SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. said he wants people to understand that Black Americans maintained a form of patriotism by combatting race discrimination.
King was speaking during a panel this month during a visit to SUNY Old Westbury on Long Island to discuss the importance of Black History Month. He also encouraged the teaching of Black American history in public schools.
“Patriotism to me is having a critique pushing us towards greater democracy, greater equality while maintaining a faith that better is possible,” King said. “And so when I think about African-American history I think about my uncle Hal and folks like him who built this country with a faith that we could be better.”
His uncle was a Tuskegee Airman, but when he came back from World War II, he couldn't get a job in accounting because of his race.
King also said current events recall for him historical cycles from Reconstruction and the Ku Klux Klan.
“We see this backlash to the Black Lives Matter, to the summer after George Floyd was murdered and the push towards racial justice progress,” he said. “You have to appreciate these sort of cycles in our history so that we can try not to repeat them.”
Alongside King was Danielle Lee, assistant professor of English, who emphasized that the Black Lives Matter movement is about power since it revises American history to redefine the country’s patriotism.
“More importantly, it's proof that Black people have the intellectual, the emotional capital to make things happen,” Lee said. “And if you take away history, you've taken away a voice. I mean, you try to stifle a cause and then you are also stifling what matters.”
King is making his way through a tour of all 64 SUNY campuses where he hopes to see improvements in diversity, including in counseling services and higher education.
