Elaine Brown, a former leader of the Black Panther Party, stood before a nearly full 150 Columbia Friday night and said racism is not dead in America.
Brown spoke as part of the Dr. Edwin Coleman Conference. A second speaker, Amiri Baraka, was scheduled to speak the same night, but he missed his connecting flight and could not appear.
Many people believe racism ended with Dr. Martin Luther King, Brown said. But in many ways, things are worse now for blacks than they were during the civil rights movement.
“We have public policies that enforce the repression of black people,” Brown said. She pointed to “Three Strikes” laws in many states, which mandate that repeat offenders be sentenced to life in prison after a third felony offense.
These laws unfairly target blacks, Brown said. They often classify drug and prostitution crimes as felonies, and with nearly one-third of blacks living in poverty, many have to resort to such means to support themselves, she said.
An advocate of slavery reparations, Brown said the government should compensate blacks for what they have lost because of slavery. Slavery was a crime, she said, and the United States needs to pay the price for its actions.
Often, Brown said, the argument that people make against slavery reparations is that they should not be held responsible for something that happened before they were alive.
But, Brown said, she and other blacks do not have the option of ignoring slavery — every day they have to face the discrimination that has become a part of American culture as a result of it.
“It’s not my fault either,” she said. “So why should I have to pay for it?”
As the leader of the Black Panther Party in the 1970s, Brown said it became apparent to her and other members of the militant civil rights group that blacks are only one of many groups discriminated against in this country. Because of this, she said, the Black Panthers also fought for the rights of women, gays and lesbians, people with disabilities and other minority groups.
“We began to realize our struggle was a part of all the struggles against oppression in America,” Brown said.
The only way to end this oppression is through action, Brown said.
“Dialogue is what you do when you can’t do anything else,” she said.
Support for Brown was strong among members of the audience, who greeted her with a standing ovation.
Freshman Jana Schmieding said Brown was the perfect person to speak at this event.
“She was so moving in every way,” Schmieding said.
Brown’s speech was one of several events held last week as part of the Dr. Edwin Coleman Conference. Multicultural Center Director Erica Fuller said Friday that the conference had been well-received on campus.
“It started off on a positive note on Wednesday, and the energy continued to develop through the week,” Fuller said.
Conference events wrapped up on Saturday, with several workshops throughout the day and performances at night by poet Aya de Leon and singer Cristina.