A Memphis trip, an opened wound, a new understanding

Standing on the top floor of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., steps away from the balcony where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, peering over an exhibit of the Memphis garbagemen strike, something inside me broke. \nThe exhibit below me consisted of a huge orange garbage truck, overflowing with trash. The ground was covered with bottles, fruit peels and old newspapers. Three gray, life-size figures dressed as national guards held their bayonnettes. Four more gray clay men faced them, holding signs that simply read "I AM A MAN." \nNot a black man, not a poor man. Just a man. A man, living in America, fighting for the same things those soldiers with the bayonettes hoped for: life, liberty and ability to pursue happiness.\nThe hate was too much for me. I have seen a lot of terrible things in my life. I have gone to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. I have seen the parents of a murder victim listen to the testimony of how their child died. I have walked past the church on Third Street where Won-Joon Yoon was killed. I heard the black community express their outrage at the IDS for running the Horowitz ad. Each of these things picked at a wound that I did not know I had.\nBut standing there, listening to the sweet sad sound of the protest songs, the wound was exposed. And it hurt.\nI hated those white people responsible for these atrocities. I hated the fact that I easily could have been a part of that if I had grown up in the South during the middle part of the 20th century. I hate the fact that Americans are so concerned with being "colorblind," they can't see that race is still a problem in our society.\nI have been brainwashed along with the rest of white suburban America into thinking that everyone has an equal opportunity, and that the struggle for civil rights ended after desegregation.\nBut the truth I realized after walking down Beale Street, eating catfish at the B.B. King Cafe, and reading notes from white Americans begging their government officials to keep segregation in place is that the civil rights movement is far from over. \nPeople are still being oppressed because of the color of their skin, and the government programs put in place to help are not doing their job. Black people comprise 22.1 percent of poor people in the United States according to the 2000 Census, and those of Hispanic origin come in a close second. Inner-city schools across the country are in shambles. Children in the suburbs are oftentimes still getting a superior education to those inner-city students.\nAlso, I found out that black Americans should not be the only ones responsible for correcting the situation. We, as white Americans, need to open our eyes and our minds. If we are really going to fight against terrorism and oppression, we need to start here at home. The struggle is far from over and the only way it is going to be successful this time is if everyone lends a hand.