Hello, everyone, and welcome to Naked News. I’m Laura Desiree.
And I’m Eila Adams. With everything going on across the US right now, we felt it was appropriate to take a look back, at how we got here.
It didn’t just start with George Floyd, or Eric Garner or Michael Brown, but has been YEARS in the making. So, today, we’re taking a good hard look at what’s going on.
Including what got us to this point. Frankie’s in the Naked Newsroom with the story.
Saying how we got here in a matter of minutes is a monumental task. The roots of what we’re seeing now go back centuries, to the twin scourges of slavery and colonialism. Eventually, slavery was abolished in America, but segregation ensured that inequality and inequity would continue. And incidents like the murder of Emmett Till and the acquittal of those who committed it proved that the Black community could not expect justice in America.
This was the world the civil rights movement sprung up in. And though progress was fought by powerful forces, there were signs of hope. When we think of this era, we think of the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. The easy narrative is to think of them in opposition. And there were differences. Malcolm X believed the Black community needed to achieve independence. Martin Luther King sought integration and advocated nonviolent resistance. But they shared things too. They both believed in the need for change and the need to fight for it. They both were subject to government persecution. And ultimately, they were both assassinated.
History carried on. And while some progress was made on paper, the reality largely stayed the same. Discriminatory housing markets. Discriminatory hiring practices. Discriminatory education opportunities. And of course, a justice system stacked against people of color.
Though this reality was well-known to everyone willing to know it, we all were forced to acknowledge it when we witnessed the vicious beating of Rodney King at the hands of LAPD officers. And when his assailants were acquitted by a jury with no black members, despite the video evidence, a community’s justifiable anger boiled over, leading to the 1992 L.A. riots. That is just some of the back story to where we are today. To be continued.
