Chad Golden, 27, of Louisville, Ky., says race has shaped him and his view of the world since as far back as the first grade.(Photo: Michael Clevenger, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Chad Golden, 27, grew up in Louisville's West End, a largely African-American neighborhood. Raised by his mother, who had him when she was still a teenager, Golden attended Central High School and took courses at the University of Louisville. Today, he works in customer service for a health care company and has an 8-year-old son. After Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., Golden went there to protest an incident he said exposed racial divides in America.
Q: When did you first become aware of your race?
A: As a black person in America, you're made aware of race at a very young age. I can remember back as early as first grade being conscious of being black. Another thing that makes you realize your race in America is the media. You watch a lot of (TV) shows, and the people don't look like you.
Q: What has been your best experience and/or worst experience with someone of another race?
A: One of my real best friends (who was white), he lived right next door to me. It was a lifelong friendship. When I went to Ferguson (after the police shooting), I met a lot of people of different races who…were aware of what's going on, that race still is a problem. So that was encouraging.
Q: How did your experience of race change you?
A: I had to be maybe eight years old. We went (with white friends) to a lake, somewhere out in Kentucky. We were swimming in the lake, and afterwards they went in the house to eat…Me and my younger brother were not allowed to go in…basically because we were black. And at that young age, that stuck with me. I think that always made me very conscious of race relations.
Q: How are your feelings about people of different races, and your experiences with them, different from those of your parents?
A: I don't think they're that different. My mom is young, so she went to school after (Louisville's court-ordered school desegregation battle) so she never experienced the racism-type stuff that maybe my grandparents did. My grandfather…he taught me the basic thing, that everybody is equal. Be we were made aware that you're not always (going to) be treated like you're equal.
Q: What has been your generation's biggest race challenge?
A: Our generation's biggest challenge is the notion that we live in a post-racial society. People think we have a black president and that equals progress. And to some extent it does. But there have always been successful black people, even during slavery. That doesn't mean that black people are doing any better or making any progress as a whole. Acting like (race) doesn't exist, or is not a factor, just perpetuates the problem in my opinion.
Q: What do we need to do, as a country and as individuals, to move past race as a way to divide and define us?
A: It's so ingrained in the minds of the people, it would take a long time. The criminal justice system, several of (society's other) systems, are still set up on a racial basis. If we ever are able to… reconstruct them to where…they don't impact one race more than another, maybe then we could get past race.
Kenning also reports for the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal
Powered By WizardRSS.com |
Full Text RSS Feed
