Are we in a post-civil rights era?
After the taping, we asked our Roundtable guests if they think that we are in a post-civil rights era and whether that is a question worth asking. Here's what they said:
Peter Bell:
Yes, I think it's a valid question. And yes, I think we are in a post-civil rights era. I don't think we realize we're there now. But I think we are there. In other words, I think we will look back 50 years from now and we will say that we are in a post-civil rights era.
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Chris Stewart:
I think it is semantics. The underlying conditions that pushed people to do abolition, and to fight Jim Crow, and to do civil rights; the underlying conditions live on in an long-term stream whether you call it an "era" or a "decade" or whatever you want to call it. I just don’t think it matters. The question is a little inane for me.
Pakou Hang:
I think it is a really important question. I think that, with the Supreme Court's most recent ruling on gay marriage, that one chapter of the civil rights movement that we think of when we think of the 1950s and 60s is over. But I think a new chapter has begun. I think the new chapter will have class as the framework.
I also think that young people today, (while) we will use some of the same tactics as we used in the sixties, I feel like we are approaching social movements differently and I think social media has to be part of that.