When it comes to matters of social injustices, being "civil" tends to be quite one-sided. Having a voice or speaking out about unjust acts are considered to be a problem knowing that the issue at hand needs to be properly addressed. For instance, the University of Alabama has a well-known history of covering up segregation and racial discrimination for years and still continues to make little to no improvements on solving the matters. Recently, we have encountered numerous problems with some of the predominately white sororities/fraternities displaying racism, people writing racial slurs, hanging nooses, and The Machine. Even though these situations were acknowledged, all that was really given was a apology letter from the school president which is fine, but I feel administrators could have done a whole lot more.
A video has also been released as of last week of 3 African American UA students who spoke out against the institutionalized racism on our campus; 1 out of the 3 students was our SGA President, Elliott Spillers shared his personal experiences dealing with racism here. I found this a highly effective and strategic way to bring about the awareness to the persistence of discrimination, especially when they exposed the hidden histories of particular buildings and their dark secrets. I am glad that they incorporated this within the documentary because there are a lot of people on this campus who do not know hardly any of the history of this campus besides football and the blocking of the doors.
Activism is all about effectiveness and effectiveness is all about leveraging one's talents or level of expertise. I feel these 3 did a great job of utilizing their testimonies and abilities to come up with the perfect solution to address racial inequalities. It grabbed the attention of many and it informed people of the injustices that African Americans or people of minority have to face on a day to day basis.
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