Too often we create little boxes to put our heroes in, as if we are children organizing action figures or categorizing fossils. While this might leave our rooms less messy, it also deprives us of the opportunity to think and learn outside of those arbitrary boxes that grownups handed us one day.
Inherited knowledge is dangerous. To ourselves and to others.
We are generally supposed to accept that the actions of Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul and Gloria Steinem only impacted American women, and that W.E.B. DuBois, A. Phillip Randolph and Martin Luther King only matter to the narrative of “black history.” While these classifications are understandable, they distract us from seeing the much larger and powerful impact of these unrelenting crusaders for social, psychological and spiritual growth. White men in particular are eternally indebted to these Americans. Although I think we often fail to see this.
All of these fearless advocates of equality and opportunity essentially asked the same question of Americans (and forced every one of them to answer it): do you truly believe in a meritocracy wherein the best and brightest are able to reach their full potential, a democratic society in which people are judged based on the “content of their character,” their intelligence, creativity, kindness and work ethic or do you shrink back from this prospect and hide behind the cowardly and irrational dictates of a caste system?
King did not just challenge white America to reach into their hearts to find sympathy for a marginalized group that time and time again had answered America’s call, only to be hung up on. Repeatedly. He challenged all Americans to be honest with themselves, to grow spiritually and intellectually, to let go of unscientific but comforting notions of innate superiority, of automatic, unearned, unappreciated and often wasted privilege. Racists and misogynists are not so much scared of “the other” as they are of themselves; their own lack of ability, compassion, independent thought and inherent self worth. Which is why, like Jesus, King taught love for one’s enemy.
We ALL owe Martin Luther King Jr. a great debt of gratitude. The least we can do is consider the following:
- 1. The light of moral guidance should not be dimmed by racial or ethnic classifications. King followed the light of white men like Emerson and Thoreau, a Hindu sage named Gandhi and Jewish mystic named Jesus.
2. Yes things really were that bad. I find that a lot of my American history students are not only unprepared for how brutal, dehumanizing and unfair chattel slavery actually was, they generally are surprised to learn just how brutal, dehumanizing and unfair the next 100+ years after slavery were as well.
3. No one needed to “give” rights to African Americans or any other group. We are born with rights. They can only be taken away. Through force, indoctrination and/or rigging the legal system against certain groups rights can be stolen and hidden, even locked away. But they still exist. King understood this. He was not asking white America to give anything to black America that was not already rightfully theirs.
4. There is only one America. Not in the sense that we must all act, dress, worship and express ourselves the same way, but rather in the sense that the one truly perfected America embraces all of us as American, even as we embrace all of our unique cultural heritages.
5. The struggle is not over. Racism still exists. As does police brutality. If you deny this, chances are you’re a privileged white guy. The struggle is not over. It is likely it will never be. For our nation as a whole or our grandchildren as individuals. It is much easier to chuck everything into neatly marked boxes and go out to play. Especially in the white suburbs. But the temptation to do that will likely always be there for all of us regardless of our own race or gender. To judge each person as an individual is time consuming and difficult. But it is the only way that King’s dream will ever become a reality.
6. The Civil Rights movement is not an era in history that started with Brown v. Board and ended with King’s murder. It is an ongoing and living process that started when people who had been enslaved by legally chartered companies bent on profit, jumped overboard into the Atlantic Ocean to die as human beings rather than continue through the Middle Passage and be reduced to property. It continues today with Americans flexing their God given right to express themselves freely, in marches and on football fields. The American flag means nothing if Americans cannot demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the nation it represents.
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