Fifty-three years. That’s how long it has been since the Civil Rights Act — which codified into law the equal treatment of minorities — was enacted. Is that long enough to heal the wounds inflicted by 245 years of slavery and another 100 years of discriminatory policies? While 53 years may seem like a long time to many readers, it is important to remind ourselves that the era of government sanctioned racial discrimination is not in the distant past. In fact, it was the era of our parents and grandparents. Expressed in this way, 53 years doesn’t seem like much, does it?

And just as many of our parents and grandparents have continued to live on, so to have many of the underlying biases and prejudices that sustained the system that denied many Americans their inalienable rights for so long. While laws may change overnight, attitudes, perceptions and behaviors take much longer to reform.

Colin Kaepernick first garnered attention for protesting police brutality last year, but his peaceful demonstration was only a manifestation of the frustration, anger and resentment that minority communities have been harboring for decades, especially with respect to law enforcement. Why? When you consider the history of our country, the phrase “law enforcement” almost speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

For any system of laws to be binding, there must be an enforcement mechanism. Unfortunately, for most of our history, law enforcement demanded not only the apprehension and punishment of those who would steal, assault or murder, but also those who would dare forget their place in society by escaping from a plantation or sitting in the front half of a bus.  Do we believe that the culture under which police officers were conditioned to perform their duties on July 1, 1964 suddenly changed the next day with the stroke of President Lyndon Johnson’s pen? Do we believe that the attitudes, perceptions and behaviors of those who woke up on the morning of July 1, 1964 perfectly content with the status quo suddenly changed 36 hours later?

Undoubtedly circumstances have changed since 1964, but many biases and prejudices linger. Just four months before Kaepernick’s peaceful expression, the San Francisco Police Department — the department sworn to serve and protect him — was embroiled in a scandal involving the casual use of racial slurs by officers. Clearly, then, the Civil Rights Act marked only the beginning of a process of reconciliation, not the end.

Saied Toosi, doctoral student, department of public administration