The most powerful speeches can sometimes be the most confusing.
In front of a packed audience at Alice Millar Chapel, Eva Jefferson Paterson, a keynote speaker for Northwestern’s MLK day programming, delivered a powerful sermon on race relations in the U.S. from the 1960s until now. Paterson, Weinberg ’71, was a charming orator, keeping the audience laughing with her self-effacing jabs and startling honesty.
She also offered an interesting glimpse into the state of race relations at NU during the ’60s when she was first admitted as a student. During her time at NU, Paterson travelled throughout Illinois delivering King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, debated then-Vice President Spiro Agnew and became NU’s first black president of Associated Student Government.
But in her closing remarks, Paterson said something that struck me.
Do not believe in the notion of a color-blind society, she said. “It’s hogwash.”
As a first-generation Indian-American, I cannot say I fully comprehend the volatile history of black-white relations in the U.S. I’ve always seen that divide from a distance, unsure where my place was within that dynamic.
It would naive to believe that we live in a color-blind society today. Estimates vary, but this is a country where minority men, especially black men, are incarcerated at a rate as high as 10 times that of white men. Where some minority teens have a stronger chance of going to jail than going to college. Where minority children routinely receive a less-than-adequate education.
Even in Evanston, with its the rows of expensive boutiques and lush condos, poverty and inequalities are trenchant.
About 5 percent of Evanston families live below the poverty line, which is about half of the national average of 10 percent, according to 2006 reports. About 11 percent of individuals live under the poverty line, close to the national rate of 13 percent. I’ve driven through some residential areas of this city at night without seeing a single light on.
Last Monday, school board officials from Evanston’s two school districts met to discuss the yawning gap in achievement between black and white students. During the meeting, District 65 Board Member Keith Terry said he was dismayed by the fact that achievement for minority groups in Evanston’s schools has essentially flatlined during the past decade. Presently, white students score higher than minority students.
“This experiment is failing African-American kids,” Terry said, referring to policies put in place after the No Child Left Behind Act. “It is a crisis.”
Still, there has been progress in the push for racial equality. There has been an earnest movement to integrate schools and classrooms across the country, and the topic of racial equality is widely discussed. Even the fact that these discussions are on the table is progress.
But race matters. It mattered in the 1960s during Paterson’s time at NU. It matters now, during mine. I’m not sure that will ever change.
But removing the concept of color-blindness leaves us with a void. The reason why the notion of a color-blind society has remained so powerful is because it is a clearly delineated goal. There may be differences in how we approach getting there, but we all had an idea of what a color-blind society would be like.
But Paterson asked us to rethink this destination, and the evidence seems to be on her side. By dismantling the color-blind ideology, more questions arise: Now what? What do we strive for now?
– Deepa SeetharamanCity Editor
