the choice to dress like twins. On this day we decided to wear shorts and a t-shirt tucked in the front (that was the style). As the teacher told us that our shorts were too short because they didn't exactly touch our finger tips when we stood with our hands to our sides, I watched a another--slimmer--girl walk past in the same shorts. The teacher said nothing. 

We sat in detention for hours, waiting for our parents to bring us a pair of pants. Our parents, like most, had jobs. They had to leave work, go home for clothes, and then come to the school. By that time they arrived, we had missed multiple lessons. A waste of a school day. This was one of the many times I was asked to leave the classroom because I was a distraction. For far too long I believed it. 

Another time a teacher wrote me a referral and told me to leave because me talking was distracting the other students. I told her no. I was tired of being sent out just because I was bored. I politely asked her to give me more work or to just leave me alone. This infuriated her and instead of receiving a simple referral, my parents were, again, asked to leave work and come up to the school. Because the principle, like most of my teachers, hadn't taken the chance to get to know me he was ill prepared for the meeting. He expected to pull up a file full of bad grades that matched the complaints of distracting behavior. Instead he found straight As and high test scores. He said he didn't understand, I told him it was simple, I'm bored! He said my talking back was one of my biggest problems. My parents took over from there and I never had a problem with that principle again.

Later, my mother told me "you're smarter than you know J.J, and that makes you a threat." Always having been under the impression that smart people were desired, I couldn't understand how that could make me  a threat. For the rest of my school career I tried not to "threaten" my teachers. Confused by my mom calling me a threat while my teachers articulated it as a distraction, I just tried to stay out of the way. I applied myself in school and when I wasn't begin challenged I found other activities for me to put my energy into. 

It wasn't until I entered grad school that I came to realize who was really distracting who. Being accepted into a PhD program fully funded for up to seven years, at the time, was the biggest accomplishment of my life. It was a dream come true. I knew at an early age that I wanted to be a professional student, and I had made it happen. I was looking forwarded to being immersed in knowledge, researching my area of interest, and finding a means to contribute to our society. I was in for a surprise. 

I got to take classes, learn new things, and do my research, but under a lot of constraints and stipulations. I had to take required courses, which is normal, but none of the courses offered every fit my areas of interest or my background. I was also asked to engage in a lot of services. Services such as, attending reading groups, meetings, being in pictures to show diversity, hoisting visiting African American professors, writing letters to advocate for hiring a professor of color you know since I'm a student of color and all. After three years of this I had only met one person that could be used as a resource for my research and took 3 classes relevant to my area of interest. I had not advanced, however, my department looked like it was advancing because their token black student presented them with a face. A nice face, I might add : ) 

My whole life my body and my brain have been too developed for the spaces I occupy and for that reason I have been reduced to a distraction. But in all reality I am not the distraction. By making me sit in detention for hours because my shorts are short I AM being distracted from my education. Making me leave class because I can't sit still after fishing my work 30 minutes early, distracts ME from aiming higher. By focusing on my race and making me a mascot, rather than supplementing my research, I AM being distracted from all of the immaculate things my brain is capable of doing. 

Now let's look at the bigger picture. When children protesting for the right to pursue their education without the distraction of racism are asked to be evacuated, INSTEAD of the people making death threats against them, we are being DISTRACTED. When we have young minority men stealing to survive because they are long time victims of institutionalized racism but the police officers that are mudering them are walking around free because they were just protecting THEMSELVES, we are being DISTRACTED. When there are a plethora of illegal European immigrants in the United States that hold elite jobs, but thousands of people protesting against Mexican immigrants, we are being DISTRACTED. When we think it is ok to ask a woman what she wore or what she did to be raped, we are being DISTRACTED. 

The problem is that we are confusing what it means to be a threat with what it is to be a distraction. A threat is "a statement of intention to inflict pain, injury, damage, or other hostile action on someone in retribution for something done or not done." A distraction is, a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else." 

Be A THREAT

Be a statement that let's people know you are not satisfied with ever getting less that you deserve. Intentional inflict injury and damage to the ideologies, policies, and rules that are preventing you from reaching your full potential. Be hostile about the fact that you're still not being respected or perceived as an equal.

Don't be a distraction. Don't be a detour for the real issues we need to face. 

Be a threat.