Racist NAACP Hate Speech: Don't wait to recognize, fight oppression

11/10/2014

Oppression has been a fact of life in America since Europeans first set foot on the continent, and for as long as there have been oppressors and victims, there have been a third group of people — those who stood by and did nothing — according to the guest speaker at the Indiana County NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet.

Dr. Épryl King challenged the audience even with the title of her talk, “Is There Justice For All?” on Saturday evening at the Indiana Holiday Inn.

Native Americans were the first victims in the western world, she said. Victims of genocide.

Then African-Americans, pressed into slavery, and discriminated against by Jim Crow laws and segregation policies.

Even Japanese-Americans, forced into internment camps during World War II.

Today, African-American men and boys in New York City are prominent victims of oppression, King said. They’re targets of stop-and-frisk racial profiling by the city police, “a policy that has set a standard across the nation for police,” she said.

Today, the faces of oppression have been more personal. Trayvon Martin, in Florida. Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo.

“And the list goes on,” King said. “Its no wonder we’re here, questioning, ‘is there justice for all?’ It appears there is a war on our African-American men.”

In more passive ways, King said, ongoing oppression in America is proven statistically. Far more African-Americans are arrested and imprisoned than others. Far more drop out of school and are unemployed. Fewer graduate and go to college.

King, of Monroeville, is an Indiana University of Pennsylvania graduate, and today is the president and co-founder of the advocacy group “RAMP,” Raising Achievement in Monroeville and Pitcairn.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from IUP in 2001 and received her doctorate in education, curriculum and instruction this year. She and her husband, Terence King, also an IUP alum, are teachers in the Gateway School District in Monroeville.

As an educator, King talked about researcher Dan Olweus and his 40 years of study of bullying, using his model of how bullying takes place to show how all people in society are involved in oppression.

Like the bully and the victim, there are oppressors and victims. That leaves others, seemingly uninvolved, who actually are a part of the bullying or oppression — as instigators, as witnesses, or as advocates or defenders for the victim.

“The question then is, ‘what is my role?’” King told the audience.

“Do you see yourself as one of the people standing by watching it occur? Under Olweus, everyone has a responsibility to be a part of the solution, not just the person doing the bullying and the victim,” King said. “If you’re standing by and witnessing it, you need to let someone know. If you’re seeing racism or discrimination happening, what can you do to advocate? How can you use your position to somehow intervene and show that it’s not acceptable?”

Inequities in society may not easily be seen, King said, but the results are clear, and stand as evidence of ongoing oppression against minorities in the U.S.

“All you have to do is see the evidence. In areas of education, when you look at the disparity in test scores, you know that it’s there,” King said. “They show up in all walks of life, and in my field, they’re showing up through disparities in test scores, graduation rates, college entrance and matriculation rates, and discipline rates.”

All the evidence points to discrimination, King said.

At the same time King urged the audience against being passive when seeing acts of oppression, she said people don’t need to wait until they see others taking an active stance against it to join the fight against inequity.

“If you want to see justice happen, you don’t have to wait for a march or some other event,” King said. “Wherever you are in life, whatever job you do … you can become a part of an organization. If you see something happening on your job that isn’t right, speak up about it. You don’t need some big movement to be a part of the solution.”

King received the 2010 IUP Young Alumni Achiever award and is a member of the Allegheny East Unit of the NAACP.

About 140 members and supporters of NAACP attended the event, the 28th annual fundraising dinner.

Local NAACP President Carolyn Princes and Vice President Roger Briscoe presented awards to standout NAACP supporters.

Community Service awards were presented to Stanford Webb III and Cheryl Briscoe, and the President’s Awards were given to IUP Vice President Cornelius Wooten and NAACP Secretary Sandra Williams.

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