I just came back from watching the film Selma with my good friend Mihretu Dessalegne and I cant shake this fear with which I left the theater. I have the genuine fear that although this film has been met with critical acclaim (e.g. it has a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes if thats your measuring stick) and made me feel the entire gamut of human emotions intensely, not enough people will go see it. Not enough people will see it because, to some, to see it is an admission that there was a point in the history of our nation when our leaders, in accordance with the people whom they represented, acted with the utmost imprudence. To see it would be to reexamine a deep wound that some would say is better to keep swept under the rug: out of sight, out of mind. To see it would be to willingly engage and interact with a piercing discomfort. However, I believe that we need to remember that Dr. King and the structural racism that he and the dozens of other civil rights activists have fought against do not exist in our textbooks and in distant history but within the very memory of those still living today. In order to achieve a lasting change, those to whom the particular injustice is being carried out cannot be the only ones seeking change but also those who do not perceive the injustice being perpetrated against themselves.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 06:51:57 +0000
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