MLK on white moderates

[Igel]

1. From the same source.

Martin Luther King, Jr: "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil."

I am as concerned by one as the other. I have run into far too many--which is to say, 3--young black males who are utterly rejectionist, and would rather fail than learn from me, who insist I respect their right to reject geology than to respect other kids' rights, under their IEPs, to a free and appropriate public education on the basis of their skin color.

Here I see little complacency. I see a diversity of purposes, but it's not required that we all focus at the same moment on the same goal to be able to respect that we have different but praiseworthy goals. We can call that a "third way", not in the Clintonian sense but in response to MLK's text. They are neither KKKers nor strong activists for the Cause, but merely interested in other things. At DU, they are often other progressive things.

But too often the result of some of the rhetoric I see here, spoken elsewhere, is a kind of nihilism fed by bitterness and hatred that cannot be called "bitterness" or "hatred," not just because they're in 17- and 18-year-olds, but because it's unseemly for somebody so young to feed on their elders' castings. This is not the intent of many speakers (it clearly is the intent of a small number), but should be taken into account. Raising offspring in a spirit of bitterness and cynicism leads to nihilism and rejectionism, to terror on the part of young who have no direct experiences that should lead to terror.

This is to be paired with the "complacency" MLK spoke of, which I take to mean coasting, distracted by useless things, and neither aggressively pursuing their own improvement or society's improvement. But there is also a third option for those youth, as well, which is one of distraction. They are not complacent; nor activist; they are merely other-driven, whether for their own success (not at the expense of others, except for the denial of their efforts for the voluntary Cause) or for some cause other than their identity.

Unfortunately, what MLK called "bitterness and hatred" is how many outside "the community" see many actions that are interpreted differently inside the community. Just as symbols have meanings that vary by group, so also intentions are subject to out-group re-interpretation. Just something to keep in mind.