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Multicultural Programs and Services announced this week the keynote speaker for its annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration breakfast to be held Friday, Jan. 16, at Modesto A. Maidique Campus. Farai Chideya is an award-winning author, journalist, professor and lecturer. She is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, teaching radio journalism and field reporting. She was also a spring 2012 Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. She frequently appears on public radio and cable television, speaking about issues including the labor economy, race, politics and culture.
FIU News spoke with Chideya about her upcoming visit, hot topics in the news and how she honors the memory of Dr. King.
What’s your advice to young people today?
“I think that is really hard in all societies, even in America, even though we embrace freedom, to be yourself,” says Chideya, paraphrasing Oscar Wilde. “Everyone has a different position to play. Some people are meant to be writers, bankers, small business owners or stay at home parents. You can play different roles in your lifetime. Listen to wise people in your life but at a certain point you have to delve into what you want.”
What’s your take on Fergeson, the outcry over Eric Garner’s death and the grand jury’s decision not to indict the police responsible in both of these cases? Are these arguments about race or police militarization?
“Very few things are only about just one thing,” she says. “Race is definitely a huge part of it, but the reality is it is a lot of different things. Why does there have to be just one that’s a factor?”
She points out that class is also a huge factor and must also be considered when putting all of these issues in context. “We need to stop looking for easy sources of blame. Race is a multifaceted issue and one that has been with us for thousands of years. It intersects with everything: income levels, neighborhoods, federal policy. But in the end, it comes down to what does it mean to be an involved citizen? We’re living through something America has been living through ever since America started. And we’re not done yet.”
How have you been influenced by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Being born after he died, Chideya explains that her understanding of Dr. King’s legacy came from the journeys of those who lived in the 1950s and 1960s, including her own mother. “My mother wrote a lot of letters to the local newspaper in the Midwest where she was going to college,” she recalls. “She got death threats for those letters in support of the civil rights movement. It was a way of telling her she had a target painted on her.”
While her mother never was harmed as a result, many suffered a different fate. Chideya shared that the late civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, mother of friend and author Tananarive Due, was nearly blinded in a chemical attack in the 1960s while marching for civil rights. “Today what we’re seeing is that there’s a lot of young people – not just black young people – who are willing to say, this isn’t right.”
What do you think still needs to be done to fulfill his vision?
Unless we deal with the economy we are in deep trouble, Chideya says. “A lot of college students are graduating with debt, but without a job.” She also cites immigration reform, the need to make becoming a citizen not punitive for those who come to America to work, better understanding of the criminal justice system, and ultimately grasping how wealth and equality affect physical health.
Chideya says people should ask themselves, “In the end, do you believe that other people are equal to you? Even people who you don’t like?”
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