We’ve come far but still have far to go

President Obama delivered an impassioned speech in Selma, Alabama this past weekend marking the 50th anniversary of the Sunday Bloody Sunday marches. It was when peaceful voting rights protestors, lead by Martin Luther King, Jr,. were beaten by police in what many see as a turning point in the civil rights movement. Some have said Obama’s speech was one of the finest of his Presidency.

Many of the speakers at the anniversary, including President Obama, spoke of how far we’ve come since that day.

“If you think nothing’s changed in the past 50 years, ask somebody who lived through the Selma or Chicago or L.A. of the ’50s,” Obama said. “Ask the female CEO who once might have been assigned to the secretarial pool if nothing’s changed. Ask your gay friend if it’s easier to be out and proud in America now than it was 30 years ago. To deny this progress – our progress – would be to rob us of our own agency; our responsibility to do what we can to make America better. “

While it is important to recognize how far we have come, there have been two recent reminders about how far we still have to go, one of which President Obama noted.

The first was a Department of Justice report in the wake of the shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri police. The report showed that the police department and municipal courts have a history of widespread and systemic discrimination against blacks. The fact that the bias was so widespread confirmed many African American’s suspicions about the system being rigged against them. Brown wasn’t the first unarmed black person killed in Ferguson.

Sure there will be resignations and firings in the wake of Ferguson, but the fact of the matter is it’s just one city, a very high profile one, where this happened. Not every city where this happens receives this much attention.

“What happened in Ferguson may not be unique, ” President Obama said, “but it’s no longer endemic, or sanctioned by law and custom. And before the civil rights movement, it most surely was.”

That may be true, but it doesn’t mean it’s not sad this is still going on in modern day America.

The other reminder of the prevalence of racism was a viral video of Oklahoma University fraternity students chanting the N word. Two of them were expelled and one of them apologized for his role in the incident.

While it’s not that shocking that these things still happen, it is shocking is that they are so widely accepted. Both of these incidents involved more than a few bad apples. How someone in the Ferguson criminal justice system didn’t step up and speak out against these practices is unbelievable.

How an entire bus full of college frat boys thought it was acceptable to yell an N-word chant and no one pushed back or raised a fuss is unacceptable. Sure it takes courage to stand up to a group of people who think alike, but this is 2015, not 1965.

Not only is it important for people to be held accountable when these things happen, for investigations to happen and heads to roll, we also need to educate people and recognize that people shouldn’t go along to get along. People shouldn’t either sit blindly by when abuses or blatant racism happen. They should speak out and speak loudly, realizing that the law and society is on their side. We no longer accept these words and actions as un-harmful. We stop them and shine a light to them. As in the case of Ferguson and the Oklahoma University incidents, we saw what happens once attention is brought to them. Think of what would happen had that not been the case. This is why it’s important to not watch and let these things happen if you see or hear them. Be a part of the solution, not an aide to the problem.