Perspective of the Netroots Nation Black Lives Matter Protest From a Person of Color - Guest Post

[Solly Mack]

18. K&R

Thank you.

I get so tired of people with rights or certain privileges and protections telling other people, who live without those rights, privileges and protections, to wait or bide your time or pick your battles.

When you're fighting for you life, there is no time to waste.

When you've waited for centuries, you've been patient enough.

When you're the victim of systemic racism, the war is raging all around and the battle ground is anywhere and everywhere.

Now, right this minute, at this very moment, is always the time to do what's right.

First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor 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 can't agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until 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.

Letter from Birmingham Jail
by Martin Luther King, Jr.