Four panelists took part in a moderated conversation Wednesday evening as nearly 130 students and community members discussed the history, status and future of the Black Lives Matter movement.
By Sharon Dunmore L’17
An Elon Law audience of students and community members took part in philosophical conversations about race, justice and privilege during a Wednesday night panel discussion featuring prominent local voices in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Co-hosted by Elon Law’s Black Law Students Association and the Student Bar Association Diversity Committee, “Why Black Lives & The Movement Matter” filled the law school’s largest lecture room on Oct. 26, 2016, with 130 people, including students from surrounding area universities taking part in a course titled “Reclaiming Democracy.”
The panel featured:
- Toussaint Romain, Assistant Public Defender, Charlotte/Mecklenburg County
- Robert Randolph Jr., Lecturer and Director of the Writing Center, North Carolina A&T State University
- The Rev. Donna Vanhook, Chair of the Alamance NAACP Criminal Justice Committee
- Professor Steve Friedland, Associate Dean for Innovations in Engaged Learning, Professor of Law and Senior Scholar at Elon Law
Tiffany Atkins, a Legal Method and Communication Fellow at Elon Law, moderated the discussion. Her questions included how each panelist’s backgrounds have affected their viewpoints on the Black Lives Matter movement, and how the concept of race has led to the movement of Black Lives Matter.
“White people aren’t ‘just now’ seeing the ravages of racism,” Randolph said during the event. “It’s just now being televised in the media. But black suffering has always been a part of the national appetite.
“I don’t like to use the word racism, I like to call it what it is – white supremacy. We’ve been saying it for 400 years that our lives matter. And saying it now doesn’t bring particular attention to my life. I understand rhetorically why that phrase exists, but not grammatically.”
Romain led a discussion how the concept of race led to the movement for black lives.
“All lives matter when black lives matter,” he said. “We have to understand that being black is not being evil or bad. And we have to understand that we need to get away from those labels to begin with. “
Friedland reflected on people in positions of power, and how that affects societal perceptions on race. “Do slogans and words matter? If you consider the current election, we see slogans everywhere,” Friedland said. “The frame of this has not been defined by a lot of people – it’s been defined by certain groups. And now we need to change who’s defining these slogans.”
Vanhook spoke about what Black Lives Matter means to her, and her issues with the phrase itself.
“I wouldn’t want it to be interpreted as that we’re looking for white people to save us,” she said. “Black people have to do the ‘extra’. There’s a matter of survival. We still pray for our children to come home, because we just don’t know when they leave the house.
“You have to do something with black rage. You need to use it – to speak out.”
Members of the audiences received a pocket Constitution from Elon Law as well as a pamphlet for people to understand their rights when stopped by local police, immigration agents or the FBI.