Former NAACP president says race is a universal topic

Ben Jealous, former president and CEO of the NAACP, told his Memorial Hall audience it’s important to remember race is a topic that doesn’t only affect certain populations.

The Campus Y and student government worked together to plan Monday’s lecture, which was a component of the 50th anniversary of UNC’s Speaker Ban Law.

Campus Y Co-President Lauren Eaves said the Campus Y brought Jealous to campus because of his work on race in America.

“We wanted to bring a high-profile speaker to talk about race and racism and how we as students ... are questioning the system and want to dismantle the system,” she said. “I think Jealous posed a very specific way of doing that.”

Jealous touched on issues of race, racial profiling and institutional racism in America, but he also addressed issues closer to home, such as House Bill 2. Jealous expressed his distaste for the bill and said his brother is transgender.

“It’s anti-civil rights. It’s anti-legal rights,” he said.

“Let’s be clear — this bill not only attacks the rights of LGBTQ people,” he said. “When you dig into the bill you see a Trojan horse for a much broader, anti-civil rights, anti-human rights platform.”

Jealous commended Bruce Springsteen, Tim Cook and other national figures who have taken action to oppose the bill. He also called on UNC-system President Margaret Spellings to refuse to enforce the legislation.

“I know she’s already said she’d enforce it, but every day God gives us the right to reverse course and do the right thing,” he said.

Jealous went on to speak about race in a broader context. He said issues of race do not only apply to a certain population.

“We, in our country, have to believe that racism doesn’t only affect black folks, brown folks, people of color. It impacts everyone,” he said.

As an example, he described how police profiling could affect everyone.

“If you’re so focused on finding the white serial killer that you don’t realize you have a black serial killer in your midst, people die,” Jealous said.

“If you think danger only comes in certain conditions, certain colors, certain genders, your police department is wrong.”

Jealous also touched on issues of mass incarceration, saying he wanted to address the problem of how states spend money on prisons.

“Over the past 40 years our states have spent more money on prisons than universities,” he said.

Malik Jabati, a first-year, said he believed Jealous’ words articulated several pertinent issues.

“I really enjoyed what he had to say about race and class in America,” Jabati said.

“I like how he said we should eliminate adjectives that dispossess and divide our society.”

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