How the 2020s Could Look a Lot Like the 1960s
By: Steven Odali Rodriguez
Tags: 1960s, 2020, Social Movements, Political, Civil Rights

How the 2020s Could Look a Lot Like the 1960s

Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash

Civil Rights. Protest. Riots. Social Unrest. CHAOS.

Sounds a lot like a time period we learned about in grade school.

I can still vividly remember when my social studies teacher, Mr. Parascos, asked the class if they felt racism was a remnant of the past in ’08 after Barack Obama was elected. It was my freshman year of high school and we felt a shift in America. We had hope that this would be the moment to spark change––pun intended––but slowly and surely the beast reared its ugly head.

As the Obama administration continued into the 2010s, many in my generation realized how a lot changed and didn’t at the same time. The rich stayed rich, or even got richer. The poor stayed poor. We woefully watched as wealth inequality grew steadily after The Great Recession, jobs kept leaving our shores, and it was also the last time the minimum wage was raised, which is currently a poverty wage.

With the rise of the Tea Party Movement creating further polarization––the infamous Red Wave of the 2010 midterm elections pretty much began the halting of much of Obama’s initial promises. Racial tensions increased after the tragedy of Trayvon Martin and the Black Lives Matter movement would later be born out of it.

The seeds have been planted this last decade and the last time there was this much social unrest it had a name––the Civil Rights Era. 2020 has been the result of our politics the last 50 years since then, which have been polluted with corrupt politicians, broken policies, and America’s failure to heal and reconcile from its brutal past of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, redlining, and today’s mass incarceration. Instead of progress being made towards a more perfect union, American hegemony has grown and world domination remains as the only objective both internally and externally.

The War on Drugs replaced Jim Crow and millions upon millions of Black and Brown bodies became stock in a new system again. Correctional institutions replaced the old plantations as they became a billion dollar industry and even as crime has gone down the past two decades, the jail population went up.

In many ways, one can suggest that the prison industrial complex runs in parallel with the military industrial complex. Both industries consist of overloaded budget commitments from our government, unnecessary gear for local police departments, great amount of Black and Brown bodies keeping the industries intact, and bad faith actors capitalizing off of the pain and suffering of other humans.

When politicians or corporate media figures get on television and talk about so-called ‘American interests’, these are not about you, me, or even the common man or woman. This is mostly in reference to the massive military industrial complex that Dwight Eisenhower warned us about in his 1961 farewell address. As we continue the longest wars in our country’s history in the Middle East, it would be an ideal time for the anti-war movement to spring back up again.

When an industry’s foundation is built off of the misery of others, we must ask what holds more value to us as a society––whether something is capitalistic or humane? Yes, I appreciate the opportunity capitalism offers in terms of us being able to make means to an end, but it does come to a point where our well-being and humanity must come first before material wealth.

While the battles being fought today are connected to those of the 1960s, we must also remember that there was major progress made in that decade and it was due to the challenges being made to the system. The 2020s would require that same fight in order for us to make the most progress this time around and why it is possible for this to be the next tumultuous decade.

With the 2020 election turning out the most voters in over 120 years, it is a sign of the times that are to come. People want change––real change.

This will mean more taking to the streets, increased social/political activity, and a shift in consciousness as it was then. It is our duty to find who represents us at all levels (city/county, state, and federal). What are they fighting for? Medicare-for-All? Green New Deal? Ending the wars? If not, getting involved is how we can put the people in power who will implement these policies.

Therefore, creating the change we want to see in the world.

– Peace be unto you.