I keep seeing some of my white friends say MLK said this, MLK said that, MLK would be disappointed, etc. The reality is that there is no peace, no justice, for black people in America now, nor was there when Dr. King was alive. Dr. King said that whites hoping to maintain a peaceful status quo might have been a greater stumbling block than the KKK. I dont think people speaking for Dr. King are talking about the same Dr. King who actually lived; who actually affected change, who actually left his ideas behind in writing. Dr. King had the following to say about white people who fetishize order and peace over justice and righteousness.: I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negros great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another mans freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a more convenient season. Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. -- Martin Luther King, Jr, Letter from a Birmingham Jail We killed Dr. King for his words and his ideas. Do not white-wash him and reframe him through your own desire to maintain a peaceful-for-whites status quo. If youre going to criticize black people, at least have the courage of your convictions to do so without invoking a man you havent read, who you never knew, whose actual words and deeds are being erased by people who prefer order to justice.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 01:25:52 +0000
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