On Tuesday, I participated in a lecture about the Racism that occurs in our community. The lecture contained the stories about Emmett Till, lynching and the progress we’ve made as a community during the past century whilst also highlighting the work we’ve still to do.

Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy (who was black) who travelled from Chicago to Mississippi for a holiday. During his holiday he was accused of flirting with a shop owner (a white female) this lead to the woman’s husband and brother-in-law kidnapping and torturing Emmett, then eventually killing him. This case was so widely spread by the media and throughout history because the accused murderers were given a very light sentence due to the entire jury being white men (black men and all women weren’t allowed to be in a jury at this time). Later on the woman came clean and admitted that Emmett did not flirt with her.

During this time, lynchings also occurred. This was a horrendous act where white community in America would kidnap and publicly execute black men and women for being black.

Obviously, we’ve made great progress with racism in our community as we have passed intense violence and hatred towards other races. However- we also still have work to do to focus on our subconscious bias against people.