Earnest Supplication: Higher Education, Travel, Art, and African History

The legacy of colonialism and anti-Black racism in the United States is no secret, although much of this history is hidden.

There is an unfortunate truth about America: its ingrained hatred for Blackness, in all of its forms, permeates every institution.

American schools and universities disseminate an inaccurate curriculum, reproducing the same ignorant narratives that target, persecute, and destroy Black communities across the nation.

America’s criminal justice system maintains a legacy of disproportionately criminalizing African-American males, disenfranchising and destabilizing Black-American communities without the proper procedures in place for rectifying rampant injustices.

America’s housing market intentionally discriminates against African-American home-buyers and renters, segregating Blacks into unkempt and undesirable communities. Black-Americans that are capable of escaping these conditions are often left racially and culturally isolated.

Mainstream American churches underscore the sacrifice and saving-power of Jesus Christ without any intention to dismiss the Protestant Christian cultural norms that limit and minimize Black Christian voices in the broader cultural context. Blacks within the LGBTQ community are even more vulnerable to marginalization.

Ultimately, freedom, in its fullest sense, for Black-Americans in the American world cannot be found and that casts a dark shadow on the nation.

Ashley Chandrashekhar