Being Educated Won’t Save Me (Or You) From Racism

Being Educated Won’t Save Me (Or You) From Racism

Author: Latria graham

It is a difficult time in the world to be a black scholar. November 19, 2015, portraits of Black professors are defaced – at, of all places, Harvard Law School. Among them was professor Annette Gordon-Reed, a fellow Dartmouth alum, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. My breaking point was a meme making its rounds on the Internet in the wake of the Mizzou protests. It’s a picture of Jonathan Butler, the Black student who led the hunger strike, with a photoshopped baseball cap on his head, and a statement asserting that he’s not an impoverished student fighting for change, but a graduate student whose family’s net worth is estimated to be millions. Stop. Stop right there. I don’t need to know Butler’s background,. The details don’t matter to me; I know enough. These are Black people in hostile situations, set against the backdrop of a hostile world. Tyler Perry gets pulled over in his Mercedes, just like my brother does, and just like every Black person I’ve ever talked to about the phenomenon of “driving while Black” does. There aren’t any tickets, or any warnings issued. It’s the world’s way of saying “we’re watching.”

Being a privileged person – whether it is through education or income – is supposed to make you the exception to a bias. But sometimes a bias or prejudice is so strong that there are no exceptions – which, like the flashing lights of a police car in the rearview mirror, comes as a shock. But it shouldn’t. Respectability will not save us. Money isn’t always a way to escape. Education is not a guaranteed savior. Talking “white,” living right, and following the law will not shield us from hateful bigotry. The aftermath: “It’s not about race. We’re sorry. We thought you were someone else.” How many times will the oppressor use that line? I want to know who they think I am. Who they think my people are. It’s easier to spout lies and excuses than it is to explain them to someone who is hurting, who has to process trauma in real time.

I wrote this because it needed to be said. It needed to be explained that no matter how hard I try and reach for the stars I would never be great at least not in the eyes of my ivory counterparts. Equality is a myth that we will continue to fight for. It will forever be so close yet so far away.