More than three decades have passed since the death of Martin
Luther King Jr., but civil rights activists and scholars say civil
rights in the United States still have a long way to go.
Some professors say the biggest challenges in the ongoing civil
rights movement will be reforming education, housing and
employment.
Paul Von Blum, a professor in African American studies and a
civil rights activist since the 1960s, said the civil rights
movement of the 1960s exposed and changed overt racism, but now the
deeper challenge rests in changing the institutional and
attitudinal racism of which most people are unaware.
Von Blum cited the reduction in minority students in American
universities, especially the University of California, as an
example.
“There is a continuing gap between American ideals and
American realities,” he said, referring to the lack of
educational and economic opportunities for minorities.
“There is an extremely distinct pattern of young African
American men being made superfluous and being fostered off to
incarceration. We need to have real economic opportunities. One of
the foundations for that is better education,” he said.
Richard Sander, a professor in the UCLA School of Law, agreed
that racial disparities are caused by forms of segregation that
still exist today.
The civil rights laws passed in the 1960s all had the philosophy
that if you made something illegal the problem would go away, he
said.
“It was extremely effective in public accommodation, where
segregation disappeared almost overnight. It has gradually been
pretty effective in the employment area but housing is the foremost
example where that was a very flawed approach, and we need to have
other strategies,” he said.
Sander believes that though there are areas in which complete
equality is yet to be achieved, the country is supportive of the
idea of equality.
“I think we have an unprecedented degree of consensus in
America that the steps we took in the 1960s were good steps. And
that’s something that it would have been hard for people in
the ’60s to imagine,” he said.
Sander said civil rights activists today are in the process of
formulating new strategies that are better attuned to today’s
problems.
Von Blum said he believes the impact of events in the next few
years may help spawn more civil rights activism, especially the
actions of the Bush administration and the outcome of the war in
Iraq.
“We are squandering enormous amounts of money on what I
believe to be a preposterous war in Iraq. A disproportionately
large number of casualties are young men and women of color,”
he said. “The impact of that may generate a greater antiwar
movement, which may also spawn more civil rights activity,”
he said.
Von Blum added he believes activism will require a combination
of political action and social “street” action.
Gary Blasi, also a law professor, said most civil rights
movements are successful when they do not limit themselves to one
strategy, but instead pursue all avenues available in a coordinated
way and under a common vision.
But Blasi said he believes a figure like Martin Luther King Jr.
would have difficulty gaining prominence given today’s mass
media.
“I think it’s very difficult for voices like Dr.
King’s to emerge these days in ways that are not prepackaged
and determined by polling results and the amount of money one has
to reach out through the media,” he said.
People who occupy the public space tend to get there through
careful grooming and scientific attention to focus groups and
polling, he said.
Another problem with activism for civil rights and social
justice is that the unity of a single movement like in the 1960s
has been replaced by divided movements focusing on specific issues,
such as education or gay rights, he said.
“The opposition tends to be smaller and also more
coherent. It makes it very difficult for any single group … to
learn anything very significant because their resources are limited
to the people most concerned with what they’re concerned
about,” he said. “It’s all one thing as opposed
to separate things,” he said.
Blasi, who grew up during the civil rights movement, said one of
its lessons is that the struggle for equality is never over.
“I think that some people thought that when we passed
civil rights (laws) that these were the sort of changes that one
could rely upon,” he said, adding that the contest between
exploitation and equality never ends.
“One has to consider it a life work as opposed to a goal
you can achieve and then go about your business,” he
said.