Stories like this are a reminder of how ferociously and violently white people fought to maintain the status quo of white supremacy. Over 33 million Americans today were adults at the time of Evers' assassination, and a third of Americans today lived at a time when Jim Crow laws were in place. Even math exposes as a lie the statement that the history of racial strife in America is meaningless to today's culture. As William Faulkner famously wrote, "The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Acknowledging the past is essential to creating hope for the future. Thanks for not letting us forget.
Thank you for this. Each time I go back to "I Am Not Your Negro", I learn something new, I see something I missed or understand some element of the story in a deeper way. Today, I'll watch it for the 10th time.
Incredible article. Thanks! What’s so crazy though is that there are likely many people out there in 2023 that would criticize this piece as nothing but Woke CRT rhetoric.
It’s impossible for me to estimate how much Black people and Black culture have positively impacted my life. That fact alone often makes me feel like I’m a failure if I don’t push hard against the limits of personal safety. It’s a weird narcissistic version of survivors’ guilt, since no one has actually asked me to go that far for justice. It’s more about each day, each interaction, each opportunity. Will we seize each one with the conviction and joy that Medgar Evers and his family (and Jemar Tisby) brought to the calling of activism?
That sounds poetic and reassuring, but for real, we are not so far removed from the past that the question doesn’t ring true. It really does. Are we ready to go all in to oppose injustice, and even put our loved ones at risk for it?
I didn’t know that his wife and kids witnessed his shooting and still carried on his cause. The past isn’t past. Thanks for this post!
Stories like this are a reminder of how ferociously and violently white people fought to maintain the status quo of white supremacy. Over 33 million Americans today were adults at the time of Evers' assassination, and a third of Americans today lived at a time when Jim Crow laws were in place. Even math exposes as a lie the statement that the history of racial strife in America is meaningless to today's culture. As William Faulkner famously wrote, "The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Acknowledging the past is essential to creating hope for the future. Thanks for not letting us forget.
Thank you for this. Each time I go back to "I Am Not Your Negro", I learn something new, I see something I missed or understand some element of the story in a deeper way. Today, I'll watch it for the 10th time.
Incredible article. Thanks! What’s so crazy though is that there are likely many people out there in 2023 that would criticize this piece as nothing but Woke CRT rhetoric.
Thank you.
It’s impossible for me to estimate how much Black people and Black culture have positively impacted my life. That fact alone often makes me feel like I’m a failure if I don’t push hard against the limits of personal safety. It’s a weird narcissistic version of survivors’ guilt, since no one has actually asked me to go that far for justice. It’s more about each day, each interaction, each opportunity. Will we seize each one with the conviction and joy that Medgar Evers and his family (and Jemar Tisby) brought to the calling of activism?
That sounds poetic and reassuring, but for real, we are not so far removed from the past that the question doesn’t ring true. It really does. Are we ready to go all in to oppose injustice, and even put our loved ones at risk for it?
I didn’t know that his wife and kids witnessed his shooting and still carried on his cause. The past isn’t past. Thanks for this post!