In Camden, high school graduates matter too

By Kathryn Blackshear

and Paymon Rouhanifard

Hundreds of Camden students earned their diplomas recently and, in doing so, a life of greater opportunities. As a sign of respect and recognition for these students and what they have accomplished, we ask that you take a moment and put yourself in their shoes, especially those of our African American male students.

These students in particular had an extraordinary high school career. Consider some of the social and political developments they witnessed in the last four years:

Trayvon Martin was shot and killed during their freshman year.

America reelected its first African American president during their sophomore year.

Shortly after their junior year ended, Eric Garner was put in an illegal chokehold and died.

Shortly before their senior year started, Michael Brown was shot and killed.

During their senior year, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, and nine churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., all died in high-profile tragedies.

Two teenage boys, Tymier Bright and Ja'Meer Bullard, who both had attended high school in Camden, were shot and killed this spring. These and other senseless deaths that don't make the papers - but are no less tragic - weigh heavily on the hearts and minds of our community.

Amid the turmoil, our president, Barack Obama, came to Camden and met privately with a handful of our students, including four African American males.

One of those four students, Rasool Hinson, just graduated. He did so with a 3.8 grade point average, earned while also helping to take care of his younger twin brothers; their mother was shot and killed when she was caught in the crossfire during a shootout 10 years ago. This accomplished scholar and talented student-athlete, who led Camden High's basketball team to four straight South Jersey titles, will attend Coppin State University, a historically black college in Baltimore, this fall.

When we think of "Black Lives Matter" - the catchphrase that has followed this class of graduates during their time in high school - we, of course, think of the tragedies involving Trayvon Martin and the other African American males.

But we also think of Rasool and the dozens of other African American male students who graduated last month in Camden and across the country. If that phrase is going to persist - and we think it is an unfortunately necessary reminder - then Black Lives Matter should conjure a broader understanding of African American males, a more multifaceted portrayal than the one presented on cable news whenever a tragedy takes place. After all, tragedies affect us, but they do not define us.

Or, as Obama said when he visited Camden in May:

"We can't just focus on the problems when there's a disturbance - and then cable TV runs it for two or three or four days, and then suddenly we forget about it again, until the next time. Communities, like some poor communities in Camden or my hometown in Chicago, they're part of America, too. The kids who grow up here, they're America's children. Just like children everyplace else, they've got hopes and they've got dreams and they've got potential. . . . We've all got to care about what happens."

From our respective posts, we have worked to deepen understanding and opportunities across racial, ethnic, and socio-economic boundaries. Our efforts are not exclusively on behalf of African American males or any other sex, race, or ethnicity. Our Latino students and our female students and our Vietnamese American students face their own sets of challenges.

Progress is hard-earned, and our graduates are evidence of the gains that we as a city and as a society are making. But the difficulty of the path our students have had to take to get here is a sign that we still have a great deal of work left to do. If indeed the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was right - and as Obama often says - that the arc of the moral universe is long but bends toward justice, then we need a lot more people to help it bend, and as quickly as possible.

Our graduates can be the next line of strength for this cause. After all, they know these challenges best, and as they make the transition into college or the workforce or the military, their world will get larger, and so will their problems. Some people will make fun of their names; some people will make fun of how they look; and some people will make fun of where they're from. Some people will see their hometown, their race, their gender, or their class and think they know them, think that it's fair to expect less of them.

We know it - we've been there ourselves.

But we didn't let these doubters bring us down, and neither can our students. They have succeeded in spite of societal and institutional challenges. And as they graduate, they bear more responsibility for helping to change institutions and better our society. May they lend their intelligence, their fire, and their soul to this just cause, and may we, together, celebrate these students.

We believe in you.

We believe in your future.

Nothing matters more.

Congratulations, Class of 2015.