The Future is Another Country
“I see my duty as an activist-historian to also uplift the voices of other activist-historians who may not be traditional historians, but are doing essential historical work, by highlighting their historical-activism on any platform available and joining them in direct action whenever possible.”
Then, as now, policing and incarceration target people of color to the benefit of white officers and officials. The continued operation of this system deprives Black people of equal justice under the law and is, in short, simply unacceptable.
Maybe, through protest, we can create a government that acts on its own for justice. Maybe, through protest, we can make protest obsolete. Maybe.
It is sad that it took such a tragedy to get our community to realize that our city has such a problem with racism—a problem our community has struggled with for generations. Fortunately, the solution is blossoming before our eyes.
I always share that I am a student who struggled. My kindergarten teacher told my parents that I would never pass the first grade.
“I’m proud to be white,” someone recently told me. He interjected the comment in a contentious political conversation. I responded by advocating “more caution” in expression. The exchange fizzled without resolution. Yet this phrase, “proud to be white,” continues to disturb. My conversation partner was no white supremacist. But his chosen phrase would have fooled many. What lies within it is a key for understanding a threatening and intractable problem of American society: what I call “the problem of white people.”
The Activist History Review is seeking applicants for positions on its editorial board. Qualified applicants may hail from a wide variety of personal, political, intellectual, and disciplinary backgrounds both in and out of academia, but should be dedicated to understanding the ways that our studies of the past should impact our actions in the present.
The Activist History Review