The Black Radical Tradition

The Black Radical Tradition resonates within every minority that exists in the world today, I being a brown Muslim woman am no exception. Additionally, this in its most literal sense would include every race and gender besides the white man. The movement seeks to explain the weight of labels every minority carries in America as well as back in their home countries. Malcolm, King, Simone and the list is never ending leaders, sacrificed their lives for these labels to be taken positively or not exist at all. However, even in 2020 a Princeton University Valedictorian whose skin tone happened to be black was celebrated. While his actual name was omitted from all headlines. The world thought they were celebrating his achievements, while what they were actually acknowledging is how he managed to be not the stereotypical version of black even while being black.

Moreover, the Black Radical Tradition personally made me understand racism, its entrenched nature, how racism goes beyond boundaries attacking every minority group and how it actually has never been solved. Even though, efforts have been made in the past to come up with some form of resolution the world continues to “otherize” minorities. It highlights the irregularity of existing, where some people will be expected to do better based on their appearance. Those that defy the odds never actually change mindsets but only serve as outliers that possibly got lucky or didn’t face the same oppression their race was subjected to. The world still works on a system established by the white man and whoever succeeds despite being from a different category is made to feel it every waking moment of their lives. This is not to say that minorities are not racist too, there’s a chance that if they were given the power to pull the strings they would do the same. This is seen evidently in how a brown man subjugates a brown woman.

Furthermore, the Black Radical Tradition was successful in making it easier to heal from the horrors of slavery and colonization, opened up new ways to move forward without an apology and created new possibilities for races to pursue their own realities. However, there are new horrors created every day, such as the Chinese being targeted amongst a pandemic as they are blamed for it. Movements may take inspiration from the Black Radical Tradition and continue to fight for rights. Though, some questions will always remain: how long will this all persist? Will there ever be a world without the white man’s rule? Will there ever be a world without the very notion of being categorized by the labels minorities face every day? Malcolm, King and other activists fought hard for a day for black people to achieve the same things as white people. Unfortunately, they would still be saddened that even with achieving the same things, “otherized” groups still carry the weight of labels that continue to define us.