MLK Jr. has taught us to give voice to our values in a way that is persistent, yet peaceful. Passionate, yet principled. And always in a way that gives the utmost respect for the dignity and equality of every human being.
by Allan Gomez
I feel MLK Day is used to commemorate the man, but also as a reference point to a set of ideas. I think it is also unfortunately consumed up in the mythology of a hero creation and a static notion of the past and present. Which I feel does a disservice to the reality of the individual and the strength of the human being that was Martin Luther King, Jr. He walked among us and we can all walk like each other as the times call for. Instead of the picture of a towering giant of justice, I prefer the picture of a human full of doubts, frustrations and insecurities, taking giant steps toward justice. That to me is the hope that the everyday person can also achieve and struggle for justice anywhere and anytime.
For these reasons I am continually impressed by a Letter from Birmingham Jail, where MLK’s human frustrations with the status quo of would be white allies, (and even well-off people of color) are made clear.
Even though his most often referenced speech is the famed I have A Dream speech, I was first taken a aback by the power and precision of MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. Prior to being exposed to this, I had been challenged by the dichotomy of philosophy present between MLK and Malcolm X. This great divide between a “non-violent peaceful movement” and one “by any means necessary”. When I read it and really grasped the messages, I felt that perhaps this was to some extent a false dichotomy, as both leaders wanted to rock the boat, just that they though that different tools caused the most rocking. It was at this point that MLK grew frustrated in those who questioned any boat rocking.
A little background was that MLK wrote this in while in jail in response to criticisms levied at him by members of the Southern Clergy, for the demonstrations in Birmingham. Here MLK issues challenges that go against the niceties of the day. He states that he is more frustrated by the moderate would-be ally who tries to maintain order instead of pursuing Justice, than by the most hateful of the public. I too have felt those frustrations of the person who does not openly profess hate but gets irritated at my struggles against an unjust status quo. Or worse even if they claim to be all for justice, but only if it is not an inconvenience.
Coupled powerfully with this message, is the “interrelatedness” (today we call this interconnectedness), and how we are caught in an “inescapable network of mutuality”.
I found myself adopting these ideas in a deliberate manner in social justice solidarity work throughout the US and the world, be it in for labor rights in farmworker communities in Florida fields, seeking justice against police violence in Chicago, developing health infrastructures in Colombia, building and supporting community radio stations for indigenous and struggling peoples in Nicaragua, Bolivia, Honduras, Ecuador, Mexico and even Palestine. Refreshingly, I found people of so many stripes tied to the idea of interconnectedness, and the credo of an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Now that I have children, I also think about his words reflecting on his daughter “and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people;”
I think about how I always want my children to challenge that which would impede them, but also to challenge their own notions of superiority to the world around them, so that they do not subscribe to that which “gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority” be it through a lens rooted in race, class, gender, or even able-bodied-ness.
All this and more is what I think about on MLK day.