MLK Day 2014--"How Long? Not Long!"

[howard]

"…because no lie can live forever"

What the heck, let me say something good about a black man in a position of power.

The deep love and hope I hold for my country is deeply rooted in the revolution of civil rights and freedom that unfolded before my young eyes across the late 50s and the entirety of the 60s. The rapidity of change, from a segregated, two-tiered society that featured regular lynchings and drastically different economic and employment opportunities based solely on skin color, to statutory declaration and broad enforcement of equality before the law and before the power of government, shaped my little mind as well as the direction of our country.

Our nation did not establish perfect equality of opportunity in a fifteen year period. But damn if we didn't make phenomenal progress toward that ideal, over a time period no more than a mere blink of an eye on the scale of history. And we continued to make phenomenal progress for at least another two decades.

Our nation did not erase racism in the hearts and minds of the people overnight, or over the six decades since Ms. Parks refused. But damn if we didn't erase such a vast amount of that irrational hatred that the thought of a lynching in Mississippi going unrecognized, much less unpunished is ludicrous. That a man with brown skin has been elected president by the power of the vote of millions of white American citizens.

What I have seen my nation achieve over the course of the first half of my lifetime is nothing less than a miracle of human action. As far as I know, unparalleled in recorded history (and I welcome correction to this conclusion, please.)

We are not a racially equal society. We do not have fairness and colorblind opportunity (economic and otherwise.) But we are so much closer to those ideals than we are to the status of black and brown Americans in 1950.

I am troubled not by the failure to make more progress, much less by the failure to achieve a colorblind society. While I am cheered by and grateful for the freedoms I enjoy daily in this society, so different than the society of the recent past, I am troubled by my sense that we have ceased to progress, and that we are moving in the wrong direction, regarding not only race, but regarding other measures of fairness, equality and opportunity.

However, few things in nature or in human history move in a straight line. I was spoiled because the 'arc of the moral universe' appeared to move in a steep, straight line during my youth. Sections of that curve were quite straight, if observed from a vantage not too close and not too far. Probably an illusion, magnified by my temporal bias.

Great forces of masses of people interact with individuals, great and small, to create historical changes. Segregated America was bound to change, based on the forces embodied in the masses, black and white, forces build up over decades if not over centuries. But the time, place and expression of those forces were shaped by individuals, some whose names are famous, some whose names are unknown.

No individual shaped and directed those mass forces with more import than Dr. King. Pretty damn skillfully too; the positive effectiveness of his acts are undeniable. Perfect he was not, as a strategist, as a tactician, as a human being, he made plenty of mistakes. Hell, even as an orator he erred (but not very often). But that is just nitpicking; his record and his legacy as the leader of the movement toward civil rights for all Americans establishes him as one of the most important historic individuals of 20th Century America. No non-president and few presidents were more important individuals in shaping our recent history.

I always liked this speech.

FInally. Stupid Stanford trash website. Full text and audio, about 30 minutes:

http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php ... lma_march/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Text only:
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php ... rching_on/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Video of end of speech (with money quote):



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[DSafetyGuy]

tl/dr

[howard]

Karl Welzein ‏@DadBoner 53m

Whether you're black, white, or any color, really, gotta give a special MLK day "can you dig it?" to all the soul brothers across the USA.

[Johnny Carwash]

Thanks for the post howard (the first one, not the one with Shaq). You have a perspective that most of the rest of us don't, and it's interesting to hear your thoughts.

I've gotten progressively more cynical over the past few years about how historical events and people are represented in the popular memory, but I continue to be genuinely impressed at the achievements of the civil rights movement. The willingness not just to suffer, but to be humiliated, in the pursuit of change is a rare quality that I won't presume to hold.

Saw this story posted today on FB. The title, and the fact that it's on Daily Kos, may make you cringe at first, but I found it worth bearing with:

Most of you have no idea what Martin Luther King actually did

The author's main point is that the desire to hold King up as a cross-cultural hero clouds the understanding of what he and the others in his movement were specifically able to achieve for black Americans. I'd argue that this is a consequence of needing to explain to students at mostly-white schools why they are having a three-weekend in a way that won't make their parents feel uncomfortable.

Also, not to derail, but this is like the 8th consecutive MLK day that I've needed to mail something or go to the bank. Fuck.

[howard]

While the probability of something imo worthwhile to appear on Kos is low, it is not zero.

And I tend to disagree with the writer's point, but his point is strong and important. I will grant that King's legacy is not colorblind; but I think he personally as well as the civil rights era made white america better and millions of white Americans better. Including nicer and fairer.

Good link, thanks.

With regards to the headline, "Most of you have no idea what Martin Luther King actually did,"

[Scottie]

I'd like to join in and wish everyone in America a very happy TLDR Day!

[The Sybian]

Unlike the rest of these racially insensitive jagoffs, I appreciated your post Howard. I can't wrap my head around the fact that Brown v. Board of Education, Jim Crow laws, desegregation and the Civil Rights movement was so recent. MLK was killed 8 years before I was born, but to me, it seems like it was so much further in the past. I'm sure my perspective would be different if i grew up in the South, but I just can't fathom this.

[howard]

Unlike the rest of these racially insensitive jagoffs…

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Shit happened really fast. The graduating class of my medical school three years prior to mine had ~4 brown people and 15 women out of 100. My class had 20 brown people and 52 women. This was the early 80s.

[The Sybian]

Unlike the rest of these racially insensitive jagoffs…

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Shit happened really fast. The graduating class of my medical school three years prior to mine had ~4 brown people and 15 women out of 100. My class had 20 brown people and 52 women. This was the early 80s.

So what you are saying, then, is Alan Bakke was right?

[howard]

So what you are saying, then, is Alan Bakke was right?

Remember, that case was in my hometown. I personally knew most of the people involved. Don't get me started.

[The Sybian]

So what you are saying, then, is Alan Bakke was right?

Remember, that case was in my hometown. I personally knew most of the people involved. Don't get me started.

I think you went off on this before, but I want to hear it again. Seriously.

[Shirley]

Confession - when I saw the thread title, I thought of Rage Against the Machine, not MLK. My bad.


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