When I reflect on the Black Lives Matter movement and the many viral images that have galvanized protesters into action, my mind keeps going back to a disquieting video that did not result in belligerent shouting or bloodshed.
The quiet, seemingly uneventful home surveillance footage captures a young Black boy shooting hoops in his own driveway. When he spots a police cruiser in the distance, he quickly ducks behind a parked car and waits for it to pass before resuming his game. Another day in the life for a Black boy in America.
A few hours later, I watched the video of a Black man, Rayshard Brooks, being shot in the back while running from police officers, who later stomped and stood upon his lifeless body. He—along with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor— was one of the many countless Black citizens who were unjustly murdered by police.
This is the reality Black Americans live in, and it has been this way for generations. You grow up knowing that you are a second-class citizen. You realize early on that your history is neglected and distorted in school. Growing up Black in this country, you are constantly reminded by everyone outside of your family, kin and community that you are less than; you are the problem.
Now is the time to invest and expand study abroad programing that exposes African American youth to the world outside of America. In 2019, Ghana marketed “The Year of the Return” to encourage all Black people to come home to Africa, experience the culture, learn their history and reconnect to their roots. These experiences help them realize that they are not a “minority,” but instead members of the original human kind that has populated every corner of this globe.
Although the pandemic has put study abroad on hold for a while, I’m hoping school administrators, parents and donors can use this time at home—and the momentum from the Black Lives Matter movement—to prioritize study abroad programs designed specifically for students of African descent.
As the director of Global Leadership and Social Impact at The University of Texas at Austin, I have seen first-hand how impactful these experiences can be for my students. For several years, I’ve been taking large groups of students—mostly African American—to South Africa and China over the last eight years. In Cape Town we experience a world where Blackness is normalized – in the streets, in shops and in the halls of Parliament. In Beijing we explore a cultural history so different from our own, which is so deeply steeped in White domination. While each country grapples with issues surrounding anti-Blackness, students consistently reflect on their feelings of liberation from the constraints of being Black in America.
