A sobering piece.
Abused by white conservatives
Used by white progressives
10
The hypocrisy of northern liberals and their racist paternalism is the main reason I'm an Independent and not a Democrat.
12
The liberal is always ready to call someone a racist, but usually that liberal lives in Vermont or the Upper East Side. The liberal fights for Blacks, but that liberal does not want their children to go to school with Blacks. The liberal uses Blacks for votes.
12
Bernie may well not only expand his milquetoast and vague two-word sound-bite campaign slogan of “Political Revolution” (Against what, Bernie) to the more truly explicit, revolutionary, and Paineful rallying-cry “Political Revolution Against Empire” — and in fact he might ignite an de flame the most informed and politically/socially conscious community in American of Blacks in all voting for him by also incorporating and actually following Martin Luther King’s rallying cry of the need for a “true revolution of values” through love, as Dr. King reinforced and repeated no less than five times in his amazingly prescient and prophetically insightful prayer for Americans to save our souls and our very existance in God’s eyes during his Riverside Church NYC speech of April 4, 1967, “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence” — which he pleaded for exactly one year to the day before he was assassinated.
2
I just reread the article and agree with the premise. However, I also noticed this part of the article: "Indeed, mainstream newspapers lauded his work in the South but took issue when he brought the same tactics north. In 1967, Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference announced the need for mass disruption in Northern cities to draw attention to longstanding inequalities. The New York Times criticized the idea as “certain to aggravate the angry division of whites and Negroes into warring camps,” part of the paper’s long history of deploring direct action on home turf."
So what was happening in 1967 that might lead the Times to fear "aggravation" and "angry division?" Then I remembered. What was commonly referred to as "race riots." There were 159 in the summer of 1967 and the Times article was written in August 1967. So was the Times article using a double standard for North and South or was the article written out of fear that King's (and other civil rights leaders) position would lead to additional burning of communities. For those of us us of a certain age, we remember that the communities that burned were minority communities.
This is an editorial and it is designed to make us think. It can't and shouldn't be burdened with footnotes and references. However, it is important to notice context and doing so illustrates's that all finger pointing may not be justified.
7
I would not call such a person a liberal. Most of the people who King called moderates were probably Republicans. I grew up in the 1950's and 60's in Baltimore and there was a definite racist attitude among suburban whites but I would never have called them moderate.
2
"And yet he wrote that “the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice,” was more of an impediment than “the White Citizens Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner.”
Maybe to him BUT i doubt to the slaves in the south or their Jim Crow brethren hanging "like fruit" as Billy Holliday sang from the trees in Dixieland.
Or the 300,000 northern boys who died to achieve order in the form of abolition.
I doubt he ever said that -and no source for that comment is given i notice.
4
Today, I fault the Church. What ever happened to being salt and light in our world?
2
“There is a pressing need for a liberalism in the North which is truly liberal,” - MLK
By this he meant that many in the 60's would lay claim to being liberal when they really were not. Meaning, to believe in equality- when they do not.
Not exactly the criticism of liberalism that the author subtly implies.
It's still true today that racism hides behind moderation. So King was right - but the article gets it twisted.
1
We need to sit down and talk with each other. We need to look at our shadows and own them, white liberals included. But who are we excluding from this conversation? No one. Everyone needs to sit down and honestly talk and be willing to give. It's a two way street. A one way street will never work.
1
"As the nation, Negro and white, trembled with outrage at police brutality in the South, police misconduct in the North was rationalized, tolerated and usually denied."
Yeah. We shouldn't forget "America's Mayor" originally spring-boarded himself to electoral victory by inciting racist police riots in New York. This happened in 1992.
Giuliani was essentially defending white police officers from accountability. Think Rodney King but in New York. His policy as Mayor not only avoided police accountability. Giuliani was effectively sanctioning racial profiling as official NYPD doctrine. The "broken window" theory.
This is exactly the issue Black Lives Matter is still struggling to confront today. Now in the present, the same man is the President's lawyer attacking Black Lives Matter as inherently racist while defending an openly racist President from New York.
Yeah. Racism is not the exclusive provenience of Dixie southerners. New York liberals, among many, simply exercise a different style of racism. The criticism directed at the New York Times is especially poignant.
The paper often represents that "not in my back yard" condescension so familiar in paternalistic identity liberalism. "We like minorities just not in our schools or neighborhoods." This is distinct from the Giuliani. However, the two ideas often find themselves willing allies.
Northern liberals are often "northern liberals" everywhere but the polls. It's sometimes frustrating when they even try pretending.
3
I would have expected this attack on "Northern Liberals" from Breibart or Fox, not from the NYT. But then in retrospect, the NYT has been shifting to the right for the last year or so.
2
Lots of white moderates in the comments today..
5
"Despite Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Mission Accomplished” narrative, police officers continue to use stop-and-frisk in a way that’s racially disparate."
Per easily googled offical records, 97% of serious crime in NYC is committed by minorities, overwhelimingly blacks. ( I was left speachless when I heard that information.) So it's logical that the minorities are searched more frequently and I wonder why the author left out that fact. I can poke a number of other wholes in this article including the mith of 'underfunded schools' which is easily defied by educational overachievement of poor Asian kids
Start speaking the truth or things will never change
2
Liberals may not have not done enough but without liberals nothing would have been done. Not the Civil Rights Act, not the Voting Right Act, not affirmative action. Not in the South and not in the North.
4
The big difference between the North and the South is that the South White Racist will tell a Black People what they think to their face. While in the North they smile in your face, and stab you in the back (also in the South -- for the most part -- white people are used to being around black people).
And White America wonders why a number of Black People do not trust so-called liberal white democrats: that's because, they talk the talk, but they do not walk the walk. The white liberal is against racism, but they endorse, believe, and support the false premise that white people are superior, and people of color are inferior. The white liberal is against racism, but they endorse white supremacy, i.e., "I don't hate you, but I'm better than you because I'm white."
That's why a new political creature was created. In the political realm, that means that you don't have to compromise with white racism whenever you're confronted by those who espouse those views: Democratic or Republican.
In some ways, some of these white democrats -- and republicans -- all believe in the "so-called" superiority of the white race. And that belief in white supremacy will be the destruction of this country, because people of color are not going to sit down, take it, and be second class citizens. As a country -- in all aspects of society -- we will always be weak unless we make use of all of our resources -- and join as one.
4
Northern Liberalism has not changed. Liberals are all in favor of low income housing, detention centers in each borough, open immigration, the integration of students from poor performing schools into more successful ones, etc..... so long as it’s not in their in neighborhoods. Why does Westchester County fight to keep low income housing out?
Why is there no section 8 housing in Riverdale or Forest Hills? NIMBY is their battle cry!
7
Yes, still the same in the 2000s ... up North people pretend not to be racist, but they are, actions speak louder than words. In the South, those who are racist let you know right away, so you know, in the North you are blindsided by racism and xenophobia that comes seemingly out of nowhere.
5
“But most whites in America, including many of good will,” he wrote “proceed from a premise that equality is a loose expression for improvement. White America is not even psychologically organized to close the gap.” -MLK. How true of many of us whites and its our white privilege that creates the improvement=equality equation pointed out by MLK. Still, did MLK realize the depth of the actual white nationalism that covers America? North, South, East, and West. Yes, we white liberals need to get woke, but what about the political influence wielded by the 60,000,000 "out-in-open-and-proud" white nationalists who voted for trump? All Dem factions need to band tightly in 2020 and focus only on the vision that MLK had for all people. Fights over ideological purity gave us trump and an Alt-Right government....we can't allow liberal vs progressive differences to give trump, or his Alt-Right replacement, another 4 years and two or three more Supreme Court justices.
1
Dr. King was a democratic socialist which means his political philosophy and practice today would likely align with the ideas of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Icasio Cortez. Many who rejected his commitment to nonviolence as too moderate incorrectly equated his choice of this change strategy, as the most effective in ultra-violent and racist America, with an unwillingness to purse radical political action. In contrast, many on the Left thought arming for self-defense and organizing for revolutionary socialism were necessary for ending oppression. Needless to say, they misjudged the willingness of the American government to destroy revolutionary movements by “any means necessary,” a bitter irony given the use of this phrase by Malcolm X. The American government did not hesitate to brutally murder Black Panther Party members and other radicals, illegally jail thousands of Left political activists, and using COINTELPRO, the FBI’s covert, and at times illegal, program for disrupting domestic political organizations. As it turns out, Dr. King’s strategy for challenging the American government proved more prudent and effective than those of revolutionaries, although to this day, his hope that large numbers of American people would join a movement for equity and justice based on their moral integrity never became a force for significantly transforming the power relations of white supremacy and the economic inequities inherent in capitalism.
1
ALL Americans should re-acquaint themselves with Sen Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 report about the destruction of the "Negro family" in America caused by LBJ's Great Society. Even the Huffington Post agreed with Moynihan 50 years later. Moynihan was right about a lot of other issues such as the moral decline of America. As much as America needs another Ronald Reagan she also needs another Daniel Patrick Moynihan as well.
1
NIMBY.
2
It is interesting that this Board has so many fewer comments than some others. I wonder why, particularly given the day?
Perhaps this is just a subject that many people wish to avoid?
4
Professor Theoharis has hit on something still quite alive in America. How else could a racist be in the White House and continue to ramble on with racist overtones?
The politics of inclusion pursued by progressive liberals is paternalistic and elitist. It does not include and empower minorities. It is a form of privilege granted by the liberal establishment in exchange for electoral support. This politics does not fool the black community. They know what is what.
1
I’ve met these moderate whites as I agree with King.
The evils of segregation and intolerance go both ways. A friend (who is white) went to a majority minority high school in Richmond, CA. He was picked on, insulted, bullied daily. Still has scars from the (knife) fights and attacks.
A black person in a white neighborhood does not have to fear for their life. Not always so when it's the other way around. I never read a NYT article about reverse discrimination - does it not exist or is it news not fit to print?
7
Beware of so called ‘Liberals’ running for office.
They promise change you can believe in, and nothing at all changes.
The little people still get steamrolled by the gigantic and bureaucratic ‘justice system’ (ha!); while the rich and powerful go on laughing as they get away with everything.
Did you steal billions and ruin the 401k’s for millions? Well that’s a 6 month stay at Club Fed for you. Did you make a mistake and upset a New York DA? That’s jail for you with 6 months before you get to see a lawyer.
Yet despite promises, nothing changes.
Justice, don’t make me laugh.
Liberals telling you it will change if you vote for them are even worse.
1
It is ironic that some liberals just love visiting "other cultures" around the world, embracing them as equals,yet turn blind eyes , and "roll up the windows and lock the doors" when driving through their own cities.
5
In April 1963, Dr. King sat alone in the Birmingham jail. He knew the rabid side of white supremacy very intimately. And yet he wrote that “the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice,” was more of an impediment than “the White Citizens Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner.”
Reminds me of so many I grew up with in the Midwest.
1
White liberals in wealthy cities like New York City want to prevent their communities from turning predominantly black, because when that happens, "white flight" occurs. This is what happened in places like Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, and many others. Once that starts, it becomes a downward spiral, because property values start to decline causing more whites to sell their homes before they lose even more of their investment. For many Americans, their house is their largest asset. It's what they often rely on to sustain them in retirement. That's why MLK's dream is likely to remain just that for the foreseeable future.
3
There is not one word about Black crime, in whatever King says.
TV news is ablaze with Blacks being hauled off to Jail, this is the image of blacks.This is why whites were against rezoning, & Police harsh treatment. Even when they march against police brutality, which is Justified, they are looting Stores.
How much blame lies at their parents feet.They must clean their own home before they take issue with the White community.
4
Don’t commit the false equivalence between the coded messages of white supremacy today and what MLK said in the 1960’s. Racism/white supremacy touts the superiority of one race over another- there is nothing in MLK’s discourse that proclaims that. And refrain from using the code word “liberal “, which now would be more appropriate to call “progressive”, say, as opposed to Trumpkin “regressive”. Justice: that’s the keyword in what MLK says.
1
The intractability of Northern liberalism racism was one reason that younger veterans of the civil rights movement gravitated to the Black Power movement.
'If we can't live in their neighborhoods, attend their schools, be treated fairly in their offices then we will end this misguided quest for integration and simply create our own institutions.'
There are many chapters to that story, but most arrive at the point where Black Power became Black elected officials and independent Black institutions gradually became absorbed by the white ones that once excluded them.
But the Black Power movement was not a failure. Far from it. The many local experiments for Black empowerment had many successes. Some, such as Afro-centric private schools have better academic success today than their public or charter counterparts.
But the biggest and most profound change occurred when the 'Negro' became an Afro-American. We went from being a creation of the white imagination to a people with a history, place of origin, language, culture and religion.
So, where do we go from here? I think Michelle Alexander gave us a glimpse of a new direction when after years of doing civil rights litigation she recognized that we will never litigate our way out of America's race dilemma.
She said what we and the country needs is a new, spiritual revolution. Just as Black Power transformed the 'Negro' consciousness so must this spiritual revolution transform the nation.
Religion was used to justify slavery. It won't help to achieve liberty.
2
I'm guessing he meant that the Klan was an easier target than the well-to-do liberals of the day, with their sense of obligation to the less fortunate. The Klan just needed defeating, whereas the liberals had to be made to see and understand the problems at their own doorsteps.
1
The intractability of Northern liberalism racism was one reason that younger veterans of the civil rights movement gravitated to the Black Power movement.
'If we can't live in their neighborhoods, attend their schools, be treated fairly in their offices then we will end this misguided quest for integration and simply create our own institutions.'
There are many chapters to that story, but most arrive at the point where Black Power became Black elected officials and independent Black institutions gradually became absorbed by the white ones that once excluded them.
But the Black Power movement was not a failure. Far from it. The many local experiments for Black empowerment had many successes. Some, such as Afro-centric private schools have better academic success today than their public or charter counterparts.
But the biggest and most profound change occurred when the 'Negro' became an Afro-American. We went from being a creation of the white imagination to a people with a history, place of origin, language, culture and religion.
So, where do we go from here? I think Michelle Alexander gave us a glimpse of a new direction when after years of civil rights litigation she recognized that we will never litigate our way out of America's race dilemma.
She said what we and the country needs is a new, spiritual revolution. Just as Black Power transformed the 'Negro' consciousness so must this spiritual revolution transform the nation.
Enlightening essay. King's synopsis of the northern 'white moderate' being more of an obstacle to racial equality than the KKK brings to mind the NIMBY problem pervasive today. Not In My Backyard - we believe in what you do but don't do it anywhere near me.
Readers will be interested in 1964 interviews with 40+ civil rights activists (including Dr. King) by Robert Penn Warren. Audio tapes and searchable transcripts. https://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/interviews
Letters From a Birmingham Jail underscores Mr. King’s direct challenge to White liberals to address segregation and pass laws directly challenging the status quo.
1
This entire comment section shows what is wrong with liberalism. The social elite of this country loves to play the role of hero, cheering themselves as they rescue the poor blacks from the grips of racist white republicans. Meanwhile, they do nothing to improve the black community from the inside. I see expansion of welfare programs and universal healthcare. I don't see skilled trade programs popping up, and when work for welfare programs are proposed, they are decried as racist. The new deal was a work for welfare program, and made this country what it is today. The left is not the protectorate of the poor in this country, they are it's primary oppressors.
3
Interesting morning. I began by reading The Washington Post, (no offense— I read both papers) and there I learned I’m not good enough because I don’t always subscribe to someone else’s ideas of being environmentally conscious. Now, I move over to The New York Times where I read I’m not the right kind of liberal. (Yes, I’m deliberately simplifying.) At 54, I admit that I’m beginning to pine for the days when the newspaper was mostly about the news, factual and informative. Now, it is increasingly “thought pieces”— hastily typed thesis that usually either contain or inspire large doses of virtue signaling and judgmental attitudes. And here’s an irony: I stopped going to church because I grew tired of constantly being told I wasn’t ___ enough, I didn’t ___ enough, that basically I wasn’t doing it right. Now Jesus has been replaced by “woke” and I have a whole new list of ways I’m not measuring up. Oh don’t fret. I’m not really as maudlin as I seem. I’m just trying to make the point that journalism’s constant moralizing can wear on a person, even when that person basically agrees with the ideas in the article.
5
This is an interesting article to come out on the same day that Kamala Harris declares her candidacy for president. The line near the end—"For too long, order has been more important than justice"—is a good description of Harris's own attitudes when she was Attorney General in California.
She trampled on lives, fought to uphold wrongful convictions, and mocked facts and fairness in order to preserve what she thought of as order.
The Lara Bazelon opinion piece gives the startling history of Harris's abuses at the expense of the innocent:
"Time after time, when progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice reforms as a district attorney and then the state’s attorney general, Ms. Harris opposed them or stayed silent. Most troubling, Ms. Harris fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors."
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html
And she defends the death penalty.
Not for president, please.
2
the white moderate is still the chief obstacle to the progressive agenda. no more business as usual.
1
Can’t deny King’s spoken truths, he was amazing. But his messages were complicated and sometimes inconsistent (Emerson, a great white poet, acknowledged the necessity of inconsistency when truth is at stake). While he condemned politeness when used to hide racism, he counselled civility in the cause of justice.
Midwesterners (and Canadians) are sometimes described as “nice,” or at least it’s acknowledged that they’re typically “nicer” than New Yorkers or rednecks or other uncivil “types” (I’m a redneck, although if any of you know about the complex history of this label—white farmer, coal miner, southern racist, white trash, poor, uneducated, boorish lout, etc., you’ll know it, too, is a horrendous stereotype). But it’s not generally true that they’re less racist than those who are uncivil—Midwesterners use politeness to hide racism as much as any other group in other parts of the country.
But “niceness,” wherever it occurs, I’m pretty sure even Dr. King would agree, is essential for civility, whether disobedient or not. It’s essential to getting along together, as even some poor guy who had the bejesus knocked out of him by the Watts cops nevertheless acknowledged. Yes, moderate liberals have and do use politeness to mask racism. But being nice—utterly civil—was also King’s message, perhaps his most important, and we all need to hear it.
1
King spoke of the “the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice.” The Constitution doesn't call for law and order, but for Justice and Tranquility. Republicans demand law and order, and too many Democrats help them.
If you are a "centrist" Democrat that equates activists on the far left to activists on the right, and criticizes the left while seeking to "understand" the Trump base, MLK was talking about you.
Identity Politics was invented by the right when they started murdering people based on their identity.
The Republican Metropolitan Club in NYC invited the leader of the Proud Boys to speak in front of them. This is a white supremacist (they call themselves "White chauvanists") organization with a documented history of political violence, the definition of terrorism
Right wing terror kills more Americans than international terror. The left has killed no one for decades.
If you call yourself a liberal , but habitually let Republicans redefine words and turn truth upside down, you are part of the problem: not compromising to find a solution, but retreating in the face of hate, greed, and violence.
The NY Times and Democratic "centrists" continually claim that "both sides" are at fault, but one side occasionally gets rude and yells at Ted Cruz in public, and the other occasionally commits mass murder, shooting up Synagogues, black churches, and gay clubs, burning black churches, attacking peaceful protesters on the left, etc.
Fight for Justice.
1
Just ask any liberal today - the white moderate is the antichrist. I would know, I'm not only that, I'm the very worst incarnation of the white moderate: I'm a male! The list of things I'm to blame for is pretty much endless according to modern liberalism. I didn't know I was a Klansman as well (although I have been called a racist before simply because of my skin color, even though I put on a suit and tie and stood by myself in my living room the day Barack Obama was inaugurated).
Remember, it's WRONG to judge people on their skin color, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, etc. - EXCEPT white males. We're all the same.
6
"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph, is for good people to do nothing."
Edmund Burke
1
This is a good and important article. Everybody should pay heed - particularly the alleged liberals in the Democrat party. The ones who have been running the northern cities for decades; who permit substandard housing & schools while doing "important" things such as banning the use of plastic straws. DiBlasio and his ilk have created and maintained a new system of slavery - give handouts for votes to the downtrodden while keeping them housed in filth & poorly educating them. Hypocrites all.
Another example of "polite" racism in the North is the policy among New York schools and Ivy League colleges of systematically eliminating Asian applicants but claiming that they're "not well-rounded enough" or "not personable enough." In many NYT comments sections related to this issue, I have encountered many "liberal" whites who spew the most racist stereotypes about Asian students, i.e. that they're akin to a bunch of test-taking, passionless, robots. All of this, under the guise of "promoting diversity."
2
If I were King's legacy I would not be in a hurry to be satisfied by Northern Liberals. They, as of now, are undertaking a quest to uncover the conspiracies, that after 60 years are still concealing the true motives and assassins behind X, JFK, MLK, RKF. If after all those years, with all the investigate resources of the FBI, DOJ, CIA, and MSNBC --- Progressives are still confused, it is not a surprise to many.
Racism exists everywhere in it's time.
In Myanmar against the Rohinga, in Syria against the Yazidis, In Boston against the Irish and in New York City against Italians and Jews at one time.
But the vast majority of our African American's ancestors were brought to the US as slaves to work in the fields of the Southern United States.
When slavery was a dying institution in the the Northern states of the US and elsewhere around the world, the Slave States of the South became panic stricken that slavery would die out, and they started a vicious war to protect slavery in the Confederate states of the South.
When LBJ forced through the Civil rights and Voting Rights Acts in the mid-1960s, the Solid South Conservatives bolted from the Democratic party to become Republicans. and became the diseased infestation of the Republican party, where they fester to this day. Lindsey Graham, when he took over Strom Thurmond's seat, pledged to keep the Old South values of Thurmond; that meant an abiding support for slavery as having been a just cause.
Racism is an evil everywhere to be illuminated and eradicated, but White Southern Conservative support for the Confederacy and the slave state values needs to be obliterated.
Finish Reconstruction.
2
When reminded by Professor Theoharis' article of how the New York Times reacted to Dr King's proposals while he was still an inconvenient living, breathing political and ethical actor, outside establishment control, rather than as is the case today, a statue to be placed conveniently on a pedestal but the majority of whose message can be ignored, I couldn't but think how that newspaper continues to portray the interminable wars carried out by the US abroad (seven, at present, if I've counted aright) as being in defence of freedom, human rights, and, of course, the country's «interests». And how the newspaper, ever ready to rise to the defense of independent unions abroad, always, at least as I recall from nearly seven decades of on again, off again reading, opposes concrete actions by unions, not least those by unions representing public workers, in the United States. A very selective form of «liberalism»....
Henri
2
Many innocent black man were murdered because of narratives spread by the "polite" "liberal" media about black men being threatening misogynists. There are parallels to these narratives in modern media with regard to Asian men. So many mainstream books, films, and news reports cast Asian men as threatening misogynists under the guise of "liberalism."
On 1/4/2019 the NYT published an article calling Chinese men "patriarchal" and casting them as abusers of Chinese women. On 1/15/2019 a man walked into a Brooklyn buffet and killed two Asian men with a hammer, and later explained to police that he committed the murders to "rescue" Asian women. I am not saying the NYT article led to the murders, but it does echo a constant narrative vilifying a certain race of men, which evidently does lead to senseless racially motivated violence similar to that in King's era.
The modern media's vilification of Asian men under the pretense of "liberalism" and "anti-patriarchy" is very dangerous, and reminiscent of the media's so-called righteous vilification of black men in decades past.
3
The author is not preaching to the choir: he's preaching to a media and readership in need of a "cleansed mirror". Something Zen practitioners refer to as 'total awareness'.
Liberals, while well-meaning, are apologists for a fundamentally unjust system; they take comfort in addressing the symptoms, not the underlying disease.
For the poor and colored and otherwise marginalized, Liberalism is simply about re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Dr. King knew that and the closer he came "cleansing the American mirror", the more dangerous he became.
We need no greater example (and proof) of the power of patriarchy and its spawn, white supremacy and misogyny, than Donald Trump and his administration. Who else, but a wealthy, white male could get away his malfeasance. Really, who?
Liberals have too much invested in the status quo; they will relinquish only so much privilege. It's only those who have the least to loose who have the imagination and will to see true justice done.
1
I appreciate the effort the King family and others are doing to show there is more to MLK than the "Dream" speech and Birmingham Jail letter. The "burning house" comment shows how he evolved from his early days. An appropriate answer to "why can't you people pull yourself up by your bootstraps as the poor immigrants do" is a recently-released clip of MLK's statement to an interviewer about the dominant society intentionally making black people's skin color a stigma and refusing to follow through on the 40 acres and a mule promise while giving free land to poor whites, born here or not.
The one and only time that I saw and heard Dr. King live and in person was in August 1966 at my neighborhood park on the South Side of Chicago. It was very hot and humid. And he was very late.
Dr. King began his remarks by apologizing for being so late. Then he answered the question of why he was in the North when bigotry and racism were Southern problems. Dr. King said that anytime you are south of the Canadian border that you are in the South. I don't recall anything else that he said.
That summer in an ethnic Slavic European South Side Chicago neighborhood enclave Dr. King was infamously met with chanting mobs, fire and fury along with slurs and stones. The likes of which he claimed surpassed the hatred that he faced in the South.
6
Dr King called for a society that judged individuals NOT by the color of their skin but the content of their character. That was, and remains, the core of his message that attracted and continue to attract people of all color to work to realize Dr King's dream.
Character is revealed and defined by action --- "what did X DO to benefit humans of all color" --- and never by words --- "what did X just say?"
So, go ahead "liberals North and South: Make your speeches, write your op-eds, rattle the collection-plates.
We'll just wait and see what it is that you'all actually DO.
5
I believe the Dr. King's letter read, "I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice..."
What are we to make of the phrase, left out of the portion of the sentence quoted here, "have almost reached"? I don't know much about the context in which this sentence was written or the actions of the "white moderate" but I'm inclined to read this phrase literally, namely that Dr. King had not (yet) reached such a conclusion. But, I see reference to this passage in support of the position that white moderates then (and now) are a bigger obstacle to equality. Can anyone direct us to other statements by Dr. King that corroborate either interpretation?
5
"On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it’s tempting to focus on the glaring human rights abuses, racist fear-mongering and malfeasance happening at the federal level. "
No. What seems tempting is to press and press until the divisions among us so-called liberals/progressives/socialists/social justice warriors/allies/yada/andyadas split the democratic party in as many smithereens as possible, so the lowest common denominator of the racist fear-mongers can smuggly hold the presidency and enough "power" to speed global warming, set back civil/reproductive/workers rights, thwart criminal justice reform and enrich the super rich. Yay!
3
Can someone explain/ expound on the current "segregation" of neighborhoods? To me, most neighborhoods seem "segregated" by wealth, not by race.... Is there still a systemic effort ( such as by real estate firms) to keep brown or Asian folks out of "white" neighborhoods?
3
@GBR The lack of a sufficient down payment and sufficient borrowing capacity are sufficient. Sounds rather systemic to me, without involving any particular individual or firm.
3
@Wyn Achenbaum
My personal experience is otherwise. I'm in what historically is considered an "upper-middle class" profession/income range, and my particular neighborhood has families of European and Asian descent (both Indian subcontinent and East Asian). I think we've got Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and agnostic/atheist (me and my husband) represented. The only "common thread" is number of years post-graduate education/approx income level.... Same when I lived in student housing in NYC 15+ years ago. A very ethnically and religiously diverse group.
4
@GBR No, not least because it's illegal.
I daresay most white Americans of my generation believed, as I once did based on what little, often dishonest, US history taught in public schools in the 1950s and 60s: once enslaved black Americans were emancipated as a result of the Civil War, and shortly after Constitutionally guaranteed suffrage (males anyway) and equal protection under the laws, we whites had fulfilled any moral obligation we had to atone for slavery's damage to those folks. Sure there was another hundred years of vengeful, brutal. murderous mistreatment of freed blacks after the Civil War, but most of that "unpleasantness" took place in the South. But thanks to the enormous courage of Dr. King and others who brought about the Civil Rights Movement, white America was forced to face the truth about itself: the Civil War may have ended slavery, but it did not end the racism which had infected every part of this nation, especially where blacks sought to work and live.
The legacies of slavery and the racism it fostered are clearly visible to anyone with the will to see them in: our still segregated and impoverished urban black communities, aka ghettos; our still segregated and underfunded schools for black kids; the lack of equal employment opportunities for blacks; and the obscene incarceration rates and police profilings and shootings of blacks. But the only remedial measure taken by white America to date, affirm action, was pitifully inadequate, quickly limited by SCOTUS, and scorned by GOP racists.
5
@Jamie Nichols Police "profile" and try to apprehend criminals, because police are charged with protecting public safety. Criminals harm others. People who do not want to be "profiled" or to interact with cops should therefore avoid committing crimes and harming others.
@Jamie Nichols
You are so right about US history and what was (and maybe is) being taught.
There is a local church that has movie nights where they show interesting documentaries that touch on social justice issues. I went to one of those movie nights last year because they were showing a documentary about MLK, and his method of non-violent protest.
As I sat there with my jaw dropped nearly to the floor in shock at what I was seeing, I became increasingly angry and frustrated. While I had seen still shots of the famous scenes of the Greenville NC lunch counter and the Selma to Montgomery March, the video was truly enlightening.
I realized in that moment that my education had been white-washed. I was never shown the violence and humiliation that the non-violent protesters were subjected to. It was horrifying and deeply disturbing that it happened, and that it was covered up and pretty-fied by the school system.
That was not in the 50's and 60's. It was in the 80's.
4
What Dr. King understood was that even bringing an end to racism in the United States would not bring an end to generational and widespread poverty. The game was otherwise very rigged in favor of vested interests at the expense of the many. The nation's systems of property law and taxation had to be overhauled to create real equality of opportunity for all.
In his final book, Dr. King quoted the American political economist (and twice candidate for the office of mayor of New York City) Henry George. Henry George did not focus on the elimination of racism in society; rather, he attacked privilege and monopoly privilege in all its forms, beginning with what Winston Churchill described as "the mother of all monopolies" -- the monopoly of a nation's land and natural resources.
The end of slavery in the southern States turned millions of African-Americans into permanently exploited sharecroppers. As many moved to the industrializing north, competing with immigrants from all around the globe for employment and living space, those who owned the land in the cities were similarly able to claim a large part of what others produced. People exchanged one form of sharecropping for another.
4
@Edward J. Dodson In this vein, I highly recommend Walter Rybeck's book, "ReSolving the Economic Puzzle."
1
Let's turn to classic literature.
Everyone needs to read "Dr. Zhivago" and "A Razor's Edge."
Our future depends on awareness of all perspectives and wise choices.
1
Instead of describing human difference in negative racial terms, why not admit that people are more comfortable working and living with others like themselves--same cultural background, same upbringing, same values, etc. If 'others' who like to describe themselves as 'disadvantaged' want to succeed and prosper they should emulate those they currently envy--they should work hard, save, invest, and build for the future for themselves and their families. This is not easy and takes time, maybe generations, but it's the only way to a secure, deserved equality.
3
@Ronald B. Duke
That fact that there are many whites in poverty shows the fallacy of what you preach.
Many people do work hard, but wages are kept purposely low by governmental and corporate policies.
You should read some of the conservative economic papers from back in the 50s' and 60s' and further on that talk about implementing policies using the government to keep wages low, break up unions (which helped increase wages for everyone.).
This allowed Reagan to announce trickle down economics, that giving more money to the rich would help everyone. Well that nonsense has resulted in nearly stagnant wages for the bottom 80%. It also helped the transfer of wealth upwards to the rich.
Back when Reagan was president, the 80% held close to 15% of the wealth of the nation. Now, even though the population has grown, the bottom 80% holds 4.5% of the wealth of the nation. No one succeeds when the amount of the pie they get shrinks.
4
@Skip Moreland That doesn't speak to his point that many people LIKE people with similar life experiences, values, and interests as them. Life is short, love is rare. Why not let just allow other people to interact with and people whose company they enjoy and with whom they have an affinity?
2
Circa 1988, when I was 18, it became clear to me that my brother who was 22 wasn't white and I was. We are half Italian, but he's swarthy and I'm very pale. We didn't know until years later when the story broke nationally, that he had been caught up in what was a national scandal--the NJ State Trooper Racial Profiling Scandal. He was pulled over on the Garden State Parkway multiple times for doing nothing more than driving back and forth to his state college. One he was arrested for having his prescription medication in the car. He was harassed. It cost my parents thousands to take the matter to court and have it adjudicated. He was found not guilty. It was a farce.
Being young, I noticed this lack of justice and having had Catholic schooling, I had formal education in Social Justice Theory. I knew that what was done to him was flat wrong. It occurred to me that if he wasn't "white enough," what about people who were actually black? If I had White Privilege and my brother didn't, what happened to young men who Drove While Black? White Privilege was REAL.
My friends at University (and my mother) didn't get it. They insisted he must have done something wrong. Yet the more carefully he drove, the more he got pulled over. He wasn't white.
Dr. King was right. But if you don't see it, you don't see it. Your privilege blinds you. You don't live in the same world.
17
Dr Theoharis advocates taking "uncomfortable, disrupt far-reaching actions to remedy the problems to which he (MLK) devoted his life". Message to all: lets make your life miserable . Need to get to the a:too bad so sad. What an attitude!
1
There are two strong forces at work that make for an unjust America. Together, they are clearly a majority of Americans, but not all of us.
One force (say 545%) is the republican. He wants an ethnic religious state, unfettered rights to your wallet to pay for his losses, and the right to steal and pollute and keep all his profits. The current system favors him, so he is conservative.
The other (say 40%) is the liberal. He uses MLK to manipulate you emotionally. If your house got robbed, he recommends that you and the robber attend counseling for Kumbaya sessions. He has no interest in solving any problem, just in celebrating it in ways that puts the spotlight on him. He will not save you from drowning, but he will tell you that dying is glorious, and ponder on the reasons you did not float out magically. There is not an issue he cannot obfuscate beyond recognition. He thinks he should have access to your goodies because he thinks so - but disdains merit, skill, hard work, a regard for authority and achievement (that comes after hard work and sacrifice) - and wants to redistribute outcomes because he read it somewhere in a book. He has placed everyone in a victim status, and needs you to stay there - embroiled in the vitriol of low expectations - so that he can continue to have relevance.
I cannot fathom the great intelligence of a great man, MLK. But I have a nasty suspicion he was talking about both these forces. May the lord help us.
3
I have always thought of myself as an open-minded person who gives everyone the same respect, regardless of where they come from, who they worship, what color their skin is, or whom they choose to love.
But white priviledge is real, and the more aware I become, the more I see how deepy embedded it is in our culture. And the more I can see that in spite of my best efforts, I have not always been as good as I'd like to think that I am.
This has made me take a deeper look at myself, and I don't always like what I find. But I am constantly working on it, and I am getting better. I am starting to recognize the times that I get uncomfortable or react to situations in less than acceptable ways. Then I don't allow myself to take the easy way out, better to confront a situation head-on.
Everyone (no matter who you are or where you come from) should take the time to self reflect, and make adjustments where necessary. Do you tend to congregate with those who look more like you in waiting rooms? Do you lock your car door when a black man walks by? Do you reach out and take the time to have meaningful conversations with people from a different background than you? Do you know the name of the person who empties your trash at work?
The first step is to take the time to see the humanity in all of us. It begins and ends with us. As long as we look to others to make changes without doing the hard work ourselves, real and lasting change will not happen.
5
@Chrisie Hey, I'm going to try and "congregate" with people I WANT to congregate with, to respond to friendship cues from people I find attractive, even though they DO tend to be the same race and age as me. And I will continue to do so because my life is MY life. Not yours. Deal with it.
2
@me
That's your prerogative, and you missed the point.
The point is that I have benefited from the fact that I am white, and it's a relatively new discovery for me. I have been exposed to opportunities and benefits that I never realized were there until I started paying attention. Not always the big things, but the little ones as well. For example, when I walk into the hardware store, an employee will almost always offer to help. I have observed with my own eyes on numerous occasions where people of color do not get the same attention.
Because I have actively stepped outside of my comfort zone, my world has gotten a little wider. I have also learned that we're not all that different. I have a new appreciation for both our similarities and our differences.
And for the record, I do not instantly love everyone that I meet, I am just trying my best to at least take a moment to climb outside of MY life to appreciate someone's else's. Even if it's for a few moments at a time.
A person doesn't have to walk like me and talk like me for me to respect them. Until more people make a point to actively respect those who are different, change will not happen. I don't know who I am quoting here, but we are the change. All of the legislation in the world won't make it happen until we do.
2
@Chrisie What you are advocating is the painful process of developing insight. We all deny our fear of the "other" which underlies not just overt racism but the soft bigotry of low expectations. And then there is the issue of class. It is only very recently that I came to understand that I am biased against those people who I perceive to have less education than myself. I am comfortable with those of another colour if I perceive they are educated similarly to myself. I too harbour bigoted beliefs. It is to my shame that I am so.
3
Rev. King was right about a lot of things, but wrong about the relative danger of white liberals and far-right white extremists. It was not a white liberal who killed him, or the people at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, blew up churches in the south in the 1960s, killed Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, or shot up the black church study group in Charleston. In fact, what King missed is that white liberals and white conservatives would turn out to have much more in common when it came to core American values than either does with the American far left. King would never countenance a women's movement, for example, led by Mallory, Sarsour, Perez, and Bland.
3
"police officers continue to use stop-and-frisk in a way that’s racially disparate... "
I'm not sure what this means. What if the crimes are committed by a "racially disparate" group?
3
@vs72356
Crimes are committed at the same rate per capita whether white or black.
And yet blacks are stopped far more than whites. Same amount of crime, yet blacks see jail time far more often that whites. It is why our prisons are filled with so many blacks.
If whites were stopped as often per capita, there would be a huge outrage at it.
1
The "white moderate" or "liberal" which Dr. King was concerned about in the 1960's bears little if any resemblance to today's "white moderate" or "liberal." If Dr. King were alive today I seriously doubt that he would consider liberals or white moderates to be any kind of impediment to racial equality.
This is a useful reminder of two things. First, that Dr. King wanted not merely the end of Jim Crow but the equal economic treatment of African-Americans. Second, from a cynical perspective, that the abolition of Jim Crow through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were politically possible only because a majority of white Americans outside the South saw the issue of racial discrimination and white supremacy as a Southern phenomonon, which they could vote to abolish in the name of virtue without affecting themselves. Had the implications of his work outside the South been more clearly seen -- in particular, had the implications of Title VII outside the South been more clearly seen -- it is questionable whether the '64 Act would have passed in the form it did.
1
So true...
Some truths are conveniently overlooked...
https://books.google.com/books?id=xBXutlEeeboC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=lehman+slaveholder+natchez&source=bl&ots=6XdLTMYt3J&sig=ACfU3U0Cy0uQJygcpgG1bU19GyEVm3AkOg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjOy5CQ5fzfAhXphOAKHfvVAMYQ6AEwD3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=lehman%20slaveholder%20natchez&f=false
In college I came across MLK's last book from 1967, Where do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? When I came home from school for Fall Break, I marveled to my dad that he was talking about El Salvador/ Central America and South Africa/Apartheid in 1967. I had thought those issues didn't emerge until the late '70's or '80's. My dad replied "That's what it means to be a visionary." Martin Luther King Jr. seems like even more of a visionary because he advocated for a Minimum Annual Income for people in poverty. In today's era of Silicon Valley automating many jobs that used to be done by humans and introducing new technologies, a Minimum Annual Income (sometimes called Universal Basic Income today) would enable workers to pay expenses like rent when they got laid or to help pay for Community College, Trade school, Associate's Degree or Certificate programs or maybe enough classes to finish up that Bachelor's degree that was started but for any number of reasons, not finished. With so many industries being disrupted and workers needing new skills every 10, 15 or 20 years that Minimum Annual Income would be helpful in making the career changes that corporate America's drive for automation and efficiency force so many of us to make.
6
While it is certainly true that "not in my backyard" ism afflicts some moderates, it is also true that articles like this push them away from embracing inclusion. This article is of the stripe that demands ideological purity. The result is a very pure, but also very small movement.
3
@JerryWegman
How does supporting equality make an ideological purity?
I think the most important takeaway from Dr. King's views on northern moderates is a critique of their inaction. As a group, and speaking generally, they routinely focused on southern issues but didn't have the ability to see into their own communities and focus there. This is the continuous message Dr. King shared: that people should take responsibility for their communities and look out for the injustice being done at home. Northern liberals often looked to the South instead of their windows. As Americans committed to a just society, we should focus our politics locally. If we did so, I guarantee we would see much more injustice than we do today, and consequentially would act in more impactful ways.
7
So are liberals today and then not "truly liberal' but just "moderates."? Once again liberalism takes a knock.
1
Its not about Order but property. Americas disease is property. Dont desegregate schools desegregate life and equalize property. Talk about moderate or may I say bourgeois. I seem to recall Dr King speaking about that too. You want see see impolite? Oh boy.
2
Dr. King called out a universal truth among us humans. Much easier to be righteous in the abstract than the practical. I'm sure he also preached fidelity in marriage, too.
9
I am a northern liberal, now getting into my late 70's. I grew up in the N.Y. suburbs in a family which I could only describe as covertly racist, like everyone else we knew. Our neighborhood and the private school I went to were nearly 100% white. Over the years I became first aware of, and then ashamed of my racist thinking.
Several years ago, I decided to take the Implicit Association Test, to see how my views actually scored in terms of racism. I was shocked to discover that the test found me racially unbiased. As I digested this result, I realized that my attitudes had more to do with fear than with bias. Historically I have had several black friends, and have one friend of color now with whom I can have detailed, frank discussions. And like others of my vintage and background, my extended family has become racially mixed. This has made me very happy, but I still have my fear of "the other" which engenders guilt feelings. But on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I more than ever wish to celebrate his memory, example, and exhortation for us to treat each other equally.
8
@Ed Schwartzreich I took a similar test, and received similar results on matters of racial bias. I was a bit surprised to see that, apparently, I had some anti-gay biases; odd, I thought, since I'd grown up in a large gay community and felt very comfortable with my many gay friends.
But I also have seen in no uncertain terms that I do have racial biases. Thus, I pretty much dismissed the validity of this test.
YMMV
3
You don't have to go more than 20 miles outside of NYC to find a totally different world when it comes to acceptance of "the other." It's urban centers that lead the way in welcoming and celebrating diversity, rural and suburban areas not so much.
5
@theresa
Interesting perspective. I live in Washington, D.C., which is still a very segregated city. Like NYC, it also suffers from gentrification and has a dearth of affordable housing.
1
@theresa This is a generalization heavily predicated on a narrow definition of "the other." Save yourself the bus fare .. you needn't leave NYC to find what you describe.
There is also the problem with IQ. We want to believe that if everyone works hard and gets the right opportunities, they will be able to free themselves and rise up but unfortunately, that is not the case. Instead of dealing with this issue, with all the people affected by this, in all races, we pretend there are no differences. Not everyone fits into the capitalistic cookie mold.
6
@PLH Crawford This has been debunked many times. The differences between races in scores on IQ tests, which are made by whites and ask questions from a white perspective, are cultural and do not accurately reflect the true potential performance of many individuals. IQ itself is an artificial construct that does not do justice to the actual abilities of many people of all races. and by the way there are no genetic differences between the races in mental ability.
2
@PLH Crawford
I disagree with you on the IQ, it's fake science.
But I do agree that most people don't fit the capitalistic cookie cutter mold.
@Scientist
Deep sigh. This theory actually has not been “debunked”. Please look more at real IQ research than through a SJW mode. The evidence is overwhelming that there IQ differences. Pretending that there isn’t just so you you can feel virtuous doesn’t help people who truly need more understanding.
Liberal racism is very much alive and well in the Northeast. In NYC I parents say they would never want their children to attend public schools with other children who come from housing projects. I hear whites defend stop-and-frisk police tactics and worst of all I hear millennials equate the gentrification of places like Harlem to enhanced diversity. Also, there is no better way to provoke anger among northeast liberals than to point out any of the underlying racism in their perspectives. Introspection and compassion are in very short supply, particularly within parts of the northeast liberal and progressive communities.
49
@Steve
Actually not too many people calling themselves liberal progressives and fighting against school integration and criminal justice reforms that I know of. Maybe liberal dems. That fight in NYC is often led by working class people, immigrants and Asians of all classes and walk of life who are more at risk and prepare endlessly for the test-in elite public schools in order to change their lives.
1
@Steve
I tend to think it's classicism, rather than racism. I totally agree with you that middle/upper-middle income NYC parents would never want their kids to attend public school with kids "from the projects" ... but I think they'd be equally loathe to send their kids to public school with kids from poor coal-country Appalachia.
3
Funny how relevant this is for the modern political realignment we are witnessing. Today's northern/coastal liberals--particularly those who continue to support the Democratic Party establishment, are over educated, are relatively comfortable in economic terms, and read the Times--love attributing racism and ignorance as the sole basis for Trump's support among white working class voters, while dismissing economic anxiety as playing virtually any role.
In reality, these liberals are subconsciously projecting their own racism and classism on to Trump voters and Trump himself. More than anything, Trump serves as a mirror - he reflects back the worst aspects of who we are as a society. "Liberals"--especially those who control the current Democratic Party--are in denial about what they see in that mirror, and they need to start owning up to it.
11
@PeoplePower: Discrimination against the "over-educated" may be as common as racism in the US.
Excellent points from Dr.Theoharis. It is a universal lesson to be tought from Dr. King. Condemning racism is very easy when it is far away and being done by some else. Detecting racism and opposing it on home turf is so much harder.
I'm sure it would be natural for a reverend to point out that we really do excel in not paying attention to the plank in our own eyes. Sadly this is a acknowledgement that is sorely missing in our time.
3
This paper had an article in the last couple of years with a survey reporting that 85% of white people in America do not have any close friends who are persons of color. It seems that a large percentage of whites still want to live a segregated lifestyle either expressly so or by consent to existing conditions. That may or many not change anytime soon.
While this is undoubtedly true, I would suggest that a similar percentage of "persons of color" "do not have any close friends who are" "white people." From my experience, this situation goes both ways. As one example, I recall my father's next door neighbor, who was black, asking him where the other black neighbors were. He indicated other homes on the street (approximately 30%, if I remember correctly). She didn't feel that was enough, sold the house, and moved to what might be described as a black neighborhood in a nearby town.
4
I think that people are tribal. I am part of a minority religion and feel less judged when in a group of people of my religion. It is a comfort thing- they look at me as just another person rather than judging me, my behavior and personality based on my religion. I think that it is probably the same for people of different races too.
3
@JW - It could also be true that persons of color have little interest in close friendships with white people. Perhaps it is they who prefer a segregated lifestyle. Why assume that African-Americans, for example, have the slightest desire for white friends?
"Procedural safeguards lie at the core of liberty ordered by law." This is a quote I committed to memory from a court decision I read in law school. In essence, in order to obtain justice there must be order. The two are inexorably intertwined, not inconsistent. In other words, to achieve justice there must be order.
4
@Nick A fine-sounding quote but the issue it hides is, who gets to establish what constitutes order? Dred Scott decision was full of "safeguards" for the various parties and courts involved, but failed to bring liberty to Dred Scott. Maryland has now removed its statue of Roger Taney from its statehouse grounds.
1
This article is a dangerous skewing of history & policy. Yes, in the 1960s, a 'liberal' was a moderate who was in favor of gradual reform and general ideas of justice. Yes, a liberal wouldn't give up privileges unless his neighbors did so too. However, King was talking about the lack of tangible support his own movement was getting from governments, not from the 'Northern Liberal population', for enforcement of civil rights. Not a demand to 'disrupt' society, but to disrupt thinking and policy. His demand was also for peaceful civil disobedience-- protected by law-abiding police forces.
The single disruption he did plan out was media discourse. He did predict that his volunteers would be attacked by police, and he did say "let the nation see what white violence looks like." And they did. That's not a plan for universal, zero-sum hiring and promotion, "loss of privileges" and affirmative action in colleges.
Calls for 'Disruption' will be gleefully waved around the internet by the extreme right. My take is that no progressive needs to encourage attacks on Northern Liberals (of today) by citing the pages of the NYT from the 1960s.
5
Precisely the same criticism can be made now - about the hypocrisy of "liberals" in the north, south, east and west who virtue signal advocate for open borders, sabotage immigration law enforcement and try to rig even higher legal immigration quotas while they make immense unearned profits from 10's of millions of a fraction of a living wage desperate immigrant laborers. BUT who, although they are willing to 'share' this country and the resources of the US working and middle classes with potentially 100's of millions of addition foreigners, would never send their children to a public school dumbed down 2 grade levels because its mostly full of children of no-English, 3rd grade education equivalency parents.
8
Decades ago, I read that the difference between Southern and Northern racism is, "in the South they say, 'We don't care how close you get, just don't get too big' and in the North, it's, 'We don't care how big you get, just don't get too close.' " How true. I really wish I could find it online to give the author proper credit.
4
As Phil Ochs said:
A liberal is 10% to the left of center in good times,
10% to the right of center if it affects them.
9
He was truly a great Republican.
Too bad there are those who still see color first, if not just for political opportunism.
2
I agree that we still have much to do. It's worth noting, for example, that many of the incidents where white people called the cops when a black person was at a Starbucks, a university common room, a bodega, etc, were north of the Mason-Dixon line, in areas considered to be liberal. As a white person, I feel anger and shame when I read about such things and I know we need to do more than to merely *say* black lives matter.
4
@Someone-- What exactly should we do?
This is no secret; it's something intelligent, perceptive people of good will have noticed for a long, long time — including Harriet Beecher Stowe, who nailed the personality of the Northern abolitionist who loved black people but not black individuals (as she nailed so much else) in her depiction of Aunt Polly.
4
We need more skills to even talk about racism.
The biggest personal problem I have with fighting racism, is seeking to uphold the rights of an entire group of people, while an individual from that same group is harassing me right at that very moment. Often on the street or on public transportation. Sometimes I get harassed to the point where I have to take immediate steps. Yes, actively fighting against racism still the right thing to do, but I don't have a good way to frame it even to myself.
I can see this being a problem with sending your kid to a public schools where they get beaten up, regularly. You have to keep fighting but also have healthy boundaries, and there's not much guidance on how to do this within a context of specifically fighting racism. Parents of color have kids who are also getting beaten up.
I think maybe, just maybe, that fighting racism is a duty for all of us, but here's the thing. You can't do it 5 minutes a day. It's a 24-7 way of life! You can't just make a decision like "Oh I'll send my kids to public schools" and then shut your eyes and think everything is hunky dory, you can go back to living your life and you don't have to do any more work like showing up at that school yourself in an active parent support role. Because that would mean taking time off your busy job, wouldn't it? That would be a personal sacrifice for you, not just your kid, right? The people suffering from racism have to live with it 24-7.
6
@Red Ree What's wrong with living your life but letting others live theirs the way THEY want and with whom THEY wish?
Race in the US is a lot more complex than this article suggests.
White parents are not really moving to the suburbs and are not resisting rezoning districts for "...better schools... or for "...better-funded..." schools. They are out there so their kids can go to SAFE schools.
TA question that never seems to get asked is why are city schools so unsafe?
I revere the memory of Doctor King, but neighborhoods "...changed..." for a number of reasons not all of them racist.
6
This man continues to inspire and enlighten, and teaches us something we would perhaps be comfortable ignoring. To honor him seems more appropriate than ever.
And yet still, there was a group of young black men 2 nights ago fighting, as I saw when I looked out of my apartment window because of the noise. Bags of trash were thrown, and the fear that it could escalate into something more dangerous, threatening the people just walking by, was real. It wasn't a matter of race, but the dynamic of a group of people feeling emboldened by their numbers. How does one move beyond the stereotype? I don't know the answer. Maybe by allowing the light of Dr. King teach us about ourselves.
4
@James K Dr. King said that blacks had to address their own problems which were the result of generations of discrimination and crushed hopes. At the end of the day we have to address the consequences of racism on our own personalities, whether we are black or white. It is an individual responsibility as well as a collective one.
Yes, yes, and yes. Thank you. I don't know how to remedy it. I only know that the same white liberals who talk about "multiculturalism" and "racism" with equanimity, who might be proud of their children for having an "interracial relationship" seem to be the same ones who often resist hiring and promoting people of color at work, show no qualms about enjoying the benefits of their segregated schools and neighborhoods, and seem largely unbothered (or even uncomfortable hearing about) lawsuits for discrimination at said schools or in said neighborhoods or against the local police. What it comes down to - as MLK said - is power, resources, privilege, and politics. It is stomach-turning. So if you really want to help, white people, do a little bit if you can. Just do a little bit. USE your privilege to do a bit. Get comfortable being unpopular for speaking the truth. Get on the side of someone at work who nobody is supporting and who happens to be a person of color (go figure). Get on the side of a candidate for a job or political office or a promotion who is equally, if not more, qualified than white candidates and fight for that person. Get on the side of a neighbor, a complaint of inequality and unfair treatment at a school, a protest - and listen, listen, listen.
11
@A
It is the same thing you see with the environment. People are all gung ho about doing something, until they themselves are asked to make the sacrifice.
1
I grew up around Chicago. Dr. King was exactly right. After his visit there in 1966, he commented that the white mobs opposing him in Chicago at that time were even more "hateful" than those in Alabama and Mississippi.
One question, and answer this honestly: Was your father really laughing AT Archie Bunker, or was he laughing WITH Archie Bunker. With all due respect to the brilliant but all too subtle satire of Norman Lear, I truly believe in retrospect that it was the latter. It is an important and relevant cultural touchstone for all of us.
7
@Gustav I think most of the country was doing a bit of both (laughing 'at' and 'with' Archie Bunker.) This was what made Lear's satire hold up. No narrative survives without a trace of empathy for its protagonist. Even Meathead was a well-rounded character, with hypocritical foibles despite Lear's liberal leanings. This rarely happens today, even given the strides TV has taken.
7
I have always thought that Northerners are as racsist, if not more so, than Southerners. Dr. King knew that all well. Thank you, Professor Theoharis, for reminding us, especially the Northern liberals. Cheers!
4
@Southern Boy
The post above, I think, is the downside of Dr. Theoharis’ insightful pondering. Her view, shared by Dr. King, that the northern racism of greenlining must be called out has the perverse effect of giving comfort, or at least talking points, to the sons of the CSA. In the real political world, poking a finger in my eye over progressive racism, whatever that means, and enabling the rationalization of lynchings, Jim Crow, and the good ol’ days of slavery that our Southern Boy jumps to, is quite damaging to those of us who would like to end injustice.
3
@Southern Boy
I see this as a foreigner, but there seems to be quite a bit of confusion in the article and comments on the time axis.
I visited Boston and Atlanta for work several times. Atlanta, despite its long and sometimes "heavy" history had blacks and whites sharing tables at lunchtime, while this was a rare sight in the oh-so-liberal and lesson-giving Boston. Point taken.
But I do see a huge difference between a curent lack of social mixing in areas of the Northeast and the realities of the South in the 1960s. It seems the author and readers have forgotten the violence that was prevalent in the South at the time. And please don't serve me the "social violence" argument: someone not wanting their kids to go to a school with underprivileged people from the projects (notice the absence of ethnic criteria) might not be a good idea but it is very, very different from lyching and burning an innocent because he is black and showed some form of protest.
Confusing the two means that 1/ happily and commendably, the racist violence in the South has abated and 2/ one really needs to go back to the history books. Confusing the two is lazy and also an insult to those who tragically were lynched.
@Southern Boy -see this here is the problem with morally inequivalent commentary (which the NY Times is famous for)
This reinforced relativism about how we all share the guilt equally is fodder for all 'the good ole serious racists most prevalent down in dixieland"
Like Southern Boy!
Let's not forget that the the "white moderate" has not much to do with skin color these days. Obama drank a glass of water when he visited Flint in order to show its citizens that the water was clean and safe even though there was wide evidence showing that lab tests were forged and that kids were getting sick and found to have toxic lead blood levels. This is why we need to vote progressive, not for a self-proclaimed one, but based on his/her history of action. These days, being white, black, brown, liberal or democrat doesn't say much. Speech writers can produce beautiful liberal-sound discourses but only actions speak for the true character of a candidate/citizen.
10
"more devoted to order than justice" describes Americans generally. The Times pronounced stalling cars on the road to block traffic to the World Fair "violent", among other things. More recently, some states have introduced laws making it legal to run over people whose march is obstructing traffic. When the MTA went on strike a few years ago, were you marching with them, or grumbling about getting to work in the cold?
Or today. The shutdown continues with relatively little turmoil because the federal government can order people to work without pay. I call that bondage, which has been prohibited by constitution since 1865. Which private employer could do that? Which city, even?
Have you written your senator to object to employees being legally forced to work without pay? Because without that authority, the chaos of shutting down the government would be widespread and painful. Order, or justice?
7
@James K. Lowden Are you sure they're being ordered to work without pay, or is it with DELAYED pay?
1
“the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice”
Republican politicians always pound the table for Law and Order, but never for Justice.
Democrat voters are the same. They talk Justice, but wilt in the heat of sacrifice.
That makes centrist Democrats and their politicians, Republican-lite. They're a political buffer between the Republicans and the Progressives and they block the way forward. They are the enablers.
They must awake and remove themselves so the People can vanquish the Republicans. If you're not with us, you are with them.
6
@Fourteen
Yes. As the faux opposition party, they obstruct the way to real change. I am beginning to think this is their primary purpose. Also, MLK also addressed the connection between war, racism, poverty/materialism, something this author fails to do (much like King's critics of his Riverside Church speech). Democratic Party "liberals," like Nancy Pelosi, supported the $1.3 trillion defense budget, used in part to wage war on persons of color (e.g., Yemen) with few if any protests by so-called liberals, and constituting more than half of our discretionary spending budget that could otherwise be used to address the twin evils of poverty and racisms. See also their protests against a proposed withdrawal of troops from Syria. King connected the dots. These "liberals" do not.
1
"At the same time, many people have condemned the disruptive tactics of Black Lives Matter activists, claiming they should be more like Dr. King."
People forget how disruptive Dr. King was -- and how widely criticized. They remember the M.L. King, Jr. of the "I Have a Dream" speech -- and forget his speech "Beyond Vietnam."
In that speech he said: "A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see than an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.... A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just.” ... A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
9
In Isabel Wilkerson's 'The Warmth of Other Suns' she discusses the different forms racism takes in the North. In particular, she makes the distinction between the clearly demarcated lines of statutory segregation in the Jim Crow south, and the often invisible, but no less savagely defended, racial boundaries of the north. At one point she concludes, rather ruefully, that at least in the south a black person knows he or she is crossing a line.
Many of us liberals have prided ourselves for too long on the veneer of words behind which we hide our racism.
5
King was both nuanced and principled in a way that allowed his ideas to permeate those of reasonable mind from all walks of life. One wonders how those ideas would have survived this modern cycle of social media, cheap 'news' feeds, and hysterical in-fighting.
2
like the brightest beacon in the darkest night, that's how. not to mention surviving and growing, by the power of truth plainly spoken, over all the intervening years. MLK will always be honored as a moral giant, standing taller than ever today in our land of moral midgets.
1
It took me quite a while to warm up to MLK. Jr. Primarily this was because he was a preacher and I had a hard time with the religious aspect of anything. One aspect of his approach I still have trouble with is the idea that he could not bear hatred.
If it were hatred of an individual I could agree but if it were hatred of an idea or a deed I disagree entirely. For example I do not think it proper to hate Donald Trump but I do think it proper to hate the events that made him what he is today.
@Bunbury
What works for you and your selective code of ethics removes examining Trump the person from the harm he has done.
Why let him off the hook?
Did you read Russ Buettner and Maggie Haberman analysis in today's NYT- 'In Business and Governing, Trump Seeks Victory in Chaos'?
That's the person he is.
@Bunbury
All hatred limits and distorts the hater.
There are endless injustices in this world, endless prejudice, inequality and countless things that aren't fair or right.
But we can't change other people, only they can do that. We can ask them to change, try and inspire them to change, even insist they change, but they only change if they decide within themselves to do so.
The only person we can change is ourselves. That's why in King's "Loving your enemies" sermon of 1957 he said:
"Our capacity to forgive is the starting point once we've been hurt".
and
"He who is devoid of power to forgive is devoid of the power to love."
We are all of us, white or black or brown, invited to look in the mirror and where warranted change ourselves, or at least honestly try. And forgive...our self and others. Then do the right thing.
I think that's a forgotten part of King's message we're invited to ponder.
7
@dre
I can forgive right-wing terrorists, but I will not let them terrorize me, or others.
@dre it is not forgotten. But as he learned and went on he looked deeper. Clearly you have not.
@dre
I don't believe in Jesus, but I do believe in Dr. King. Was he not the Second Coming?
Dr. Jeanne Theoharis' article is very thoughtful and interesting. As an avid French reader of Dr. Howard Zinne's book on a people's history of the United States, I would say that she could be the best pertinent writer to continue Dr. Zinne's seminal work.
Besides what this opinion piece does demonstrate, if that were needed by the way, is how Dr. Martin Luther King was prescient and sharp.
The truth about the history and the racism in the USA is frightening. This is absolutely horrible and the daily spectacle of what is happening right now, especially, about the "shutdown", the separations of parents and kids just because they are migrants, etc. is more and more the talk of the day here. Truly, a frightening country.
10
@Daniel Neither agreeing nor refuting the last line of your comment, but the city and country of its origin lends both substantial gravity and irony.
4
@Daniel
Great observations-
Just one correction.
His name is Howard Zinn.
1
@Daniel: The whole structure of the Constitution is still distorted by its origin as an endowment of liberty to enslave.
I think MLK would probably be drummed out of the left today for being insufficiently "woke". I mean he wanted people judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, how awful and retrograde that thought. He would need to be brought up to speed on the latest mental gymnastics that some perform at Olympic levels on a near daily basis.
28
@Mark F: Well, no. His dream was of a future where people would be judged by character rather than skin color, but he was well aware that here and now, that was and still is only a dream, and that getting there required a lot of very race-conscious work. You can't oppose racism by pretending not to see it.
4
@Mark F
Look who missed the point.
King was considered a hero when fighting against Southern Jim Crow laws, but a radical when he demanded equality in jobs, housing, and justice in the North. He was plenty “woke” and plenty criticized. Notice that he was murdered when his message shifted more to economic integration and equality after winning the fight against segregation laws.
31
This is a gross oversimplification of the promise of that speech. We can never achieve such a utopia until we wake up and acknowledge that color does, indeed, shape our perceptions of others within a white racist society. As a white woman, I have received privileges denied to people of color, and I have benefited from being judged by the color of my skin, despite my character. Until we move beyond simplistic “color blindness,” we will not be able to do the real work required to someday achieve the vision of true equality and a color blindness that would be the result of racial equity. Frankly, it may be unachievable. We must also view King’s words within the context of history. If he were alive today, his views would have continued to evolve in response to societal changes.
17
I agree with much of the article, but I think it over-generalizes the politics and demographics of a large and diverse region. The Northeast is rural, suburban and urban. It is blue -collar and white-collar. It elects Republican governors. Its inhabitants tend liberal, but there are many right-leaning areas as well.
There is still a huge amount of racism here, both overt and systemic, just like everywhere else, but this article contains a lot of common misconceptions that the entire northeast is composed of wealthy, educated, urban liberals. My New England state certainly is not, though it votes majority blue.
11
@Naomi you could say the say the same for the South. You cannot deny, in fact, that the African-American population is significantly greater in the South than the Northeast. I am not defending the South- but I have lived in both and they both have racial issues.
Racist people are more open about it in the South, which isn’t something I enjoyed, living in GA & VA. But there are so few people of color in the Northeast (I lived in CT & VT) that white (even black) people there simply aren’t exposed to other cultures unless they make a conscious choice. Ignorance isn’t a positive.
But, you could say, you obviously live in Baltimore, a city where there is huge racial problems! Yes, and I chose this city. It is a mixture of North and South (although below the Mason Dixon Line); and this majority-black city’s problems reflect the problems of this country: (proven) corrupt & racist police practices, early adoption of redlining and discriminatory housing policies, poor-to-terrible transit systems, a group of beyond-predatory landlords, continually drastic budget cuts (while massive fund packages & tax programs go to businesses/events for “publicity”), a crippling drug infestation & a mix of “white flight” and gentrification.
Nevertheless, my city has amazing people with spirit, strength, and the willingness to work against the odds. The smart people and unique neighborhoods are inspiring and give me hope. That’s all I have to say, I guess!
1
@Naomi Yes it is diverse, but not in its response to black people. Redlining, keeping them in almost all black neighborhoods and projects supports Jeanne Yheoharis's article. I've liked in the New York area for 76 years. Manhattan, Scarsdale, Pleasantville and now New Rochelle, and I can say only now, recently has anti-black sentiment waned. Our Jewish congregation came out in force to protest recent church massacres, and churches in New Rochelle, came out to support us in the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The crowd was made up of whites, blacks and Latinos standing together. It's a shame that it took such horrifying violence to teach us that we indeed are one.
1
I live in Cuyahoga County Ohio. To everyone, that is "Cleveland." It is the most racially segregated large Metro in the U.S. Most of the African American people of a generation or two ago, may have been raised in the City of Cleveland. The population is close to 80%. But they are only 20% of the total Metro area population. They tend to live in highly segregated suburbs. Cleveland has a less range of income than does a city like New York, where I was born and raised.
Cleveland is very ethnic and tribal in my point of view. The population of the City has declined from a high of nearly 1 million in 1950 to the less than 400,000 today. The spread of the population has usurped vast amounts of resources that are, in effect, wasted. Sadly, this type of racism is the economic manifestation of what Dr; King warned:
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
Heed the call Cleveland.
9
It's no secret that the Northeast and Midwest are the most segregated regions. These are the sites of the infamous crime-infested urban ghettos. As a white man in Boston there are neighborhoods that I avoid, because I would fear for my safety. If I had children I would not want them to live in those neighborhoods or to go to school with kids from those neighborhoods. The problem of segregation in the north is complex - it won't be solved without addressing the concerns of the white population as well. That was the problem with the attempts to desegregate schools in Boston decades ago. It's what killed the civil rights movement in the late '60s and early '70s. Desegregation has to start with the improvement of conditions in the ghettos. Protest is only going to go so far without a clear demand. The demand to end Jim Crow laws and secure voting rights in the south were clearly defined along moral lines. In the north it won't be so simple. We need to start with economic and social measures that over time will erase the ghettos from existence and integrate the ghettoized population.
14
@Northern Liberal Well said. White liberals may be color blind but not culture blind. And improvement of lives of those living in poor neighborhoods seems the only rational way to address inequality.
1
Dr. King’s use of peaceful non-violence in organized protests could serve us again today. As long as the president keeps the government shut down, there is need for millions of Americans to stage peaceful, non-violent sit-ins at government buildings and facilities across our country. Blocking access to Manhattan’s bridges during rush hour would be one way to force local, state, and federal officials to bring an end to the shutdown. The same obtains for blocking access to federal airports like Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC. Shutting down the Washington Metro system through peaceful, non-violent protests during rush hours would likewise impose a “tax” on congressional failure to come together with legislation to reopen our government despite the president’s intransigence.
6
I fully concur. At a small gathering to promote the candidacy of a local councilwoman, I was once again dismayed by the disparity between what my liberal neighbors advocated, and their actual behavior towards those outside their comfort zone, given that I stood out, glaringly, as the only non-Caucasian in the group.
Even in this most liberal of Northeastern cities, nothing seems to have changed in terms of individual behavior the thirty or so years since I’ve been here, except by electing non-whites who have not lived in privilege.
Long ago, I recall a roommate, a supposed liberal, who treated me and his other roommate as if we barely existed, simply because we were not part of his social class. He liked to lecture about how people ‘should’ behave, even though he never followed his own principles.
(As it happened, the other roommate was a Republican who was far kinder personally. But I suspect that nowadays, I will find few if any Republican friends)
It may be that one needs to step into another’s shoe to fully embrace them; or, the ‘North-South’ divide could be generalized, as in the anecdote above, as the battle between mind and heart - the mind with the noblest sentiments does not necessarily translate into a warm heart and actions. While one driven by emotions could learn to connect with a single other human being without being encumbered by ideology and religion.
In both cases, it requires an open heart.
17
@lm I’m not grasping your point when you write of being “encumbered” by religion, as if that’s a negative. Was Rev. King encumbered by religion? He probably saw religion as liberating, literally and figuratively. Religion provided much of the moral framework for the civil rights movement.
1
@lm
"Long ago, I recall a roommate, a supposed liberal, who treated me and his other roommate as if we barely existed, simply because we were not part of his social class."
That is obviously stupid, but your comment implies that this would also have happened to you if you were Caucasian. I find comfort in the fact that even stupidity seems to have become less color-conscious (as did your Republican friend at the time). That is a good thing and means that the fight can now focus on social and economic issues, no longer on issues of ethnicity only.
Perhaps this is what Lincoln observed when he said:
" We must disenthrall ourselves , and then we shall save our Country"
7
@Tony Good line. I wonder how it would have survived as a tweet.
1
I think what Professor's essay is saying is that MLK made a few Northern liberals a bit uncomfortable. There is a companion piece in todays's same paper written by Leonhardt where he wonders what happened to the momentum of the Trump Resistance movement, after all of the accomplishments of the last two years. He asks, why aren't there more mass protests about the shut down? Why are those Federal workers so hesitant to conduct mass organized protests and a campaign to show how the shut down is impacting these workers and their families. Similarly Professor Theoharis is pointing out the lackluster response to the on-going racism in today's north. I would urge folks to read this article again and focus on the hard facts that are an important part of this essay.
4
@Jesse V., how many people can take off work to go protest? How many can afford to lose their jobs if they’re fired in retaliation? Most folks live one paycheck short of being out on the street with nothing. I know it’s terribly cynical to say, but people will nearly always choose a warm house and a full belly over social justice. Most of us pay lip service to ideals, but few are willing to accept the harsh consequences that come with living those ideals.
Ask yourself: would you be willing to go to jail? Could endure getting kicked and beaten half to death? Can you accept losing everything, including your home, your job, your family, and your life? Do you think it’s worth the sacrifice?
If you answered “no”, then perhaps now you’ll understand why protest happens more frequently at the ballot box than in the streets.
5
Mass Protests?
Would give Trump an excuse to call out the military ,to ‘ protect our country from the mob ‘.
Defeat him at the polls , and all his cronies at the state and local level.
VOTE,VOTE,VOTE
4
I grew up in a southern small town in the 1950s and 1960s but had family roots in the north. I always recognized that there was prejudice in the north. It simply took a more subtle form than that in the south--except in terms of integrated neighbors, opposition to which had no subtlety at all.
Sadly, we have not moved forward all that much. Northerners now move to my no-longer-small southern town and expect to have all white neighborhoods.
At the same time, I see middle class, often well-educated older African-Americans moving to the south to retire. That gives me hope.
5
The true original sin of America is Capitalism and the class society that it creates. The foundation of racism was the need for slave labor to serve the global cotton market of the day. This economic reality distorted the constitution itself and moderated its demand that “all men are created equal” conform to the 3/5ths representation of the slave states. Our constitution could only be born in such a compromise and it required the civil war and the civil rights movement to write the amendments and laws that restored the original concepts of equality to our founding documents. But the underlying system of economic slavery was never addressed.
Our modern world has seen the capitalist need for wage slavery return with such force that it has overruled our justice system and distorted our constitution. Today the class warfare of the wealthy elites has put the middle class on the same road to servitude that our black population has struggled with for centuries. As economic despair combines with a growing surveillance state there is a sense that nothing can be done.
The forgotten solution is that the people working together en mass can always change the system. The endemic racism that lingers from the never solved fractures of the capitalist system can only be ended if all races and all working people see it in their common interest to live out our creed. We do not have a race problem, we have a people who want to be free problem, and we are all in this fight together.
12
Our "justice" system system is based upon money. Period. Vapid calls for reform have been and remain the empty rhetoric of those who, regardless of party, profit from the status quo. Without revolution, there can be no substantial change.
5
The liberal elites' commitment to social justice has always been suspect, or else it would be accompanied by a platform of economic justice.
Over the past 30 years, aside from lip service, when have liberal politicians supported increases to the meager Social Security benefits, a financial transaction tax, a liveable minimum wage, basing public school funding on something other than local property taxes, job retraining in light of globalization's transfer of jobs overseas, non-usurious banking options for the poor, etc?
20
@Ed Watters it's not the "liberal elite" that resists the changes you describe, it's the conservative voters of red American who oppose them.
@Ed Watters: Precisely. Zoning development for large, single family homes excludes all who are not affluent, not only people of colour. But be reasonable, "liberals" are only liberal when they don't have to bear the burden of their "liberalism." Don't expect them to allow "undesirables," i.e., "deplorables," of any colour into their protected neighbourhoods, and don't expect them the be "liberal" with their willingness to be taxed to support their "beliefs. "
1
Clinging to every word MLK has ever said is no better than rejecting outright. By imputing moderates are worse than the KKK irrespective of time and place seems to be dangerous. Nelson Mandela once embraced militant approach against Apartheid but abandoned this approach subsequently.
While the 21st Century is marked by reactionism, do we want to embrace Angela Davis now, even if her issues and tactics were some sort of wakeup call? This is especially thought provoking after the 2016 election and how Putin Russia and other outside forces were able to exploit movements like Black Lives Matter to pit Americans against Americans.
MLK was a great man but you want to honor the man not by being a fundamentalist; rather, you want to realize his universal ideals in myriad ways with passion as well as intelligence. Sometimes, it may be total engagement; sometimes, it is pragmatic compromise, for united we stand and divided we fall. The schism of the MeToo movement last weekend has an eerie resemblance of that of the NAACP some half a century ago. So, be an intelligent and compassionate MLK follower and not someone who uses MLK's name in vain
18
@Bos
You are right. It has only been 50 years since MLK fought for equality. We don't need to rush to achieve equality, it will happen eventually.
1
@ph1
please do not put words into my mouth. I did not say that. While the Dr Theoharis may like to criticize "northern Liberalism" of yonder time as NIMBYism in disguise, which *could* be true, my point is that liberation fundamentalism is not liberation at all.
If MLK taught us fundamentalism, then I wanted nothing to do with it.
@Bos
Your original argument has several problems. Your statement that Mandela originally embraced a militant approach but then turned against it implies that MLK was militant. Not true.
You mention that Russia tried to exploit black movements such as BLM for their benefit but the USSR also tried to use the civil rights movement to their benefit and this fact is one of the reasons why Kennedy was hesitant to acknowledge the unequal rights of blacks at that time.
MLK stating that moderates are worse than the KKK was not "fundamentalist" but rather a statement reflecting that there were many more moderates than right extremists and given this fact, these moderates could have easily turned history toward the good if they would only act; alas, they did not. And moderates today do not act, therefore, his statement is still relevant.
The linked articles the author provides talk about white parents wanting to avoid minorities in their schools which supposes that this attitude is entirely racial, but it's not. When parents look for a residence to purchase they are also looking for top performing schools. Top performing schools are designated that way by standardized tests. My daughter is white, she goes to a minority majority school in Queens and it is a high performing school. Ask any educator about what happens when you bring in disruptive low performing students into a high performing class and they will tell you it drags every single student down and that is exactly what these parents are protecting their children against when they push back against rezoning. It's not racial. The fact that minority majority schools tend to be low performing is a symptom of a more complex set of problems that sabotages the educations of many brown/black children before they even get started. Also, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that spending more money does very little to close achievement gaps between schools. Like it or not, we have to come to grips with the fact that when the parents value education so do the children and in poverty stricken areas there will obviously be an abundance of people who know nothing of the value of education. How we break that cycle is a difficult problem to solve but I know it will require more than rezoning. The problem is no where near that simple.
32
@Tom Doing this is active participation in continuing discrimination. If you cherry pick your students, as charter schools do, you naturally get "a high performing school". The true test of high performing is performance of these same students at the next level. Are they truly high performing, or just in that setting. If a school were truly high performing, it has talented teachers who could work with students who are not performing. High schools work best when classes work as a group that collaborates with the group, ferrets out problems, addresses them. This does not bring the good students down, it elevates their awareness and challenges them to find ways to elevate the non-performers. Keeping them out is continued discrimination. I had an international student from China;I asked him what he thought of American high school education;he said it was very competitive & caused lots of cheating;in China,school administrators came to classes&said"Everyone will get new laptops IF EVERYONE gets an A by semester end;work with your classmates;we divided into groups, each group got one or more struggling students and we all worked to bring them up;we would never cheat;I asked about China's health care,he laughed&said,when you are born your parents get a card to take care of you;everything, teeth, eyes,skin;in US, you have a mess,in China we have health care,I am too young to know the quality, but its better to have something than nothing.
1
I've lived south of the Mason Dixon line for decades, after growing up in the metropolitan north east. The north east is more liberal leaning on social issues and the role of government-and ironically more fiscally conservative-than many other places I've lived. However, when it came to race, it's a matter of convenient ignorance. It's fairly easy to practice northern liberalism when surrounded by people who look and speak almost exactly as you do, and where open sharing of racist opinions were rarely displayed-or 'a small problem of big cities.' We know that none of that opinion is true. However, the complacency that situational ignorance brings is an almost insurmountable obstacle.
I would like to think that Dr. King would end most public discussions on race with a message of true hope, not blind optimism nor fear.
6
As a white liberal New Yorker of a certain age, I've seen my own racial prejudices on numerous occasions. Perhaps the most disturbing incident happened in the most liberal of places: Berkeley.
I had just sat down in a small classroom, waiting for my first graduate class to begin. A few minutes before the start, I saw the janitor, a scruffy old black man, walk in with a pail of water and a large sponge. He proceeded to clean the chalkboard as I thought to myself, How nice! At least the professor won't have to waste time erasing the previous professor's equations.
Then the janitor turned around and started to lecture on the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity.
The threadbare garments of twenty-seven years of a liberal upbringing unraveled in an instant.
It wasn't the scruffiness; plenty of white professors were less dapper. I'd just assumed.
Well, we ended up working together on a couple of projects. We also had many constructive discussions on matters of race, where, at some point I confessed my first reaction to seeing him with the bucket and sponge. "Oh, yes," he said, "It happens all the time." And for a fleeting moment it seemed as all the accomplishments of a brilliant career as a theoretical physicist just vanished, and in their place there emerged a face abraded and tired from all the countless assumptions directed at him across a lifetime.
"But," he said, retaking his rightful place, "We have much to discuss."
59
@hammond
Thanks for this one.
A little humor....and a little sadness.
3
But you did nothing wrong. Is making an incorrect but harmless mental assumption now a New Age sin?
@hammond
Well, finally an honest voice about fundamental racism no matter where you sit in this nation. Thank you.
1
Can't we all just get along? Is it possible that the United States is just too big to be one Nation democratically? Too many disparate peoples living in communities stretched across the land unwilling to bond with one another? Too many "entrepreneurs" making profits off keeping US separate and unequal? Too many politicians willing to divide and conquer?
Growing up in the 50's and 60's in a new suburb outside of Denver I didn't know any black kids and only a few Hispanic kids. And because my family was suspicious of other races I was too. Until my brother and I joined a youth club that had monthly meetings downtown. There I met and became friends with some black kids and began to see they were just like me, except for the obvious.
That is what it took for me. Meeting them. Getting to know them.
And being willing to change. That may be what is missing today. A willingness to change.
14
@Bob Laughlin: The US has a way of making many people feel like a competitor for a shrinking slice of pie. It impedes cooperation for mutual benefit.
13
Dr. King spoke truth to power in many of his speeches, but he is less known for some of his confrontational words. Consistent with concerns voiced initially about the statue of him in D.C., there is a need by many in power to round his pointed edges, to erase anger as part of his experience of racism. I once heard a speech in which he was beginning to refer to inner city ghettoes as colonies. Dr. King may have been non-violent but he moved through fear to tell the blatant, beneath the veneer truth. It inspires me and I am so grateful for all he gave.
24
Racism has little to do with geography. Certainly it's more pronounced and out-in-the open in Southern states but it's a mind set.
People move in and out of areas in search of better jobs and/or lives. The first "immigrants" in the United States were the "Oakies" - poor white people escaping the dust bowl and depression in the south who headed to California. Others moved to logging and coal jobs in the west. That is why there are pockets of racist mindsets" in nearly every part of the country.
The divide in America - and around the world - is one of wealth/class. If you're poor it doesn't matter where you live or what color you are. OUR Untied States of America used to be, and still is, a land of more opportunity than most places for everyone to get ahead and WE THE PEOPLE - of every color, gender, religion and race - must put aside our differences and work to preserve/restore true democracy. Only then can we level the playing field for everyone.
11
@njglea: Upward economic mobility statistics are better in Europe.
5
Interesting that none of the most popular comments address the core of this opinion piece. As usual, the comment section has Southerners and Republicans offered as fair game but will not look inward at the inconsistencies and racism in our own lives. Whenever someone justifies their choices as “It is natural to do what’s right for my children” (best schools, lining in safe neighborhoods, etc.) the subtext is “It’s natural to do what’s best for me.”
20
Correct. At the end of the day, the "haves" will do what they can with a clear conscience to keep what they have. The worsening and destructive income and wealth inequality that exists today is a manifestation of this. Throw in some old-fashioned racism, hate and anger and you get the horrible times we live in.
1
I have no doubt that Dr. King was frustrated by the glacier movement to equality. As a result, I wonder if his comment was meant not to downgrade the efforts of while liberals but simply to Point that things needed to move more quickly and more assertively.
Order is a good thing because chaos or disorder brings us leaders like TRUMP. I would suggest that we move forward together and focus on the common ground we have instead of the color of our skin. I think MLK would be comfortable with that.
6
@Justice Holmes No, Dr. King said what he said! Dr. King knew and understood full well that "the color of the skin" played a very significant role; hence, the movement. What Dr. King was uncomfortable with was the superiority and inferiority airs and judgment that sometimes accompany much of the viewing of people's skin. He in no way meant to look past skin color, for to do so is not to see me as I am and fail to address issues that may concern me and those who look like me.
4
@Justice Holmes
Nicely said, Amen.
@Angelicia Simmons I believe what he meant was that looking past skin color is the goal for us, even if it isn't for you.
Let me share with you a unique Canadian perspective. While living in Toronto I became a big fan of Amy Grant; the Christian singer who was reaching millions of people with her songs of faith and love that I know Dr. King would surely have applauded and approved of. Having been to her concert in Toronto; I resolved to travel by bus to Detroit to hear her once again a month later. When arriving in downtown Detroit; I was quickly surrounded by nothing but African American faces who seemed shocked that a white face was among them. I was told to take another bus to the Palace of Auburn Hills; several miles outside the city. There I was quick to realize this was where the white community now lived. Two separate solitudes; where never the twain should meet. It was a crash course of how apartheid was alive and well in America in 1988. Twenty years after the assassination of Dr.King. It was shocking to me just how a few miles apart; black and white were living on different planets. Both suspicious and wary of one another. It gave me a profound sense of a nation estranged form one another. The feeling remains to this day. At the concert black and white shared a few joyous hours together. Then they returned to their two solitudes. Dr.King would not be impressed at this reality 50 years after his death. SAD.
25
@Greg Hodges
On the evening of April 4,1968 Dr. King was looking forward to the Poor People's campaign. Dr. King hoped to unite the black and white poor and working class along mutual socioeconomic and educational class lines instead of dividing them across color aka race caste lines.
Then came Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan and Bush and Bush. Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater and Karl Rove masters of white supremacist nationalist propaganda.
2
Your experience wasn’t unique to the environs of Detroit nor the gap you saw between blacks and whites. Go to Morgantown or Charleston W Va and talk to and observe the locals then drive 20 miles in any direction and do the same. You’ll find the same disparity just with the same amount of pigmentation.
1
Discrimination is like a boulder rolling downhill obliterating voting and other civil rights, and we need opposite force applied to counteract it, said one professor at Bret Kavanaugh's hearing. He was sounding the alarm about seating a conservative justice opposed to such laws as the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action in universities. The biggest threat to King's legacy is our increasingly conservative Supreme Court that would remove all obstacles to that boulder rolling downhill.
10
The perception in a very liberal west coast city in the 1960s was that MLK was a moderate, pushing for social change through persuasion & elective governmental action rather than revolution, a distant figure set on change through religion & higher moral appeal to business & governmental heads.
I'm sure many white liberals saw that as a relief from personal contact with a minority bank clerk or waitress at the break cafe down the block asking if there was an opening at their company for a brother or sister. This happened quite often in those days of de facto exclusion. To some liberals, The Great White Father would accomplish integration single handed.
Of course, the right wing saw him as a commie agitator, hell bent on taking down employer discretion along with free enterprise to bring about equality.
4
Hopefully, this writer drives each of us to pause and look at our own actions (not other’s actions) and perhaps see prejudice and racism in ourselves in ways that we have not considered before. We need to lead change through our actions, not only our talk. It is easy to blame others and never see the true disconnect within ourselves. Aligning our actions with our hearts and our moral center is difficult but, it is the only way to freedom and equality.
12
Thank you so much for this important reminder. I hope it will be reprinted every month until there is true equality. Equality as improvement is indeed our problem in addressing this injustice.
12
The spirit of the Confederacy is more resurgent in the MIdwest than in any other part of the country.
That was not true when Dr. King was alive, but it is most certainly the case now.
12
Individuals supporting "Movements" interact within a context of general laws, social behaviors slowly "evolving" as experiences good and bad are added to one's life and of course, the affirming messages from moral leaders like Dr. King whose words are understood within a context of history both personal and as broad as the world community.
As individuals we each may have a tiny piece of Dr. King's mosaic--some of us from our readings, some of us from watching videos of him and as years pile up from memories of those who marched and strategized with Dr. King brought out each holiday. As years go by, the number of people who worked with Dr. King or knew him personally or heard him speak at rallies slowly becomes fewer and fewer.
We as a society need to treasure those people who experienced personally the overwhelming events of our times including when Dr. King spoke to our hearts and heads inspiring us to do better with our laws and regulations and in our personal interactions with others in the Fight for Equality or not.
3
As long as any race or tribe defines themselves in context to other races or tribes they demean themselves and perpetuate whatever grieves them. A person, gender, race or tribe can only stand on their own if they build their lives without leaning on anything but themselves. This article rings true, but like nearly all similar articles, speeches, books etc., by leaning on anything but the context of family, integrity character, culture and belief, sadly it continues to circumvent the context of self.
9
Just to make sure it gets said explicity: it wasn't the liberalism that bothered him, it was the phoniness of the liberalism. Not that liberals in the north shouldn't have kept criticizing southern racism, but that they should have applied the same standards at home. I think he was fine with the real, consistent liberals who opposed racism and injustice equally wherever they found it.
202
@John Bergstrom John hit the nail on the head, some of the people who had the most to say on what people could say and how they should think, never engaged minorities, had them as friends, and would be appalled if the new residents next door to them had dark skin. Not to change the subject entirely, but some of the biggest practitioners of phony liberalism were/are the politically correct speech crowd or the people who serve on diversity councils at work and for all practical purposes try to avoid extended interactions with anyone not from their ethnic and socioeconomic class.
12
@John Bergstrom Agree. In about 1965 during a performance at Albion College in Michigan, Dick Gregory said, "The only difference in the South and the North is, in the South they wear white bed sheets; in the North they wear gray flannel suits."
4
@John Bergstrom History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes. Seems Fredrick Douglas may have experienced some of the same feelings about northerners even amongst abolitionists and ardent anti-slavery writers, such as Lowell, Whittier and Longfellow.
3
I have read a number of articles recently that indicate that African Americans are moving to the south where economic opportunities are more abundant. Cities like Charlotte, Atlanta, and the DC area provide better incomes and a reasonable cost of living. African Americans really only have one choice of political party currently and that party tends to take this for granted, instead focusing on radical elements of the party that bolt to 3rd party candidates at the first sign that the party is resistant to their version of progress. It has been clear to me for sometime that our current 2 party system fails greatly at providing a diversity of political policy ideas that covers all of our nations citizens. We are effectively forced into supporting many things we don’t agree with to get a little bit of what we believe in.
14
Individual Equality and Group Equality currently are going to produce different results. Basing education professions on individual ability will not produce racial and gender distributions matching the population. Eventually they might merge. But off hand I can't think of an example where that has happened. Yes,on can argue that proves comprehensive discrimination. Publicly, politically, Group equality is an easy issues to promote. Personally most of us have more day to day concerns with Individual equality.
2
The author writes: "For too long, order has been more important than justice."
Order is a prerequisite for justice. Without order, might too easily trumps right. The task should be to make the established order more responsive to injustice. And there is no doubt that the order has indeed become more responsive over the decades. Keep pushing and it will respond further.
Too many people these days are throwing out concern for truth and procedure because they're so convinced-often because of their identity rather than their actions-that they manifest justice. Let's remember that King also said we should judge people by their character, not the color of their skin.
18
@Alexander Menzies
It's a catch 22 because state might needs order but justice needs morality which requires consensus which requires order.
2
@David Teller: If it wasn't difficult (a catch 22) the ancient Greeks would have solved it and we'd all have been well governed ever since.
2
Yes. I am a white Northerner. Most of my students and friends are Northerners. For years I have been struck by Northerners' assumption that racism and racial discrimination reside only south of the Mason-Dixon line. Too many Notherners project America's racial problems onto the South and even ridicule benighted white Southerners, while remaining oblivious to the racial inequality in their own commuity. The problem of school segregation in Northern cities--an issue of class, as well as race--is a terrible blot on our country, and one that few politicians seem willing to address.
43
Dr. Theoharis,
Everything you say is true. White liberals, especially in wealthy suburban areas, love to talk the talk but are very reluctant to walk the walk.
Until we have integrated neighborhoods where our young play together, grow up together, and go to great neighborhood schools together (no forced busing), I believe the problem will linger.
But there are problems to solve first. Obviously, all families, black and white, want safe neighborhoods so all you have to do is watch one local newscast or read one local newspaper to see the biggest problem. Black crime is horrendous in inner cities. Shootings, car jacking, drive-by gun battles on our interstates, innocent star students and darling children taken down by senseless violence. People are afraid, literally and figuratively, of opening up their doors.
In my view, white Americans must work to establish much better communication, support many more opportunities, and welcome black families into their neighborhoods.
But, the entire African American community must stop concentrating on past injustices and instead build their future. It is time for African American politicians, ministers, teachers (professors too) and all leaders to strongly and decisively challenge inner city blacks to raise their children to respect others, to respect the law, to take advantage of education, and to put an end to gun violence in the inner cities. Until then, the warm reception we are all seeking will remain elusive.
30
I'm a baby boomer born in a small town in the midwest. I don't think I saw a person who wasn't white until I was about 10 years old. Many of my relatives and friends were openly racist. But there were also a lot of us who saw Dr Martin Luther King and became supporters of the Civil Rights Movement. I was in college when I first encountered Black people who explained to me that northern liberals like myself were worse than southern Ku Klux Klan members.
I agree that I know little about Black culture - or many other cultures. I've read about them but never experienced them first hand. I expect that my ignorance is frustrating and irritating, but I'm just trying to do my best under the circumstances. I don't have any great lessons to impart, but I do want all of us be treated fairly and equally.
I may be part of the problem, but I am going to continue to try to be part of the solution. I will not stand with the Klan, even if the other side doesn't want me. I'll stand alone before I'll stand with the racists.
32
@Glassyeyed
One needs to reach a point when, after meeting a person, one does not recollect their color anymore than one recollects if they had gold fillings. Classifying people by anything visual obfuscates who they actually are. Standing alone is the only honest way to think and live but the fewest have the insight, like you do, and even less the fortitude.
2
The article says it all and that quite well.
1
MLK, as I have come to appreciate him, was a modern-day prophet, who knew and told and lived the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. His background as a Christian theologian and Christian ethicist has been substantively ignored by those who would like to keep “religion” out of the argument, which may be part of the problem of cherry-picking by “liberals” who “liberate” and especially talk, on their own convenient terms. MLK knew that the farther one goes, the further one realizes s/he needs to go when it comes to justice ... which is where “men” become separated from “boys.” As this column provides, MLK was a no-compromise man when it came to what justice not only looks like but demands ... which is all of one’s life, all the time. What made him rather unique as a prophet was that at the end of the day, even the end of his very own day, he was a person of love and mercy, in the sense of compassionate and forgiveness. To recall this too, would seem important relative to addressing the problems and problem causers of our day.
9
The disparity in urban neighborhoods between white ones (safe, clean, well-serviced and maintained, close to good schools) and black ones (unsafe, dirty, lacking in good stores and essential services, littered with abandoned houses, close to bad schools) has been glaring for decades. It's something that government, backed by white voters, could fix if the will were there. A visiting European architect to Cleveland put it succinctly: "You hear the question, 'How can they live this way?' But the better question is, "How can we let them live this way?'"
12
@Charles Michener
I find your statement “How can we let them live this way“ to read as though “we,” white folks control and are responsible for the personal choices made by anyone in any community.
Yes, whites do limit, if not destroy, opportunities for people of color. That is our shame. We must own it. We must change it.
But, to state that we “let” infers guardianship, if not downright ownership.
I’m sure that you didn’t mean it that way.
It is in defense of your words that I try to clarify them.
Peace.
@Charles Michener
Ehhhh- you know what? it is not white people who make black neighborhoods dirty and unsafe. Houses get abandoned because neighborhoods are unsafe. Stores leave because the 0wners get tired of being robbed or get burnt out during a riot.
There is tracism- and it is a serious problem on an individual and institutional level. However, it is not the whole story.
Like Phil Ochs said, “10 degrees to the left of center in good times, 10 degrees to the right of center of it affects them personally”
6
The Times comment section, on most issues, is overwhelmingly filled with liberal opinions. So it was striking that an editorial last year calling for affordable housing to be spread throughout the city was met with strong opposition. Faced with the prospect of poorer (and perhaps non-white) neighbors, readers brought up the specter of crime, drugs, and declining schools. Integration for thee but not for me!
23
Smart move, alienate your only ally.
3
I can't add much to this article except to say that armchair liberalism is alive and well in many parts of the country, but perhaps especially the SF Bay area, to which I recently moved. Everyone rails about Trump, but they vote down programs for the homeless, de-fund mental health programs, drive 10-20 miles above the speed limit in gas-guzzling luxury SUVs and the only Hispanic people they interact with are their gardeners and maids, despite largely Hispanic neighborhoods five minutes away. This is the most hypocritical place I have ever been, much worse than New York City.
32
@Anne Places like the Bay Area, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis , Boulder are the most hypocritical places when it comes to liberalism. Honestly I am sick of this Hillary Clinton brand of latte and Subaru liberalism. None of them give back anything to the community apart from bumper stickers.
1
MLK's Day should remind us Canadian that we have also an history of slavery, racial discrimination and de-facto segregation upheld by the Courts. In 1924, an Ontario Court ruled that it was legal for a restaurant to refuse serving Blacks. In 1784, some Loyalists brought their slaves from the USA. Canadian Army discriminated against Blacks during the two world war. In 1942 the president of Haiti, a black republic, is in Ottawa for a state visit. Not a single member of the government is at the airport to receive him. A low ranking public servant was enough. In theater in Halifax blacks were seated in the back. Like in the USA, the Canadian Blacks had to fight for equality.
Happy birthday Martin Luther King.
5
The newly-elected women in Congress are following King's playbook quite well. Trump, Pence, Whitaker, McConnell and company are today's white neanderthals, powerful barriers to justice and equality. The only force they face that seems to bother them is having to confront these women who are unafraid, not cowered by criticism and who refuse to "go slow," or be more deferential and less uppity.
These tired, clueless white men may have power for now, but they are flirting with catastrophe born of their own wrongdoing. Imagine the chaos from a national walkout by TSA workers at airports? Trump and company would snarl and froth at the mouth, threaten to jail them. Fox News would join in angry condemnation. But at the end of the day, non-violent direct action would prevail.
7
@Doc-----------------------" Trump, Pence, Whitaker, McConnell and company are today's white neanderthals,"
My comment here is, umm, possibly absurd, Doc, but we shouldn't insult neanderthals by suggesting they're like Trump, etc. Actually, we're all partly Neanderthal, except for African Blacks, and it appears from late information that the Neanderthals were highly intelligent but apparently not as vicious and warlike as the nasty specious that took over from them. You know who I mean, us, the ones that are wrecking our planet.
White, male privilege and attendant racial and gender stereotyping has been central to white European identity since 17th century colonialism. It is knit deeply into every institution born of the Enlightenment as well as the Catholic and Protestant Churches, and thus it is implicitly central to the foundational values of the United States. That identity has rolled down on every white American of European descent. It is both genetic and memetic. We white Americans are all racists born and bred. Once we accept the truth of the last statement, we are left with only three options. We can feature our white identity and work to further white privilege at the expense of every other race. We can go with the flow of our heritage and allow our unexamined, innate, and implicit biases to shape our values and actions and so enjoy the fruits of white privilege without much thinking about them. We can resist our natural inclinations and work to develop new habits of heart, mind and body to replace the knee-jerk habits with which we were born. The last path is the path of enlightenment, the path of discipleship in every major religious tradition, the narrow path that only few will find let alone take because it is hard work to deny ourselves, empty ourselves, die to ourselves, and suffer the consequences of living in the truth.
6
@Jack Thank you for explaining me to myself.
Liberals can be just as ostracizing as non-liberals. To advance their cause they can use anyone, and a vote in favor of them from a minority is expected, not won.
10
My father, an Arkansan and white, would whole heartedly agree with Dr. King.
5
Forced integration of people that do not want to interact is a ‘fools errand’. 50 years later confirms it - why Ian the goal not ‘equal treatment each and every time’ ?
7
White moderates kept King alive, protected his protests, and passed the civil rights acts. Had he begun his protests before white moderates ruled the roost, he and his protesters would have died in a hail of gunfire or an orgy of beatings. It is the moderation of the South to a less violent place, as industrialization reduced poverty, and the moderation of the North to support of civil rights, that paved the way for his protests. He was not the first courageous African American to want to protest. He happened to arise at a time when America was ready to hear voices like his.
8
Its absolutely amazing how the latest racist behavior of our upper middle class white youth has not been directly correlated with the Trump culture of intolerance and racism. Ive read excuse after excuse why our youth acted out the way they did from schools, legislators and parents all of which could be grounded down to one core rationale, "its just the way it is." No, we are simply creating the way it is.....once again.
3
I live in Yonkers and serve as a volunteer mentor to two talented and highly motivated public high school students who participate in the Yonkers Partners in Education college readiness program. Our sons graduated from Bronxville High School, and so I hold a front-row seat of the inequalities that exist in our Westchester Schools. If well-healed liberals truly believe in justice for all, they need to embrace the idea that our public schools should not be funded primarily on property tax evaluations. The kind of public education a child receives should not be based on his or her zip code. Yet we have built this unjust system, which is as much a wall as the one Trump wants to build on the border, precisely to "keep out the other." I'm not naive to think these walls will come down in my lifetime, but I am encouraged by the 200 plus volunteers who come from wealthier communities all over Westchester to mentor our Yonkers students. To my white liberal friends on this day that celebrates Dr. King's principles and legacy, if you believe in justice and equal rights, you can make a difference by mentoring one or more of our wonderful Yonkers children and thereby create a more just, better educated society, one person at a time.
23
An American workman once observed to me, “The farther north I go, the happier I am.” I interpreted this to mean that he was more comfortable in the North because of his distance from a presumably racist South.
In the United States, geographies of liberalism are defined by longitude as much as latitude. Hence, I am as comfortable on either coast as I am in New York.
“Northern liberalism”—tantamount to aversive racism—still seems less frightening than its historically more violent Southern cousin.
Let us not forget that 1920s Harlem was a hub of international black activity, even as Congress passed the 1924 Immigration Act and Klan activity reached new heights.
Historically, the allure of greater job opportunities stimulated the Great Migration north in successive decades after the Civil War, as sharecroppers became factory and service workers in cities such as New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Detroit, Philadelphia, which still remain home to the largest African American populations. Atlanta is home to the second-largest number of African Americans and the largest in terms of percentage. After DC, southern states—Mississippi, Missouri, Georgia—house the largest percentage of African Americans.
There is a difference, however, between equal opportunity and equal outcomes, even within subcultures. Equal opportunity does not ensure equal outcomes. Sustained imbalance in outcomes, however, could reflect unequal opportunity and lead to significant political and social unrest.
29
@Silver Surfer Jobs in the north paid better than sharecropper and other limited jobs for blacks in the south, but were definitely not equal with white jobs. And blacks were only allowed to live in certain areas determined by whites; and those areas remained the same size, no matter how much the black population grew.
Read White Rage for clear concise history of this and the full story of racism since the Civil War.
While polite racism in the north may seem innocuous to whites, it is devastating to blacks. It keeps them separate, with far less income and resources than whites and then blames the victim for the circumstances.
Racism at any level is not benign. And the worst part is we all suffer from the missed contributions intellectually, socially, etc of the people held back with racism.
4
"...only the language was polite; the rejection was firm and unequivocal...", is as true today as it was during Dr. King's days. Since the 1990s Clintonesque liberalism has very carefully managed a discourse that has boxed-in progress to cultural equality while maintaining the color line when it comes to opportunities to aspire for economic equality.
6
I totally appreciate the emphasis in this piece on this part of Dr. King's efforts. I refer to the Letter from Birmingham Jail when sharing my utter disappointment in President Obama when he frittered away the near super majority of his party in Congress from 2009-2010. FDR and LBJ knew how to use it!
Few can even come close to the stature of MLK, but I was very disappointed in what I viewed "no drama" Obama having not even tried to fight like MLK for humane policies to be put into *law*--actual laws that the majority of people in this country, average citizens of all types, have needed and wanted. The public option for health care wasn't even put on the table, not to mention prosecuting the wolves of Wall Street (thereby addressing the income distribution trend--up--and environmental issues addressing a stop to climate change. ACA was an improvement, but Obama's anachronistic "incrementalism" in the era of ruthless, white supremacist Republicans had been a horrible delay of progress, as consistent with what Dr. King would predict. And look at the result--eventual defeat of about a 1000 Democratic candidates, Republicans obtaining a majority in Congress, and years of obstruction right into Obama's last year in office. The culmination of this trend? Yep--Trump. Obama wasted the power that MLK could only dream of having. I say, no more moderates. I've noted that MLK was totally non-violent in resisting domination by certain groups--but unflinchingly, relentlessly!
12
@akhenaten2
I hear your frustration. But, realize, Obama was also a victim of his own success. He was extremely brave to run for President as a half-black, half-white person. From Day 1 he had a target on his back, mostly from whites (who bought up loads of guns & ammo, recall, for anticipated race wars). I still hear the "You lie" from the Southern Congressman yelling during Obama's 1st State of the Union address.
The public option for health care WAS put on the table, but Republicans refused to discuss it, shouting "death panels," ad nauseum. Obama's victory with the Affordable Care Act was a huge improvement for millions of people(pre-existing conditions covered, Medicaid expansion, etc.), meant to be a stepping-stone to a single payer system.
When Obama spoke out more loudly for criminal justice reform, the "soft on crime" voices rose up; when he castigated Congress for failing to pass gun-violence reduction laws after the Newtown massacre of kindergarteners, he met a Republican wall of silence.
Obama knew better than to be cast as "The Angry Black Man." Don't blame him for not wanting to be assassinated. He knew what had happened to Rev. King, and he nonetheless achieved major breakthroughs (DACA, ACA) for people of all colors. Obama's great gift, like King's, was his compassion & understanding to the problems of people everywhere on "the color line." His legacy has been to open the doors of Congress to a wider spectrum of new voices & energy. The fight continues.
2
If America is such a bad place to live, why do you continue to live here? Equal outcomes/results are not rights, are not guaranteed here and never have been. America is about opportunity, to succeed or fail. That opportunity is not equal but rather fluid influenced by a host of factors that are constantly changing. Sometimes there is unfairness but life is unfair.
If you are seeking utopia than you need to look elsewhere.
7
@BC Places are neutral, but people can do bad things. The idea that equal protection under the law is not a right because nothing is truly fair is a simplistic argument. Does your comment mean that you do not believe equal protection under the law is a right? Your suggestion that people who feel they are not receiving equal treatment under the law sounds a lot like 1930s ethno-nationalism.
12
@BC
My wife and I continue to live here most of the time to be close to our son and granddaughter. That's the only reason. If they left town we'd leave the US.
5
@BC I have left, and I'm much more at ease since doing so.
3
It is right to point out MLK's shift of emphasis to economic issues as they relate to the poor and disenfranchised Americans. I went to jail with King and Abernathy in 1966, in Cleveland, when they came in support of striking delivery drivers. Later he would be assassinated in Memphis in support of striking sanitation workers. He saw the class struggle as importantly as that of racial equity. He rests eternally knowing there is no rest for the movement.
42
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's understanding of "peace and justice" above "law and order" is the standard against which all "progressives" should measure themselves. To seek "progress" is by definition a battle against the status quo, the order maintained by the humanly subjective enforcement of existing law. Dr. King sought a higher peace, not just be changing laws to guarantee a standard minimum of socially acceptable behavior but by working for a peace possible only when a society embraces true justice. That is a progress worth fighting for.
31
This article is troublingly accurate.
As with gun violence, thoughts and prayers are welcome but by themselves accomplish nothing.
Change does not require violence, but it does require disruption. Injustice must be boldly and persistently challenged when it occurs, and we must not just tolerate disruption but accept it as necessary to a larger good.
Those willing to receive society's slings and arrows, to put themselves in harm's way, deserve our admiration and active support.
Dr. King's leadership - his strength and righteousness - has been missed for the past 50 years. It's time for renewed action. Perhaps Reverend Barber and others can carry the mission forward, but they can't do so unsupported.
We need to step out of our comfort zones. If we don't, we're part of the problem.
73
The article underscores the necessity of the continuing need to recommit to vigorous and broad based affirmative action because caucasians are "psychologically" unable to overcome their prejudice.
18
Dr King was not wrong but he wasn't right either. Polite racism is a problem but it at least it offers a pathway to change, where as overt racism like the Klan there is no pathway.
If you look at New York of the 60's and look at where it is today, contrast that with Kentucky of the 60's and where it is today, you can see how social change can happen much faster within a liberal environment. You can call out the hypocrisy much easier and put pressure on the polite racist. Where as when you're dealing with the Klan, they might go quiet but there is no real change. I think what happened in Charlottesville is a good example of that.
Dr King could've been referring to affluent Long Island, which was historically "politely racist", an emblem of not in my backyard-ism. But, today it is much more culturally diverse than say Ashland Kentucky which still boasts klaverns today. It's also important to note that Long Island's Congressional representative Peter King is one of those polite not in my backyard politicians that Dr King spoke about.
34
@Don
It sounds like you're trying to compare the North and South as a way to say the North isn't *that* bad. This is one of the tactics frequently used to defend subtle racism.
As a White person who was raised among polite racists in New England and has also seen racism in the South (my sister lived in Atlanta for many years), I think people who defend the subtle racism of the North create as much of a barrier to progress as southern racists who use the n-word. Many black folks have said that the passive aggressive northern racism is actually worse than the southern, in-your-face variety - in the South, at least people know what to expect from someone who wears their views on their sleeve. (For example, see Milgaldo's response to Charlie, below)
I'm grateful to the people of Color who have educated me about racism, because they are the ones suffering from it, so they are the experts.
8
@Don I'm not sure how far being liberal gets us. LA is as liberal as NY, I assume, but by many measures-noticeably in policing-it's much worse. And there are Republican areas in the south where policing is less brutal than in LA.
1
I'm not so sure. When it comes to redlining, declining someone a job, or a place to live, a pen and/or a false smile can cause serious damage. At least the overt racist lets you know where they stand.
1
Dr. King might also acknowledge something I have seen change in my lifetime. I have seen many young people of color, increasingly getting college degrees, increasingly being employed, contributing, competing, and showing their white counterparts day in and day out, they are talented friends and business partners.
29
@Charlie yes, and some of these same people often discuss the daily microagressions they experience at the hands of their colleagues, among them, the good liberals spouting diversity and implicit bias initiatives while simultaneously doing unspeakable things too countless to name. And if you mentioned it, they’d need you/expect you to explain the same thing again and again. I now just shake my head. I’ve heard more people of color say this has gotten worse - and esp. since the 2016 Presidential election when some of these same do-goodies are as anxious as everyone else and need a new black friend to show their still down with whatever cause is presently in vogue - than it has ever been. Far more productive conversations can be had with some - not all - conservatives who are actually pretty clear about where they stand politically and can be polite at the same time. No silly fist bumps that hide darker (no pun intended) realities. I think the next generation will unveil the full possibilities of vague gains of the 20th century. Every time I see folks limping to the polls, I hold on to this hope. There’s been progress, but it’s not as tidy as one might think. It’s nastier than it’s been in years and the villains are not always obvious.
14
@Charlie yes, and some of these same people often discuss the daily microagressions they experience at the hands of their colleagues, among them, the good liberals spouting diversity and implicit bias initiatives while simultaneously doing unspeakable things too countless to name. And if you mentioned it, they’d need you/expect you to explain the same thing again and again. I now just shake my head. I’ve heard more people of color say this has gotten worse - and esp. since the 2016 Presidential election when some of these same do-gooders are as anxious as everyone else and need a new black friend to show they’re still down with whatever cause is presently in vogue - than it has ever been. Far more productive conversations can be had with some - not all - conservatives who are actually pretty clear about where they stand politically and can be polite at the same time. No silly fist bumps that hide darker (no pun intended) realities. I think the next generation will unveil the full possibilities of vague gains of the 20th century. Every time I see folks limping to the polls, I hold on to this hope. There’s been progress, but it’s not as tidy as one might think. It’s nastier than it’s been in years and the villains are not always obvious.
1
“liberalism,” a word, concept, value, mantra, process, outcome, etc., is many things not only to many people, but also to the same person. In a range of contexts. In each of our self-identities, those created by others placed-imposed-projected as temporary or more permanent labels.In each of our complacent-complicit behaviors. In our acts of commission as well as those of omission.It’s so much easier to talk about than to BE...within ongoing realities of interacting uncertainties, unpredictabilities, randomness, unexpected demands and outcomes of...From...The opportunities to BE come willfully blind to what IS are many. Everywhere. All of the time. The opportunities to be willfully deaf to harmful words and deeds that cause, or are associated with, existential pains -physical, psychological, spiritual, economic one’s, as well as others-experienced by those whom we know, as well as by strangers, continue to BE ongoing. And even if heard, may not be listened to as we choose to tune-out. The opportunities to BE willfully ignorant about the dimensions of types and ranges of issues and problem which are barriers to menschlich living as individuals, families, neighbors, friends, etc.,are many! As well as our continuing to mix up description, of what ever relevance, with explanations of what every accuracy and helpfulness. Facts with fictions and fantasies. Knowing with understanding.All of this potentially changeable if we choose to make needed differences which make a difference.
5
If we're to do anything to change the lives of African Americans it is to give them free skill training. Six to ten million skilled jobs are currently unfilled in America. Almost all of the jobs pay more than minimum wage and most provide benefits. Some of the companies that would hire these newly trained employees would also pay for additional education as well. Every additional dollar that someone earns in a standard work year is $1,700 more in their take home pay after taxes. Money equals power in our country and therefore addressing the wealth inequality issue in this manner is the quickest way to transfer peoples lives.
29
The power of the vote is among the greatest legacies of Dr. King. It is also the most important gift he left us. And regardless of the slow pace of or even the regressive actions of today's voting rights, the power of the vote has changed America.
But we are not done with this aspect of Dr. King's work. As Doug Jone's election to the Senate in 2017 for the state of Alabama showed us, there is power when African Americans vote.
I have to imagine that if Dr. King were present today, he would be urging his followers to vote, to register to vote, and if to motivate voter ID registration drives were now required.
Because unless Democrats take over both the White House and the Senate in 2020, injustice and inequality will surely continue to adversely affect not just the communities of minorities, but the communities of all people who suffer economic, civic and educational hardship.
21
I think in the North it is not so much a matter of race but social class. And that is the rub.
When we lived in a lovely neighborhood in Pittsburgh in the 70s there had been an unsaid but enforced pact to not sell to a Black family. There was a Black neighborhood not far away and when Black children were seen on our block the younger children would shout that the bike thieves were here and hide their bikes. That was based on experience.
Finally toward the end of our stay there a middle class Black family moved in and my son and the Black boy became friends.
In our smaller town there is a large medical center that now has Black physicians one of whom treats my wife and nothing is said. There is a fairly large Indian and Muslim physician community and few if any among the upper and middle class here objects.
But mixing children of any race who have come from poverty, broken homes, exposed to violence and without parents who care about education into a classroom of children of any race who come from the exact opposite backgrounds does a disservice to all of the children. And sure as night follows day parents who care about their child's education will move them to private more expensive schools where there is order in the classroom and corridors.
26
@Edward Blau: This is the logic that perpetuates injustice forever. Part of the point is that the "experience of bike thievery" you mention wasn't such a big deal. There are appropriate ways of dealing with misbehaving children, well known in privileged neighborhoods. But too many privileged white families will throw racism into the mix, Boston is a sad example. And so we see segregation and inequality living on, and little being done to solve the problems of poverty.
22
I was with you until you laid the blame on parents who don't care about their children's education. Poor folks care about educating their children and giving them a chance at a better life, but many of them work multiple jobs and long hours and just don't have the time and money to support their kids academically the way wealthy parents do. I absolutely agree though that public schools need to do more to address this gap between rich and poor students, through things like after school programs. And the way to accomplish THAT is to stop trying school funding to income or housing taxes.
6
@Edward Blau
I was a poor kid who grew up in an affluent community. At school, I experienced firsthand the class snobbery that your comment suggests. It didn't help me get the education I wanted and deserved; it implicitly interfered with my sense of belonging and engagement in the life of my schools. My parents didn't have much time available for PTA or committee meetings, and your suggestion that poor parents don't care about their kids' education cuts to the heart. Like most parents, regardless of means, they did the best they could to do the best for their kids. As I finished high school and chose a college to attend, I made sure it was far away from the narrow community I grew up in.
9
A student once stated to me, "your kids go to white schools" I replied "not necessarily". I work in a "black school" without a single white student; my own child, at that time, did go to a school with a mix of students. Most of my friends' kids did not, they went to "white schools" How can this inequity exist within such an affluent city as New York? Easily,
Redlining, which kept black families from taking out loans as early as the 1930's, prevented them from owning homes and businesses, forcing them into high poverty areas and high poverty schools.
The NYC DOE considers a school successful if its graduation rate is above around 70%.
Principals and teachers learn to lower the bar in high poverty schools, so they are perceived to be successful (pressure teachers to pass students, give special ed students additional "help" on regents exams).
Everyone can rest easy knowing that black and brown kids are graduating high school at a satisfactory level.
Kids graduating from school are not better off than when they started and do not have literacy and other skills they will need in the future.
Possible solutions?
Double the number of teachers in classrooms of Title I (High poverty) schools and/or decrease class size.
Provide reading classes (e.g. Wilson reading) to students who didn't learn when young.
Make schools less top heavy, fewer administrators = more teachers.
More career and technical education.
and finally,
Thank you Dr. King, I hope we can live your dream.
66
I agree with your points. How about using tax dollars to fund public schools in inverse proportion to to local tax base along with subsidization of teacher salaries to draw some of our best and brightest into these areas.
1
You wish these things weren’t true, however they are. Wat hung college admissions on H.S. Seniors. Listening to parents state how their child didn’t get into the elite school they desired, because they were white? It’s disappointing but just one of the many little ways this exists. We can all find more ways to be mindful.
7
He was entitled to his opinions, even if they were wrong.
"White moderates" is as racist as it gets, and the notion of reverse racism rarely comes up in discussions about Dr. King.
But it should.
I remember the south before the Civil Rights Act.
Things are A LOT BETTER.
It's never perfect, and perfection - while a worthy and lofty goal - is very difficult to define, much less achieve.
We've gone a long way here since the 60's, and while Dr. King's efforts and sacrifice are not to be slighted, his opinions still need to be taken in the context of the times and not of today.
16
This narrative is a problem because it has led to generations of white folks who think that the Civil Rights Movement successfully ended racism and that all modern efforts to achieve equality are just reverse racism.
2
@Objectivist
Your use of ‘racist’ is misinformed. Racism is prejudice plus power meaning our tax dollars should not support individuals who take their prejudicial beliefs to work resulting in state sponsored discrimination (redlining, racially restrictive real estate covenants or gratuitous cop killings) sanctioned by the courts. Confederate monuments on public lands or a US Mexico border wall are also good examples of racism.
1
@Objectivist
The objective evidence says that two mass murderers in the last few years own MAGA hats. The objective evidence is that right-wing terrorism kills more Americans than Muslims.
White Supremacist terrorists marching with torches, shouting "Jews will not replace us," then going on to beat up and run over protesters were called "Fine People," by the President.
There is video of half of the Charlottesville police Department standing around watching a bunch of heavily armed white supremacists beating a lone black counter protester in the parking lot acroiss the street from the police station and did nothing.
The objective evidence is that the President of the USA called these right-wing terrorists "Fine People."
The objective evidence is, now that phones have video cameras, when the police claim that they killed someone in self-defense, that many tines they are lying and actually murdered someone in cold blood, and covered it up.
Ohio is an open carry state. White Trump supporters with assault rifles were let passed the first checkpoint at the GOP Natl Convention there. In the same city, police took 3 seconds to murder 12 year old Tamir Rice for playing with a toy gun.
Yes things have improved since the 1960s but Trump is encouraging his base to go in reverse, and violent racists to come out of the shadows.
Etc., etc..
Right-wing terrorism is alive and well, even in the brass of many police departments, and the President of the USA and his party encourage it.
I live a mile outside DC in Arlington. When I bought a home 10 years ago, the Arlington Realtor said "We want to sell to a person like you. " And then he winked. I had no idea what he meant.
Now I live in a 99% white part of Arlington. If a black person walks down the street, some of my neighbors call 911 because it's suspicious to them....since the agents have made sure that there are no black people in our neighborhood (and we have an excellent school district).
We can't "enforce" diversity. But I wish we could compel real estate agents would do their part.
34
@Charle
Shelley v. Kraemer made this practice illegal. You might want to check out the Lorraine Hansberry play, “A Raisin in the Sun.” Berkeley is segregated today largely by economics and the legacy of racially restrictive covenants enforced by homeowners, banks and realtors.
6
@Charle I also lived in Arlington briefly, during the early 70's after we'd moved from New York City. Our house was two blocks south of Hall's Hill, a black neighborhood established on a former plantation after the civil war.
Here's what I remember:
It was a poor but well maintained neighborhood of working class families.
No whites ever passed though Hall's Hill. If need be, we'd go around it.
There was a very high fence around the boundary of Hall's Hill.
I don't remember anyone calling 911 when blacks came into the white parts, which was often.
I remember my father was concerned when four black men drove by early one morning. I saw them every morning at the same time, and had always just assumed they were carpooling to work. My father, who fancied himself a liberal, saw them as 'cruising'.
I see now that the fence is gone. It sounds from your description that other borders have been erected. I'm sorry to hear this.
@Charle
What your realtor did was illegal and should have been reported.
Trump’s election and the revelation that hate groups of all varieties are now as American as apple pie strongly suggest that in many ways things today are far worse than when MLK took center stage. The word “liberal” has become anathema in Democratic circles. Their focus is the middle class. When did we last hear a Democratic candidate for a major office include in his/her campaign platform an appeal to help the poor? I don’t recall Obama saying or doing much about black poverty or black literacy in out country.
If MLK was right that the arc of history is long but eventually bends towards justice, we’re still waiting for that turn.
19
Not accurate re Obama.
He explicitly said: African-Americans are disproportionately poor, so if by reducing poverty, African-Americans will be helped. The Affordable Care Act was a huge vehicle. Then he had a Republic Congress, and was hamstrung.
I do believe there was considerably more he could have done, in seeking new ideas, seeding pilot projects, etc.
I'm hoping Kamala Harris will lead the way.
2
@Linda
You need to check out the recent Times article re Kamala Harris' "liberalism".
I spent more than 30 years in "Bombingham", as it was referred to during the Civil Rights Movement. I was deeply ashamed of its violent history and at the same time heartened by the progress made in racial relations as time went by. As a college student at the University of Alabama in the early '70s, I attempted to erase all traces of my North Alabama twang. Being among students from outside The South led me to do this. I wanted to belong to a population where racism was all but erased. As the years passed and I read more about racial relations north of the Mason-Dixon line, I experienced a moment of epiphany. All was not "peace and love" outside the Deep South. While pointing out the overt racism in Alabama and Mississippi, our Northern brothers and sisters were subtly discriminating against people of color in ways just as destructive. Racism has no geographical boundaries. As Pogo once remarked, "we have met the enemy and he is us."
64
@JaneM But, at this point in our history Southern whites are voting overwhelmingly for Trump and Republicans. And in so doing the country takes two steps backwards and much of the progress we've made is erased. Coastal liberals, on the other hand, are fighting Trump and his regressive policies. Let's not get to carried away with this analysis and indulge in false equivalency.
1
@JaneM. Yes, there is certainly racism in the North, but to compare it to the racism in the deep south is utterly ridiculous.
1
Well written article.
Over here in Paris, it’s the same.
Every white person here believes there is no racism, but there are no non-white people in their social-sphere, job environment or neighborhood to disagree.
I have to say that when living in NYC for 18-years I had plenty of non-white friends and colleagues, but I have the impression that the past 15-years things have gotten worse.
Education is the only thing that works. One person (black and white) at a time.
32
@Rony Weissman
I beg to disagree.
Most french people would say that "racism" do exist in France (though it would be more accurately described as xenophobia).
So if indeed "every white person" you met in France told you otherwise, my guess would be that you were confined to a very narrow segment of French society, and most probably the very wealthy elite of the most affluent district of Paris....
1
Bonjour,
I lived next to Givors for 15-years.
I won’t try and guess where you are coming from because it’s bad manners.
The issue with disruption is it works if there are minds to be changed. The world of today with massive wealth inequality, spyware and data mining is a far more tricky foe than the blatant one King faced. Also. Liberals, being merely human, may be imperfect but they are useful allies. And the Trump era shows that there are genuine divisions now, and another side that is not going to be persuaded by disruption but might I fear disrupt back. That side mocks liberals even if they are moderate. If it all burns down, then the prize is worthless. And if it burns down I fear the cost will hurt most those we want to help. So while I appreciate the sentiment that liberals are just never quite liberal enough I think change going forward will rely on knowing who your friends are and not turning them off with sanctimony and too high a standard of judgement. Because in truth, practically speaking, the numbers will continue to matter and because we are so clearly split in this country we need to on occasion encourage continued support. I see the split in the Women’s March and the inability to respect anti-semitism as not okay as indicative of how fiends can be lost when needed the most.
21
@ygj
The right-wing never stopped "disrupting" with actual terrorism.
A "hate crime," is an act of political violence. Political violence is terrorism by definition. Liberals that call domestic terrorism "hate crimes" are helping the right-wing terrorize communities. Shooting up a black church, Synagogue, or gay club is terrorism because it is meant to terrorize people in those communities.
When white supremacists protest, walking around with assault rifles, a minimal police presence seeks to protect them from counter-protesters. When unarmed Black Lives Matter protest, armies of police show up with armored vehicles, and sometimes shoot them with rubber bullets.
When the Tea Party disrupted Democratic Town Halls in 2011, often pushing and shoving inside the meetings, the media treated them as patriotic citizens, and gave them dozens of hours of positive coverage every day.
When Native American Water Protectors peacefully protested against a pipeline that threatened their water supply protested, the private guards that attacked them with biting dogs on video were not prosecuted, but "liberal" Obama's Homeland Security coordinated other state police forces coming with armored vehicles, to shoot rubber bullets at them (including shooting the cameras of journalists), wounding many, and shot them with a water cannon in sub-freezing weather.
Right-wing terror is far more disruptive than yelling at Sarah H Sanders in a restaurant.
Its not both sides. Its right-wing terror.
2
@McGloin
Yeah. I make a point of saying "Terrorism" when I'm talking about the KKK and any white nationalism/ white power movements that use violent or coercive tactics. The way the Black Lives Matter movement's peaceful and necessary protests and messaging has been treated and talked about is an abomination against goodness and justice.
1
I grew up on South Philadelphia in the 1950s. There definitely was hidden racism there. For example it was not until 1955 that any local teams I played on or against had an African-American player--This was in 1955. Before that Jackie Robinson was not welcome when he came with the Dodgers to play against Ben Chapman's Phillies. So the racism was more subtle in the north than in the south as Dr. King noted. One more very important example occurred in 1962 when I was a 4th grade school teacher in a public school not far from where I grew up. The 43 children I had in the class were all minority students while the catholic church school across the street had very few minority students.
8
@Anthony Fasolo. At that time (I grew up in the Bronx) there were very few blacks who were Catholic; parochial schools were well-funded and full, and our local community was all white. It was not until the Irish, Italian, etc. population declined and people of color became more common in the Catholic community that parochial schools began to show a more diverse population. That included a lot of immigrants in the 60s with Hispanic/Latin heritage who were often also mixed race or ethnicity and more significantly...were Catholic. I grew up in that era and became a teacher myself as a second career here in Miami. My public school students for 25 years were a glorious mix while my own school and high school alumni photos now show virtually no white non-Hispanic students. Traditionally Anglo-Saxons outnumbered others in the 50s and 60s in NY and here...that is no longer the case...7% of the Miami Fl school population is white non-Hispanic today; about 70% are hispanics who are mixed race or white; the remainder are largely African-American and a small number of “others”. Note that today many East Indian and Middle Easterners define themselves as white while others do not, and so even those data are suspect. And I doubt you would find many non-whites in Jewish parochial schools or any mainline ($) private schools.
5
Whether it is White or Black, it is very hard to break the cycle of poverty. King dealt primarily with legal obstacles to racial justice and then moved on to social-economic issues that extend beyond race. But he was never on the front lines with the social worker or teacher who tries to break the cycle of poverty. I can't remember the social worker's name, but she worked for years in the Cabrini-Green housing project in Chicago trying to get people out of poverty (she received substantial grants and authored numerous publications). She had some successes but many more failures. She said it would take 5 years or longer of intense individual work to bring a family out of poverty and then there was no guarantee of success. However, she never suggested giving up. She just said there was no magic bullet. Discriminatory housing, policing, and schooling is wrong and should not be tolerated. But moving people White or Black out of drug addiction, ignorance, violence, and poverty is no easy task.
Some humility and appreciation should be given to those on the front lines who try to do so. Hopefully, they won't be wrongly moved into the category of misguided or hypocritical "white moderates." The attitudes and behaviors of the people they work with are very difficult to change regardless of the root causes.
83
@Cheryl Swanson
White suburban liberals would like to deny the truth of what you point out. It’s easier to base their ideas on broadly demonizing the views of unsympathetic fellow citizens, virtue-signaling their own views, and leaving it at that.
I am tired of it being called northern liberalism. It is northern moderates that you are talking about. Liberals support all that Dr. King stood for, but they are only a slice of the total electorate and have limited political power. Why can't we change the language and put the blame where it belongs on moderates and conservatives.
23
@Typical Ohio Liberal
Use the correct labels & put blame where it belongs. Excellent idea!
In fact, every US citizen should have to register their political & social philosophy, and then, based on their positions, we can methodically assign blame for everything wrong in this world, to anyone not sufficiently ‘progressive’.
Because that is what’s most important today—-assigning blame & demonizing others w/differing opinions.
And that, in the current liberal imagination, is what Martin Luther King was all about, right?
The man would probably be horrified.
8
If you can vote for justice, vote for justice. if you can march, march. If you can give, give. If you can sing, sing. If you will speak, speak. Even if you will only pray, then pray for compassion and justice. If we only accept those who will do all of these things, we will be the truly blessed - but we will lose.
18
@Lon Newman
The Founding Fathers, Gabriel Prosser, Cinque, Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, John Brown, Abraham Lincoln , Huey Newton and Malcolm X had another option.
We bus students into are school district in the Bronx and they bring guns and gang mentality into our school. Unfortunately, it is a few students and it ruins the reputation of the other lower income students who are there for a better education. This puts stress on our children that is not necessary nor should be tolerated in a learning environment. Do to our PC culture it has to be tolerated but can only last so long. We share a different reality with our counterparts and this is unfortunate. The parents are not teaching children the basic of respect nor does the generation understand resect. I understand their is a feeling of “believing” you our inferior to another socio economic/ racial group and vice versa, however we need to move beyond this and be grateful to be living in the greatest country in the world. God bless America!
17
The greatest country on Earth provides health care for all of it's citizens.
1
@Daniel
The US has the ideals to become the greatest country in the world, but it needs some humility regarding the reality of its deficiencies.
The US was founded with the genocide of the indigenous Americans, built by slaves and its admiration for violence as lived in the "wild west" left a problematic foundation for a country despite its noble intentions.
The US has the most guns per capita of any country.
It has the most people in prison per capita.
Agreed, it has the most bling per capita, and the most garbage.
I do not know if the US has the soul to be different.
If I were young I would emigrate.
It is indeed noble and virtuous to focus on human rights abuses. May I remind you that when a person is killed, he loses all his human rights? Every day 95 Americans are killed by bullets. The American military has killed sixteen million people since the end of the Second World War.
19
Where in the world did you get the figure of 16 million? Unless you have a solid source, greatly inflated numbers invalidate your point.
3
Wherever, whenever, however it occurs, Complacency+Complicity=Hypocrisy. Until it's not. Unfortunately, we're not there yet.
9
@Eyes Wide Open Thx. for your prompt/thoughtful response. Perhaps we're both equally concerned about the 'limited' form of government instead of the all pervasive type. Regardless, the concern is genuine.
2
There is no north or south or liberals, there are only people and any attempt to put people into an identifiable group is racism . I have neighbors the same race as me who are poor and sometimes abused. While I want a better world there is only so much that I am willing or able to do. The complaints in this article about liberals could be made about well of black people or anyone else. Any gains in human rights and well being have never been because of one person or group but because enough people desire change and are willing to support change. Consider that all ethnicities in America believed that women were inferior to men and subordinate but eventually enough men accepted that women should be treated better to make some change. Some women may have pushed for change but it still needed broad support.
8
@tom Hickie Boy, you can tell you're writing from outside the US! Identity politics and tribalism have displaced baseball as our American pastime. Everybody vs. everybody for every reason.
3
But back then there were no African American athletes earning tens of millions of dollars a year to pump into their communities. Now there are dozens if not hundreds who have earned that much. Civil rights leaders should be encouraging them to put their money where there knees are. This is the United States of America, if you want something, you buy it.
17
@Richard Mclaughlin
Do we expect wealthy whites to “pump money into their community”?
Education based on real estate values make sure poor areas stay poor and Devos changes make things worse.
Kneeling peacefully to protest is a legitimate, only a big deal because of Trump. No one complained when white players prayed.
You can’t buy your way out of systemic racism.
There are many commentators who advocate eliminating zoning laws, as a solution to eliminating segregated schools.
Zoning laws may be used as disguised racism, but they also serve useful purposes.
Suppose there are no zoning laws in a city. That would mean a foundry could set up shop smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Or, perhaps (?) less drastic, a number of high rises (commercial or residential) could be erected, which would have disastrous consequences for traffic.
Zoning laws protect neighborhoods, which are a valuable feature of human life everywhere.
20
@frugalfish Houston Texas has very little zoning and it still has rich and poor neighborhoods. Or look at the developing world where there is no zoning so the shanties are right next to the palaces. To get rid of segregated schools, get rid of school districts entirely and have the state run schools directly or through the counties.
8
Great article. Taught me some things About Dr. King I never knew, but wholly agree with having grown up in the South in the 60s and 70s and then having lived in the North. Racism in the South was in your face, but the races often had day-to-day interactions. In the North, racism was more hidden and I would argue, more pervasive, and the races rarely had contact with each other. Few people realize it, but the largest mass lynching of African-Americans occurred during the Civil War draft riots in New York City, a metropolis named after one of the richest slave-traders of his time, Jame II, better known as the Duke of York.
30
In 1982, my last year in the College of the University of Chicago (majoring in political science) and as a life-long liberal, I had the chance to put beliefs into action by working on the mayoral campaign of Harold Washington, the first candidate in Chicago to ever have the real interests of the African American population of the city truly at heart. Many were the people that I knew who allowed as how in their opinion that Chicago wasn't "ready” yet for a black mayor. (All I could think was, “If not now, when?”) As disappointing as this was to hear generally, it was truly depressing as I canvassed the homes in Chicago's 5th Ward, historically known as “Lakefront Liberals” as compared with the rest of the reliably racist city. Funny how, when these well to do liberals finally had a chance to vote for a black Democrat, they expressed a sudden ambivalence as to their support for Mr. Washington, the Democratic nominee. As far as I'm concerned, this is a perfect example of the difference between Establishment Democrats and true progressives. Some things never change. Happy Martin Luther King Day.
35
@Greg Gerner
I agree. I grew up in Oak Lawn, Illinois, a mostly Irish, German, Polish, Italian working class neighborhood, all white. We moved from Beverly when the Dan Ryan Expressway was put in in 1962-63. Every one, adults, talked about the dividing line the expressway was going to create, between "us" and "them". Passing the not so hidden racism on to another generation.
RACISM IS TAUGHT! WE ARE NO BORN RACIST! Supposed Liberals.
Old ways take generations to change, and only with effort and action. Today, I live in South Carolina , work with and live with and in a diverse, sort of , culture. We are all careful and polite and respectful of each other. And welcoming. It just takes one person being human and thoughtful to another.
Acting on good will is essential, even if inconvenien.
3
@Greg Gerner
Perhaps people didn't vote for Mr Washington because they didn't like his politics. Or are you suggesting they should have voted based solely on his race? Obama won because he was a good candidate. I hope he didn't win just because he's black.
I am no economist but I’m sure the if the “2.4 trillion” that was supposedly spent on Afghanistan was distributed in a single check evenly among every descendant of a slave living in the USA(including those incarcerated ) over the same 18 year period that would have helped our economy way more than it did being spent to keep us safe from the taliban and al qaeda.
Or maybe not, I dunno. But, it would have been a nicer way to spend it anyway.
36
It's a shame that a divisive President is in the White House, and the Politicians are still doing nothing about today's issues that also were around when MLK Jr. was alive.
14
Awesome, powerful, AND TRUE assessment regarding issues of racism in our 21st century, in the south and in the north!!
16
Another article saying that the black community can't solve its problems without help from the white community. What a discouraging message. I hope it is not true because white people are just people, too. They are not saints who are going to put someone else's interests above their own; they are ordinary people who have their own problems.
51
@CJN------------Wait a minute; that's dangerous thinking. It's dangerous thinking to suggest that a person who puts someone else's interests above their own is a saint. That is a distortion of truth.
Think about soldiers, for instance. Take an example with WW2. My father volunteered to fight in Germany. He didn't have to do it because he was over age. My uncle did the same at even more danger to himself because he was a Jew. Why did they do it? They saw something abominable happening. They wanted to help stop it.
Neither was a saint. Nope, they just were decent men, ordinary people who had their own problems.
8
This article does not say the African American community cannot solve its problems without the help of the white community. It says that pervasive, de jure, and disguised, de facto, racism continue to be obstacles in the self-realization of Americans who happen to be African American. It is time for all to understand this. We are children of the same land. Our children, those of the oppressed and those of inadvertent oppressors deserve better. This is not US vs. THEM. This is US for US. Cleaning house, working for true justice. We are not there yet. We have to work for it.
9
@CJN ..."saying that the black community can't solve its problems without help from the white community"...
White racism in America is not a problem in the black community, it's a problem in the white community. Every time you don't strongly rebuke that guy who makes the racist remark at the office party because you don't want things to be uncomfortable, you have perpetuated the race problem. As a good northern liberal it took me a long time to recognize the extent to which I am a part of the problem, but the first step is to stop blaming the black community for white racism.
1
We're not going anywhere unfortunately until people who actively support racism are removed from leadership. This country seems be on a fast rewind and right now. We only have one brake in the system working while the other side has the gas pedal all the way to the floor and people outside pushing the vehicle and cheering for it to destroy the brake holding it back.
9
Thank you Martin Luther King for your prophetic voice, one that even today contains more truth than we are used to hearing or want to hear.
16
Ms. Theoharis should be aware that NYC had democratic mayors from the 40's to Rudy in 1994. Instead of saying liberals shouldn't it be democrats who may or may not have been liberal (Lindsay was Rep. then became dem).
7
In South Africa, I learned the phrase 'umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu': roughly, 'a person can only be a
person through others'; 'I am because you are'.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu puts it this way:
“It speaks of the very essence of being human. When we want to give high praise to someone we say, Yu, u nobuntu; hey, so-and-so has Ubuntu. Then you are generous, you are hospitable, and you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.
We belong in a bundle of life. We say a person is a person through other persons. It is not 'I think therefore I am'. It says rather: I am human because I belong, I participate, and I share. A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are.”
28
The extreme racial segregation in NY city schools is likely based upon economic segregation (the "real" divide), the same problem that plagues our entire nation. But, why are there two classes of public schools? Why are some schools well equipped with facilities and supplies in economically wealthy neighborhoods and woefully under equipped in poor neighborhoods. At least if the education were equitable the opportunities to achieve would be more equitable. Isn't that the obligation of government. Equal opportunity for all.
34
“If our direct action programs alienate so-called friends,” he wrote to in a letter to civil rights leaders, “they never were really our friends.”
Makes me think of Colin Kaepernick. Not only did he call attention to police brutality, he outed team owner's gross hypocrisy.
38
@Courtney E.
Malcolm X used the metaphor of a bloody jawed hostile wolf and a sly seemingly friendly fox. Both members of the canine aka dog family. Neither of whom were true black allies. Malcolm preferred the clear enmity of the wolf over the deceptive duplicitous hypocrisy of the fox.
Neither the condescending paternalistic pity of white liberals nor the condescending paternalistic contempt of white conservatives accept the unique diverse human equality of blacks in America.
You are right of course, when order in an institutionalized racism won't allow justice any daylight. Slavery was instituted when this country was born, shamelessly imposed for some 250 years; but even after emancipation via the Civil War, segregation never truly disappeared, witness the inequality and separation in housing, education, health and jobs, even incarceration, we still witness today.
11
The latest, most disgusting example is in Chicago, where Laquan McDonald was murdered by a cop in 2014. The police department lied about the shooting and the mainstream media didn't ask questions. The white mayor, a so-called liberal Democrat, tried hiding the evidence by reaching a $5 million settlement with the family that included a provision that the video be kept secret. The white state attorney general, another so-called liberal Democrat, despite being asked to help, did nothing to force disclosure of the video. Neither was seriously condemned by anyone, including black elected officials who put their political fortunes ahead of doing the right thing: No one, black or white, on the city council said squat about the settlement, never asked "Why are we spending $5 million" and instead voted to pay the money without seeing the video or demanding its release.
The only reason the truth emerged, the only reason a cop got charged and convicted, was because two or three independent journalists outside the power structure asked obvious questions and sued to get the video rather than trust a political establishment that had reelection as its main mission. Nothing has changed. The same elected cowards who countenanced and enabled this mostly are still in office. The mayor didn't run for reelection, but he's still a welcome guest on David Axelrod's CNN show, and the AG, who also didn't seek reelection, also is hardly a pariah.
The Establishment is a powerful thing.
19
@August West
I was born and bred black and poor on the almighty South Side of Chicago. I am a product of the Chicago public schools K-12.
The two worst and the two best cops of my youth were all and only black. As was my streetwise powerful gangster godfather to whom I looked and turned to for justice.
There is a danger in taking words Dr. King wrote 56 years ago and applying them, with new labels, to the circumstances of the present. It can sew misunderstanding between black and white progressives who must be allies in the struggle for social justice.
The words Dr. King wrote from the Birmingham jail were directed to “moderates” who expressed sympathy with his cause but argued that his methods were too provocative or ill-timed. It is not accurate to equate those Alabama moderates of the 1960s with urban liberals of 2018. For example, a 2017 Pew poll showed that 94% of liberals supported the Black Lives Matter movement and 65% strongly supported it.
In his famous letter, Dr. King also wrote: “I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too small in quantity but they are big in quality….”
While few of us can measure up to the courage and commitment of those white heroes of the civil rights movement King was referring to, I think that were he alive today he would appreciate that whites who have “grasped the meaning of this social revolution” have grown in quantity. And though he surely would have continued to goad the consciences of his white liberal allies, his views would have evolved as liberalism has evolved, and I'm confident he wouldn't have confused his allies with his enemies.
17
Dr. King recognized that the poor white and the poor black were in the same economic position and wanted a guaranteed annual income to eliminate all poverty.
After LBJ, the Democratic Party became an enemy of the poor as shown in the Clintons" elimination of FDR's Aid for Families With Dependent Children and institution of mass incarceration of the black community.
Today's liberal renaissance has much work ahead since American social policies are by far the weakest among wealthy democracies and poverty the highest.
9
The most glaring confirmation of Dr. King’s criticism of the North’s resistance to black advancement was put on full display at Chicago in 1966. The city’s mayor, Richard J. Daley, long the godfather of segregated neighborhoods and schools and military-style policing in Chicago, told Dr. King that he did not want him to come to the city to disrupt its way of life and shine a spotlight on the ugliness of his town.
Dr. King was struck in the head with a stone as he marched with his demonstrators to protest segregated housing. Daley was unrepentant but he was not alone among big city mayors who professed something like solidarity with their black communities but never made the genuine leap to something like determined advocacy to leadership when it was so badly needed.
Malcom X once famously said, “if you’re south of the Canadian border, you’re south.” The North ran—not danced—away from equality for blacks, and Dr. King’s complaints rang true 50 years ago and rings true in many Northern cities today. We all know who they are.
13
Money solves not simply the immoral disparity between rich neighborhood schools and their poor neighborhood counterparts, it can and should be used to ameliorate racial injustices that have plagued the country since Europeans set foot in N. America. Where will such huge sums to be found? Simple: begin dismantling the obscene 700 trillion budget headed for the Dept. of Defense annually. Nearly all the problems besetting all Americans save the investor class can be traced to that immoral taking of the people's tax monies. Americans are made to pay their government. Their money does nothing to ensure and enhance their right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
6
In like fashion, it is the ostentatiously tolerant religious moderate that empowers the suicide bombing theological radical. It is the middling trusting patriot who creates the Abu Graib. Only radicals creat
Mediocrity cannot lead, but it can & does overwhelm. The most available evidence is social media, where huge numbers of the fatter part of the IQ, education, and thoughtfulness Bell curves drown out the far fewer wise & able, while providing cover for the vile. We make our mediocrity bed, we are doomed to lie in it.
"Inertia in the scales of history weighs more heavily than change." - Barbara Tuchman
5
We forget that Union troops were nearly in a state of rebellion over the Emancipation Proclamation, because they insisted they had not fought the war to free the slaves.
Many people think that somehow contradicts the belief that the cause of the war was slavery. The cause of the war was indeed slavery -- absolutely not emancipation.
The quest to whitewash the North's racism is a form of political correctness that has always been with us.
13
@Sequel "The cause of the war was indeed slavery -- absolutely not emancipation."
If the war was to end slavery then what, if not emancipation, was to follow? Are you saying it was to reunite the country and allow the practice of slavery to continue as before?
@Sequel "...because they insisted they had not fought the war to free the slaves."
And it doesn't really matter what the troops thought what they were fighting for (if the story is true), it's Congress and the President who decides what they are fighting for.
4
@Marie The war wasn't to end slavery. It was about slavery, and Lincoln himself would have ended it without an end to slavery.
History's hard to take sometimes ... that's why it gets changed by so many people.
4
@Marie
Actually, Sequel is absolutely right.
The war was prosecuted by the North to force the secessionist states back into the Union, nothing more, nothing less.
A full year into the civil war (Aug.1862) Lincoln wrote :
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.
It's only later on, and with extreme caution that Lincoln set in motion the very delicate political manoeuvering that would lead to the proclamation of emancipation
On this very subject, you can watch "Lincoln" the great movie featuring Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones (and many others excellents actors and actresses).
4
There is one word to describe all this: zoning. Modern zoning laws cause much of the segregation in the North. Segregation in the north will remain until zoning laws are eliminated. The modern Northern liberal loves zoning laws. The modern Northern liberal will use all sorts of justification for zoning laws, laws whose sole purpose and original sin was to keep blacks out of white neighborhoods. They are still serving that purpose.
6
@s K I'm pretty sure there are no zoning laws on the books today that exclude anyone on the basis of race; I would challenge you to point to one. Beyond that, what if homeowners LIKE zoning laws? Do homeowners have any rights?
8
@me
Good question. Zoning here is nonexistant.
I’m from Seattle.
Brilliant man. He really knew what was and still is true.
5
This should be required reading for every liberal who posts a polite King quote on Facebook
11
@Jeff Bergstrom YES!
What about the ones in these quotes though?
I was born and raised in the segregated South of 50s-60s Florida. I was thirteen when my family moved from Central Florida to the Fort Lauderdale area, which, to people in Central Florida at the time, was "New York South."
Prior to the move, I lived with real segregation--separate bathrooms, water fountains, etc. After the move, all of those outward signs of segregation were gone. That's when I learned about Northern racism!
All of these years later, I have figured out that, on average, it takes four beers and then you will learn a transplanted New Yorker's (and other Northerners) actual feelings about race. The venom that is spewed is astonishing and has forced me to violate my cultural heritage and upbringing. Dropping any pretense of being polite, I have had to tell more than one to shut up or leave our home. This has, unfortunately, included members of my Yankee wife's family.
I make no claim that Southern white people are better than Northern white people. I simply wish to acknowledge the truth, fifty years later, of Dr. King's observations.
Because I still live in "New York South," I have many friends among the Northern immigrants, as well as people literally from 'round the world. My immediate neighbors are American black men, an African black doctor and his family, a Chilean architect/builder, another middle-aged white guy, and a Colombian family. It's a great, upscale neighborhood and I am glad to be here. I just never serve anyone more than three beers!
14
No thanks. This white moderate liberal prefers to let the system rather than the anarchists do the work. Great strides have been made. More big steps are needed. But violence and disruption when you have long term momentum threatens further success.
13
Violence is never the answer, however, civil disobedience works. Disruption works. If things continue to go along without any discomfort to "whites" they always opt for the system to "correct itself". They will engage in polite dialogue and much hand-wringing but nothing changes. Not quite the same, I am aware, but if the "esssntial" government workers, TSA comes to mind refused to work...that disruption would bring swift action and I daresay relief. Everyone agrees that the shut down is terrible and they feel awful that people are not being paid, But. That's it. However, shut down airports and inconvenience/disrupt many people's lives and the hand-wringing stops and action results.
10
Numerous worthwhile points in this article critical of Northern liberalism. However, Dr. King may have thought a bit differently if he were alive today, especially with the current political climate. Maybe he'd see the the 'white moderate' in a better light compared to the KKK or 'white supremacy' so prevalent nowadays.The times have changed since 1963 in a myriad of ways. I'd still use the unique, uplifting 'Letter From Birmingham Jail" were I still teaching my Humanities course today. Its beauty shows forth throughout and serves as an important antidote to the discord so widespread in our culture at the present time.
4
Contrary to what the author says in the last paragraph, Constitutionally-based order is more important than justice, because without order there will be no justice. Without order, we’ll just wind up with a different lion running the pride and the oppressed will again find themselves the victims of injustice. We can, and must, have both.
What we’re really debating is the pace of justice—Upheaval vs. gradual. Our Constitutional system is built for the latter, thankfully, and while the pace is not fast enough for some, change has come. One only needs look to the failure of the so-called Arab Spring to see what happens when upheaval-based change is attempted. Is Egypt, Syria, Iraq or Libya now overflowing with “justice” after their upheavals? Or are they even worse than before?
The only thing that separates us from the rest is our respect for our Constitution. Without that, we are no different than Russia or China. Trump would love to be a despot for life like Putin; only the Constitution and the will of good people to stand up for it stops him. So let’s not throw out order out the window in search of immediate, metaphysical justice. We will have both in time, as dictated by the voting booth and the will of the People.
21
@Jack Sonville Libya has no order not due to the Arab Spring, but because the US unconstitutionally forced regime change.
1
@Susan R Libya was run by a despotic terrorist, Quadaffi. Don't see any constitutional issues with what we did with him. Do agree that from a policy perspective, we blew it. Like in Iraq, removing a despot and simply expecting democracy to grow and blossom like a flower once he was gone was naive and incompetent. Can thank Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bolton for Iraq. Can thank Obama and Hillary for Libya.
@Jack Sonville
Nonsense.
Both humanity personhood denying black African enslavement and equality defying separate and unequal black African Jim Crow in America were lawful and legal.
Law is neither fair nor just nor moral nor objective. The Founding Fathers used violence against much less oppression than that faced by black people in America. Lincoln did not negotiate with the rebel traitors.
Northern school systems have never been segregated, not even in the days of Jim Crow.
3
@Jonathan Katz
Have you been to the Chicago schools? Communities are segregated and because of that the schools are segregated.
5
@Jonathan Katz They sure were when I was growing up in northern New Jersey in the 50s and 60s. And white flight was just as common there as it was anywhere else in the country. It just was never spoken about much like it is in the south. MLK knew exactly what he was talking about.
6
@Fred
I grew up in the same area at the same time, and saw the same pattern you did. Segregation wasn't formal, but it was real.
2
I was interested, if not too surprised to see that the NYT had basically supported the status quo in King's time. I agree that NIMBY racism continues to plague improvements in civil rights. I'm not a moderate liberal, I firmly believe the government should be paying reparations for slavery and the generations of wealth stolen from the black community. We've seen great strides in my lifetime in regard to civil rights, but we still have a long way to go.
3
During the 1960's in New York City , fear of public reaction to published materials considered unfavorable to those in power had little to no circulation because openly publishing the ugly truth could've led to reciprocity from exposing the hypocrisy. They discouraged social uprising and mobilization; since self-complacency was no longer an option, people began mobilizing instead of complaining. Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear. By fear I mean being afraid to continually put in the work needed without expectation and discounting delayed rewards. During moments of pessimism I asks myself, "why write content that takes time to read and understand? Despite knowing most people don’t like to read" When confronted with low-hanging fruit in the Tree of Life, most people cannot resist plucking it. To put it another way, If offered $50 today or $100 in a year, most people take the money and run, even though it's against their best interests. Our decisions... are guided by the perceived values at the moment of the decision - not by the potential final value. This is why aside from appropriate times of leisure, so many of us are distracted by less productive activities than self reflection, retraining, reading for intellectual growth (enlightenment). Today, I wish we all had the ability to take an honest look at our own life and race without attachment to it being right or wrong to help us avoid rationalizing flawed approaches of communicating and lack of transparency.
3
If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, I don’t think that he would be aligned with the moderate liberals (e.g., Hillary Clinton), but I don’t think that he would be aligned with the SJW’s either. I think that he would be aligned with the Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing of the left. I say this not because I prefer that wing of the left and would like to imagine that someone as revered as King would prefer it too, but because everything that King said and did, especially toward the end of his life, was utterly consistent, in style and substance, with the social-democratic movement that Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez represent. Indeed, after the major victories of the civil-rights movement had been won, King didn’t become a crusader against hate speech and microagressions; he became a fierce critic of the Vietnam War and a Sanders-style advocate of progressive economic policies, which he believed, rightly, would have a disproportionately positive impact on the black community.
He would have supported “taking uncomfortable, disruptive, far-reaching action to remedy the problems” facing American society, alright, but I don’t think that means what many of the people who lionize him today would like to think it means.
43
@Ashley. MLK was both a visionary and a pragmatist. That is what makes him a historical figure. Bernie Sanders and AOC have no real understanding of how to finance their trillion dollar programs nor to shepherd political support for them. (In fairness to AOC, she is very young).
I think Beto is the most inspirational politician of the day. He is the only one who seems to be able to bring a notion of hope and unity to the current moment. But, I guess we'll see if he's for real.
1
AOC is a freshman and I look forward to her entry to the Senate. In contrast, Bernie Sanders has been in the Senate for a long time and until 2015 had not introduced any progressive measures; the grouping of these 2 folks together is common but unfortunate as Sanders is a phony.
2
@Ashley I think King would have been very critical of Bernie’s support for war and segregated staff.
1
Activism for justice, equality and freedom is needed now as much as at any other time. Dr. Theoharis is timely in highlighting the disconnect on the part of many whites, and others, between self-perception as non-biased and those same persons' fear of disorder. Non-violent activism is itself disruptive and disorderly by nature. We each have the decision to make regarding our activism, or our passivity.
IMO non-violent activism is one authentic way to both honor the memory of Dr. King and to carry his love forward, to manifest how we learned from him and have been inspired by his commitment, struggle and ultimate sacrifice to the goals of justice, equality and freedom through non-violent activism.
May we each take steps this Martin Luther King Day to get beyond thinking and talking, and "walk the talk". As Dr. Theoharis alludes, which I'll re-frame in the words of Stokely Carmichael, "If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem". Let's increase our activism in favor of the next solutions to injustice, inequality and oppression, even if it does appear somewhat disorderly or inconvenient at times.
5
An expectation of fair and equal treatment by government and the courts is an absolute right but the demand that education, housing and opportunity be available to all and that life should involve a level playing field fails to acknowledge that we each differ greatly in our motivation, intelligence, perseverance, aptitude, strength, bravery, personality and pedigree. I grew up in a low income neighborhood in Queens in the 60’s and 70’s and hold a public school diploma. To suggest that I should have had the same education and experience and opportunities as those growing up in high tax school districts on Long Island is absurd and sickeningly entitled. My “options” were which branch of the armed forces to enlist in because both my parents had dropped out to help support their large families, as their parents had before them. Life isn’t fair and is certainly is not the duty of government to make it less so.
5
“Life” isn’t fair. But I disagree with your last thought. One of government’s roles needs to be helping to achieve a better balance. Why is school funding so local? What’s the problem with supporting well-paid, competent teachers in all public schools, regardless of neighborhood? Modern or well maintained physical plants? Along with all other sorts of enrichment, for every student, such as up to date labs and libraries, sports programs, music and art classes. Why are such things dependent on local financing. Every student deserves the best start. We are all in this together.
8
@JRVHS
Someone who pays $350,000 for a home and $3,000/yr in taxes cannot expect the same lifestyle, education, facilities, environment or opportunities as someone who spends $850,000 with $18,000 taxes. Otherwise, what’s the point of success, and the the resultant benefits?
3
James Baldwin once expressed a similar view, essentially saying that it was easier to deal with an unapologetic Southern racist than an oblivious Upper East Side socialite of the kind who might ask him, "Why don't you people just get jobs?"
30
Dr. King's analyses of both the white northern liberal and the white racist hold true to this day. The centrist forces in the Democratic party continue in their persistent push toward a middle that long ceased to exist, even as it is self-evident that the right has not only fallen off the deep ideological end, but that our republic has become an autocratic oligarchy. There no longer is the pretense of keeping up a democracy.
If not corporatism, what other reason is there i continuing to call for bipartisanship? In a situation in which the party in power is throwing its weight to protect a president who not only is suspected to have colluded with a foreign competing power in order to win an election but, by all appearances, appears to be beholden to a foreign head of state and his intelligence apparatus.
Then functions that have never been disputed as purely the government's purview, are being parceled out to oligarchs. Specifically, Erik Prince, Betsy DeVos' brother, is about to be handed Syria and Afghanistan for his company, Blackwater, according to a report in Ha'aretz on 1/18.
We are living the second coming of Jim Crow, with Trump's ICE police state, migrant camps, resurgence of the carceral state, and civilians who call police to report normal behaviors as threats.
Any deals Democrats make with an immoral party and head of state compromise the soul of a nation even further.
Say no!
---
Things Trump Did While You Weren’t Looking [2019]
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-3h2
40
@Rima Regas
Right on Sister!
I heard Dr. King live and in person defining the South as beginning at the Canadian border in my neighborhood Park in August 1966 on the South Side of Chicago.
1
Why was it there were riots in the 60s in Detroit, New York, and Los Angeles, but not in Southern cities? Was the de facto segregation in the North worse than the Jim Crow laws in the South? I don't think King, an advocate of non-violent civil disobedience, considered riots to be the types of disruptions necessary to bring about equality. Yet, again more recently, in the 90s in Los Angeles and the last few years in Baltimore riots occurred, in response to police brutality. Is that worse in those cities? Perhaps so.
The author left out part of the equation. The conservative anti-tax crusade that started in the 80s led to inadequate funding for schools and other social programs, exacerbating inequality and increasing segregation as whites put their children in private schools and home schooling (and pushed for school voucher programs) in response to the failing schools created by the low funding levels.
6
@MEM
Three Evils of Society speech, 1967.
“When we foolishly maximize the minimum and minimize the maximum we sign the warrant for our own day of doom.It is this moral lag in our thing-oriented society that blinds us to the human reality around us and encourages us in the greed and exploitation which creates the sector of poverty in the midst of wealth. Again we have diluted ourselves into believing the myth that Capitalism grew and prospered out of the protestant ethic of hard word and sacrifice, the fact is that Capitalism was build on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – both black and white, both here and abroad. If Negroes and poor whites do not participate in the free flow of wealth within our economy, they will forever be poor, giving their energies, their talents and their limited funds to the consumer market but reaping few benefits and services in return. The way to end poverty is to end the exploitation of the poor, ensure them a fair share of the government services and the nation’s resources."
https://www.rimaregas.com/2015/08/10/a-quote-from-mlks-three-evils-of-society/
13
Who are we kidding? The oppression of race is as essential today as it was in Martin Luther King’s living days, whether it be in schools, cities in general, in minds.
In April 1968 we mourned a leader gone. We still do mourn.
7
My children grew up in an ethnically mixed suburb of NY. I chose the neighborhood because of the diversity of the primary school and its excellent rating. From pre-k through grade 6, my kids had a lot of different friends and they also played sports so they had friends from the poorer sections in town, that were primarily minority. The black kids in our school got an identical education to my kids from pre-k on. In middle school all six schools fed into one and by high school there were more than 1000 kids mashed together, the majority minority from poorer neighborhoods. I went to pick up my kid for an appointment one day and ran into a black kid my son had played with from his school. I stopped him to ask about his family and what he was doing. His formerly perfect English had mutated. I went to the lunch room for my son and was shocked to see how completed segregated it was. Black kids on one side, everyone else on the other. I told my son I'd run into his friend and asked him what was up with him. He rolled his eyes and told that his friend had 'gone gansta'. This kid had been on the honor roll. They had an identical education, but peer pressure was a far more effective teacher, speaking proper English and getting good grades was considered acting white. The AP classes were empty of black kids by grade 10 and only one of their black friends went to college. This was a excellent, well funded pre-k through 12 school district in NJ, same education, different result.
123
@thewriterstuff
Peer pressure? Or uncaring teachers, a lack of a support system from the school and community? It's interesting how people want to attribute an adult level of decision making to children of color, but often protect and defend white children's need to be children and make mistakes that also have consequences.
31
@ClaireNYC
Do you think "uncaring teachers, a lack of a support system from the school and community" caused the mutation in the kid's speech? There is no doubt in my mind that these factors are important but pretending that there is nothing problematic about the cultural norms that black (especially male) teenagers are expected to conform is not going help. I remember Michelle Obama speaking very eloquently about this in the context of raising her daughters. Her message to them was that they did not need to act or speak in a certain way because of their skin color.
82
Children are a product of their environment - predominantly the (extended) family environment in which they grow up.
23
A speaker of truth, and the forces of oppression have not budged so many years later as we sit under this lunar eclipse. King’s voice stirs me like few others, even in print, as if it is divine, the Earth itself speaking of its injustices. King’s voice will carry across geological time.
13
Dr. King realized that economic rights were just as important as civil rights. This is what he said to Harry Belafonte soon before his death:
“I’ve come upon something that disturbs me deeply,” he said. “We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know that we will win. But I’ve come to believe we’re integrating into a burning house.”
That statement took me aback. It was the last thing I would have expected to hear, considering the nature of our struggle, and I asked him what he meant. “I’m afraid that America may be losing what moral vision she may have had,” he answered. “And I’m afraid that even as we integrate, we are walking into a place that does not understand that this nation needs to be deeply concerned with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. Until we commit ourselves to ensuring that the underclass is given justice and opportunity, we will continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tears at the soul of this nation.”
“I fear, I am integrating my people into a burning house.”
What would Dr. King think of the economic inequality that exists today? White America has co-opted Dr. King's legacy and narrowed it to only his civil rights work because it is easier for them to deal with that aspect of his work. But his anti-war and economic policies were resisted by the entire establishment of both parties. If Dr. King were alive today, he would standing with Bernie Sander to fight for economic equality.
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@FXQ
Dr. King was right, the issue isn't just racism it is economic oppression of all Americans. But, that isn't a problem that Corporate America wants to address, they would prefer we keep fighting each other over race and leave the economy to them.
30
@FXQ
Economic hopelessness and institutional racism are the roots of America's minority underclass. Allowing public policy to be primarily influenced by the greed of 0.1% has created a the wealthiest country on Earth filled with millions of economic "have nevers".
15
@FXQ
Dr. King turned into a (gasp) Democratic Socialist, I'd say. I suspect he would be marching today, as income inequality and giant military budgets have only increased. I suspect he would be talking about guns versus butter, but most of our politicians don't seem to be.
18
Many people will respond with big picture answers to a problem that is so insidious, Dr King's words are even more true today, it seems, than they were when he spoke them.
I have one small picture suggestion that is absolutely doable for every public school PTA in high income neighborhoods to take THIS year. This comes from a disparity that has driven me bonkers for years:
When your PTA fundraises for several hundred thousand dollars through your auctions, walkathons, and spiritwear - pick a school in an area with a high percentage of free lunch-eligible students of color - and split the funds with that school, so that they too have funds for library books, art materials, computers, chess sets etc. going forward. If you have time, volunteer in that school to tutor kids too - because many of their parents will not be able to take time off from work to volunteer like you can. Bring kids and do a homework help exchange - kids from each school tutor and learn from each other.
If it makes you mad to think that your money will go anywhere but to your kids' school. I hear you, but when a CEO makes 300 times what a line worker makes compared to 30 times 30 years ago, you and I are a big part of the problem. You and I can't change that wage system, but we can help make that elementary school, middle school or high school a better learning environment for the children who go there.
And if, like me, you hate committees - now you have a reason to join the PTA and have some fun!
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@common sense advocate
Good idea. I have a few friends who do this "secretly"....they read about or know about a school that is struggling and order a box of books sent - choosing only the best reviewed that they can find.
8
@common sense advocate, better yet, do that, and use the money to help the sister school build its own parental involvement programs. I know some of those schools. their PTA participation is dismal.
5
@observer of the zeitgeist - it's near impossible to participate in the PTA when you don't have money for childcare or you work nights - nevertheless, there are schools that have done a nice job engaging parents by offering childcare and meals during PTA meetings. But that goes full circle back to funding-in order to offer childcare during PTA meetings, schools need money.
9
As a former liberal, now turned libertarian.
It is not my responsibility to champion anything more than the civil rights we are all afforded. Beyond that, it is solely up the individual to charter their path, regardless of appearance.
More looking in the mirror serves is all.
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@Nick - in theory, libertarianism makes sense - but it doesn't account for the cruelty and biases that change lives:
- the Forbes article documenting hiring biases (resumes with black-sounding names getting thrown away)
- software designed to minimize and change vminimum wage employee hours based on weather, how busy a store is etc. which causes employee schedules to be completely unpredictable, preventing them from working a second job or going to night school to elevate their career, or even scheduling steady childcare.
- CEOs make 300, or more, times what a line worker makes compared to 30 years ago when they only made 30 times what a line worker makes, yet minimum-wage has barely moved.
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@Nick: You're assuming the same civil rights are afforded to all. That is not the case for most people, if they are of color, gay, female, or of a lower socioeconomic scale. There are some science-based statistics on this, and also many discriminatory laws and practices that are not considered illegal still out there. Look in your own mirror and consider if you are willing to hear any experience outside your own.
15
Civil rights are not distributed equally. A race in which half the people have shackled legs but are told to just work harder to win is beyond cynical. My example is a gross exaggeration which I am aware of but your view is truly simplistic. The American society does not share the same civil rights to begin with. That does not exclude anybody from looking in the mirror frequently of course.
10
One cause of continuing racial segregation, and racialized poverty and its consequences, like mass incarceration and over-policing, is unequal education. Most solutions to this problem are often misconceived.
"Low-income students of color languish in underfunded schools while wealthier students attend better-resourced ones. And white parents are still tremendously resistant to school rezoning, just as they were 50 years ago."
School rezoning is like Affirmative Action: It takes a pie divided by extreme inequalities, which distributes chances in a competition whose prize is supposed to be good jobs and incomes, and it changes who gets the better piece.
Far better would be to have equal funding for every school child in the nation. Funded by federal taxes, instead of local property taxes, which guarantee stratification of schooling opportunities by wealth of the neighborhood.
The equal opportunity ideology has conditioned every form of identity politics. In each case, the problem identified is real, in that some demographic categories have been markers of subjection of many of their bearers to oppression, hatred, injustice, or disadvantage. And in each case, the solution given is to provide handicaps and chances.
The problem is three-fold: a) excess inequality and poverty, b) an ideology of competition, which legitimates outcomes by citing personal responsibility, and c) moralities, policing, and punishments that target losers. The common name is capitalism.
33
Two of the worst performing school districts in Nassau County are among the better funded. Causation and correlation are not the sane thing. For an example of the stats that do seem to go hand in hand, ask teachers about parent participation by district and match that to achievement. Some years back, 60 Minutes did a story about a US school system where there was virtually no difference in grades and performance between students relative to race. The system was the DoD schools on military bases. The parents are disciplined. They understand that achievement is related to effort and motivation. If a student is disruptive and it isn’t resolved, the parent’s boss (Commanding Officer) may become involved. Truancy and delinquency can result in the loss of base housing and privileges.
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@William Heidbreder
I was wondering how I could express my views on this, and you did it for me. Thanks
4
@William Heidbreder
So well said. You bring up a very important point. We need to lay out the actual numbers ($$ spent) by school. It is a common refrain that certain schools are "underfunded," when what should be discussed is how the funding is being allocated in those schools.
3
Our dependency upon inflation (of land prices) does not help.
10
Dr. King's words ring as true today as they did when first uttered. True equality in this country will likely never happen. It's my belief the Civil War is the primary reason for racial contention. Abraham Lincoln in all his brilliance as a true commander and chief during the most fractious time in U.S. history, botched the end. By not properly stepping on the necks of all the responsible confederates and not preventing honoring the confederate cause with statues in parks, state capitals and even our nation's capitol rotunda...it conveys a message of, racism is tolerable. That error will never be able to be undone - ever.
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@David
Not much of this has to do with the article, but for what its worth, executing the commanders of the Confederacy (or threatening to do so) would have led to a unending guerrilla war. And while Johnson's commitment to Reconstruction was at best half-hearted, long-term military occupations run up against the same problems that the US has faced in Iraq and Afghanistan--intimidation, foot dragging, and a willingness to wait out the presence of "foreign invaders."
None of this armchair historicizing helps us overcome the problems Dr. King dedicated his life to fighting or helps us understand the source or solution to them.
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@WT Actually this is very pertinent to the point of the article, "the white moderate". It's hard to cure the problem without tracing to the origin.
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@David
So executing the Confederate leadership would have fixed the problem of Northern liberalism identified in the article? That is flatly absurd.
"Separate but equal" is the quintessential oxymoron. In terms of the law and it's application, there should be ZERO distinctions between peoples of different races, genders, sexual orientations etcetera etcetera. Having said this, it's unfair and undemocratic to force people in a free society to invite people of whatever faith or belief or race into their home as their "friends". I don't need you to be my "friend" but I DO need and expect you to treat me fairly and equally in terms of being a member of society. My equal status in society should be guaranteed to me by LAW and not depend on anyone's good will. Being someone's "friend" and invited into their home, however, cannot be legislated and I cannot expect a law to be passed forcing my presence upon someone that doesn't want to invite me in for dinner. My point is that we are all different and society must be colorblind in enforcing laws that bind us all equally. Hoping to extend that so that I am welcomed into people's hearts, however, is another matter and one that I have no right to expect from my fellow citizens nor do I require it to live a happy and fulfilling life. As a northern white moderate, these are my beliefs and I'm proud of them because I harbor ill-will only against those that seek to limit my ability to live my life in peace and equality as the law should provide to me as a RIGHT, not a privilege. If you don't wish to welcome me with open arms, I'll survive just the same and happily so at that.
8
In the long run, and spread out over millions of people, each large group is going to act to further their own interests, not those of others. That is a fundamental fact of human nature. There may be a few nice self-sacrificing souls, but they are not the norm. If you have a million men, they will act to further men's interests; if you have a million women, they will act to further women's interests. I won't even go into a million lawyers or a million bankers....
King basically understood this. He wanted to sweep away the legal barriers that prevented blacks from advancing, but he didn't expect to be able to overturn human nature. He was a shrewd advocate of using clever tactics to advance black interests within the USA as it was at the time. If he was alive today, he would probably use different tactics to achieve the same goal, probably very different. I wouldn't be surprised to see him working with business leaders, and maybe even President Trump, to find job opportunities for black men without a college education.
7
"For too long, order has been more important than justice. "
I'm all for MLK's notions of social progress, but with respect to the current administration you may get neither order nor justice.
As for the meanings of equality, it never had a singular meaning: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equality/ . From the opening of that essay: "In its prescriptive usage, ‘equality’ is a loaded and ‘highly contested’ concept. " I understand we are talking about the word in the context of civil rights, but that Stanford Encyclopedia article goes on to say "...suggest that distributive equality, especially equality of life-conditions, is due a fundamental role in an adequate theory of justice in particular and of morality in general."
These philosophical discussions may not lead to any singular answer for our modern problems, but they do raise a lot of questions worth considering, particularly the question of distributive justice: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equality/#ConDisEquEquWha .. Do we have adequate measures? Probably not, but this does not stop us from recognizing gross inequality and maldistribution.
4
What exactly does Ms. Theoharis have in mind when she advocates for “uncomfortable, disruptive, far-reaching action to remedy the problem” of racial injustice? She demands an attack on public “order” in the name of “justice,” which sounds brave, but her plan isn’t quite clear. Her words are threatening enough to earn a little revolutionary street cred, but too vague to pin down to any specific action, which is always attended by real world consequences—a convenient little professorial escape clause, I’d say. Such loose talk is, however, irresponsible, especially in a person tasked with educating the young, whose inexperience with complication and nuance can sometimes get them behind violent tactics before they’ve properly weighed the costs.
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@Chris Buczinsky
Perhaps the costs of disruptive political actions are less important to young people.
Perhaps drawing attention to the issues and pushing at a sclerotic status quo is a more pressing necessity to young people.
To the emperor, the emperor's clothes can feel pretty warm.
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@Chris Buczinsky
I think she would be happy just getting you to recognize that racism is not limited to the South. Implicit racial bias is very subtle and very difficult to self-diagnose.
It is VERY uncomfortable when something causes us to question and challenge our beliefs and assumptions. Simply understanding our own racism IS: "“uncomfortable, disruptive, far-reaching action to remedy the problem” of racial injustice." Well, at least it's the first and most awkward step towards solutions.
You can't solve a problem until you understand there is a problem, and you won't make much progress until the problem is defined.
20
Get rid of zoning laws. That is concrete action with immediate results.
4
Dr. King was just starting to hammer on Vietnam as an example of toxic American warmongering and its place in American injustice. That may have been the straw that broke the camel's back - it's one thing to go after racial prejudice, quite another to take on the military-industrial-national security complex. (Ask the Kennedys.)
And he was starting to look at economic inequality as at the heart of the question, asserting quite correctly that there could never really be racial justice without economic justice. He saw the evils of vulture capitalism dominated by oligarchs and big corporations and spurring neoimperialism. He saw the unfairnesses of the American economic system weighted toward the rich and powerful. "Too often in America we have socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise for the poor." He was spot on.
Taken too soon, the greatest public figure of the last half of the 20th Century. That was the point. Taken away.
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@Rocky Thanks for bringing up war, Rocky. It seems that the USA liberal has been happy enough to be complicit,y silent about militarism and the USA wars all over the world. An injustice to one is injustice to all- and Dr. King was very clear that humanity didn’t stop at the border.
21
@Kathy Barker "Liberty and Justice for All" is a motto that could act as a guide for all political progress. But, we will continue to fight over the meaning of the concepts of Liberty, Justice and All. All, in my humble opinion, should be all people living in the United States and all people throughout the world, if we are ever to fully live up to the potential of the United States. Now what is the most expansive interpretation of Liberty and Justice??
3
@Rocky The Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and'66 provided Northern liberals the opportunity to shift their attention from protections for blacks from oppression in the South to the Vietnam War in the form of the military draft.
Repeating their region's earlier actions after the Civil War, Northern liberals in the late 1960s simply declared victory and went home, leaving Southern blacks and a small minority of Southern white liberals to fight off organized white resistance that gradually restored the old ways.
Instead, Northern liberals returned home to protect themselves and their children from both the threat of war in a far-off land and the intrusion of poor urban blacks into their upper-class white neighborhoods and schools. Why do something about the problems of others, when you can just ignore it and move away?
6
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was much more. The mainstream media has made sure that his message is presented in a poetic form that makes those in power feel good, believing that Dr. King's dream was realized. The reality is that Dr. King was not blind to "civil" discrimination which is perpetrated, not by the law, but by the uniformity of our actions. This article is accurate in stating that the majority prefers peace and order over equal justice. Reinhold Neiburg described it in his books. Dr. King did not advocate violence; but he did advocate speaking up the truth. The truth was the backbone to stand up and be part of demonstrations, writing articles, civil disobedience. Civil disobedience, even if it created chaos. This is not what the majority wants. Right now there are 800,000 federal employees without pay. What would happen if they all stayed home?What would happen if we joined in solidarity for equal justice? Can someone say they do not want equal justice? Can someone say we don't want equal opportunities? Both political sides of the aisle MUST work for all Americans. Not just white, blacks, or Hispanics. They represent all of us. When the system is broken for African Americans is broken for everybody. One system that is broken for some is broken for all. Dr. King was an African American hero; more, a leader to all of US. We should know his works, not just what we are fed by mainstream media. Justice is the greatest gift for our children. No equality, no justice
46
I don’t disagree with anything you’ve written. That said, there is a bright shining line, connecting Dr. King with President Barrack Obama. Tomorrow, that’s what I’m most grateful for.
Thank you to His Family, I truly honor his words and Memory, As long as I shall live.
26
I am a proud white moderate - a liberal, in the political center, not on the hard right or hard left. I agree that the law should not come down harder on one race or gender than another. I support neither "a corrupt criminal justice system nor (de jure) racial segregation," and agree with Dr. King that we should not judge individuals by the color of their skin.
That said, de jure segregation is not the same as de facto segregation, the latter which flows directly from the fundamental constitutional right of freedom of association. Related, we can not just take "equality means what it says" at face value. This claim simply papers over a basic distinction in liberal democracy: although we must always strive to ensure legal and political equality for all persons, there will always be some measure of social and economic inequality in any free society. Stated a bit differently, as long as the family unit and private property are not eliminated, some of us, even women and minorities, by the luck of the draw, will have better prospects from the outset than others.
Coming back to Dr. King and judging people by the color of their skin, we must also recognize the problem with saying that while the police should not treat individuals differently based on race (or gender), racial and gender favoritism in public university admissions and public employment are fine. Given the new UNC and Harvard affirmative action lawsuits, the Supreme Court seems likely to revisit this issue soon.
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@John The point of affirmative action is to create a diverse student body so that all students, white students included, have the chance to learn from each other--from each student's (or employee's) different perspective. That kind of diversity creates a powerful learning environment for everyone. Besides, the minority students who get accepted are not any less qualified than the white kids. There is no comparison to be made here with police prejudice that ends in death.
48
@G. I thought the point of affirmative action was to address the historic barriers that prevent minorities from making it to college.
The old saw was, we start the blacks 50 yards behind in the 100 yard dash. Then, any black that makes it to the finish line (high school graduation with ok grades) gets a bit of preference in admission to college.
What is so reprehensible about that approach is it doesn't address the disparate starting lines. Starting lines that are unequal because of centuries of systemic racism, legal discrimination, and marginalization.
White folks (and I'm one) are born on the 50 yard marker of a 100yard dash and think they won an honest race.
King had it right, we must embrace justice even if it means less privilege and comfort. That's the hard part of living up to the American promise.
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@Ben
The point of affirmative action is reverse racism. In any case, motivate me to give up any “privilege and comfort”. I am one of those who will trade a little justice for order. Perhaps that makes me part of a problem, but it isn’t my problem.
4
Dr. King was very clear eyed. In Letters from a Birmingham Jail, he also said: " Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is must more bewildering than outright rejection."
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@Ellen: You quote Dr. King's Letter from B. Jail: " Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is must more bewildering than outright rejection."
I couldn't agree more. Likewise, I have more respect for Trump voters (much as I am disgusted by them) than I do for the non-voters, whose apathy completely terrifies me. (By non-voters, I mean those who could show up to vote, but don't.) Soulless, self-absorbed, empty-hearted, empty-brained people, all of them. The closest we have in real life to the zombies we see on the TV shows.
7
@EB
I misquoted Dr. King. He said "Lukewarm acceptance is MUCH more bewildering than outright rejection."
We have turned away from so many ills - all that stem from income inequality and a vast Military Industrial Complex. Just think how wonderful it could be if we could turn those weapons of war into weapons of peace and prosperity.
5
Parents will always want their children to attend the best schools possible. Perhaps they should want educational quality more than what's best for their children; that's a debatable moral question. But realistically they'll always seek the best for their children, or least what they perceive it to be.
But the way we fund our schools - through property taxes - is blatantly immoral. The value of property around a school should determine how much funding it gets. Education should be funded equally and generally. That is something most parents could support.
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@David California via prop. 13 made the state the dispenser of equal money per pupil and took away the power to tax property from the local jurisdictions to fund education. We still have inequality here from the fact that wealthy Palo Alto parents give huge sums to their kids schools which poor communities can't match. State tried to give special funds to disadvantaged schools but the administrators just use it to bump up their paychecks. Can't seem to get it right.
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@David - I was completely with you until this sentence: The value of property around a school should determine how much funding it gets.
In areas with high poverty, that school property value would be low, so that would perpetuate the school budget disparity with wealthier areas that you were trying to fight, wouldn't it?
Please explain - because unequal funding of schools based on property taxes has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time, because it perpetuates inequality. I was excited to see someone else write about it too.
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@common sense advocate
Sorry, that was a typo. It should have said:
The value of property around a school SHOULD NOT determine the funding.
I think if you read my post it's implicit - but it was my bad.
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It is also critical to address the erosion of the access to the levers of power to effect many of the changes mentioned here.
Gerrymandering, the gutting of important elements of the Voting Rights Act not to mention the election fraud in places like N. Carolina, Georgia and elsewhere prevent people of color from taking the reins of power and addressing police brutality, unequal protection of laws, school segregation etc.
102
The organized win, the disorganized lose. That is why the Democrats list a third of their rightful congressional seats through gerrymandering. The Democrats love to complain about this but there is one thing they will never do and that is organize around a winning candidate to end it.
1
@Bobotheclown I think your use of the word “organized” is much more apt than you may have originally meant. There are plenty of unsavory elements involved in the more recent Republican campaigns.
1
@Bobotheclown actually here across the river from you progressive Dems fought a gerrymandering law that would have put the Dems in charge for a very very long time. What Rep state has seen this? California got rid of their gerrymandering system under a Dem governor switching to an independent system. Let me know what examples we can turn to in Rep states? I am a little tired of this what aboutism...it is not equivalent and one side does it way much more than the other. Please take a very close look at Karl Rove's REDMAP plan that came to fruition n 2010
Equality of the type that Dr. King sought requires, at least in the short term (20 - 40 years?), that White people give up some of the advantages that they have - in particular access to the better schools and housing - so that minorities can have more. Only when there is greater economic equality will some of the most pernicious forms of discrimination begin to abate because minorities will have greater choice and the concomitant ability to avoid oppressive situations (including, perhaps, leaving poorer school districts). However, the loss of White economic advantage (including possibly much higher taxes) is a very tough ask for many White northerners.
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@Schneiderman
It's interesting. There's no benefit that the nation, as a whole, could give to improve education for low income African Americans, well less than 10% of the population, that would significantly change the educational experience of the other 90+ percent. But, being one of the few "privileged" parents to jump into the pool while all the other privileged parents keep their kids safely on deck is another story. Collective action is necessary.
18
No you can't ask people to give up opportunity. You have to create more of it and treat people with equal respect
20
@Daniel Orloski
Politically, I think that you are right. But creating new and good opportunities on a large scale for those with lesser political power and fewer resources takes a very long time. I am not sure how long people who have been discriminated against for hundreds of years can continue to wait.
It is also part of the historical trade-off; how much of the resources should go to the individuals that earn them and how much should go to the larger society and particularly to those who are discriminated against and have fewer resources?
3