Dr. Roberts

Dr. Robert, your a new and better man,
He helps you to understand,
He does everything he can, Dr. Robert.

- The Beatles

    Tuesday, May 11th. The cafeteria at Antelope Valley College is packed. No, it is overflowing. I sit in anticipation with my laptop ready for not taking, and am very glad I came a half hour early to get good seating. I am sitting here because I will get extra credit for doing so, but as the moments leading up to Dr. Terrence Roberts speech progress, an energy in the room, something in the air sweeps me up away from my trivial purpose of extra credit to real purpose; I can learn something today.

    Dr. Robert takes the mic. He is calm cool collected and speaks with flawless grammar and diction. He is tall and his head is crowned with grey hairs of wisdom. I listen. I learn. My learning goes beyond a visceral knowledge of what happened when 9 black students tried to attend a white high school in Little Rock. Dr. Roberts didn't just inform me of these events, or fill in a few extra details, he increased my understanding of the situation and of the context in which it took place. He gave me a new perspective to look at the issues from.

    First he told me what it meant to be a young black boy in the segregated south. He told me of the trials he faced, the horrible inequality. He explained that we all come into this universe the same way, but that he somehow missed the memo that you should have white skin instead of black. As a young boy he had to figure out what the reasoning, what the rational justification for the walls of segregation could possible be. He questioned why the color of his skin determined his opportunities, where he could live, go to school, work or even eat. the only logical conclusion he could deduce is this "white people are stone crazy!"

   

    Then he went on to explain how he had to live by the rules of segregation in order to survive. He talked about how it really was a dangerous world of life or death for him. When he heard people say that he and the other students should be hanged, he believed that they were serious, because this is how things were. You could be killed. But even in the face of all this, of being forced to conform to these rules, of being beaten down and of the horrible harassment faced, he knew he couldn't follow the rules any longer. He had to go back to that school and fight on. He was there , not to represent any group of people, but simply to educate himself. He had to do this, because it was the right thing to do.

   He went on to discuss that United States had been legally and constitutionally segregated for 335 years and only legally non-segregated for 56. He explained that racism and segregation still exist today. He says they persist, because Americans after 335 years got good at segregation and overall the 335 outweigh the 56. Racism and segregation is still a part of the United States because through those 335 years it has been sown into the social fabric.

I could go on and on about what I learned. But I will suffice to say I was enlightened, by Dr, Roberts.