Caught In an Inescapable Network of Mutuality
Dr. King’s letter from a Birmingham jail is one of the most honest, wrenching, and profound documents I’ve ever read. I reread it tonight and as I did, images from today collided with my childhood memories of 40 years ago.
I was 9, almost 10, when Dr. King was assassinated. Three months later, Bobby Kennedy. And 3 years after that, my own grandfather was executed in a back alley of downtown LA. Two shots through the neck, killing him instantly, and left to be discovered three days later in the trunk of his car. His alleged murderer was an angry black man on a rampage, though the police never gave me any evidence proving that and he was never tried for the crime. LAPD was a racist police force then, and it was easy enough to pin the murder on a pissed-off, out-of-control black guy than it was to spend the time investigating the murder of a nobody railroad worker.
Memories like that stick to you. They linger and mingle with the better memories and images to paint outlooks and opinions, sometimes even to taint them. I suppose I could have blamed every black guy I ever saw after May 30, 1971 but I really blamed the white folks who made him mad in the first place, and the white cops that were so patronizing and dismissive when we sought help finding a missing loved one who was as reliable as he was steady.
When I read these words…
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.
…, they reach right down inside of me with a clarion call to the outrage I felt over two years ago at the sight of our government sitting idly by watching people drown and die in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
The drumbeat of injustice still hammers loud at the sight of ongoing injustice there, the failure of our government to even make small steps to restore not only property, but the faith of the citizens that our government is by, of, and for the people.
And when I read these words…
Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was “well timed” in view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
…I can’t help but hear the echoes of Barack Obama, proclaiming “the fierce urgency of now”.
And when I read these words…
… I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another mans freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro the wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating that absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
…I can’t help but admit my own bewilderment and fear during the Rodney King riots, that this was still happening in this day and age, that racism in our enlightened age was so deep that a judge and jury would deny what was before their very eyes and yet again, administer injustice. Worse yet, that there was any surprise at the wellspring of anger that bubbled over and burned the city.
And when I read this…
There was a time when the church was very powerful — in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” called to obey Gad rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.
…I can’t help but think of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s justifiable outrage at a society that lauds white churches obese with hubris and condemnation for their fellow man, and yet still rejects the churches speaking for the poor.
And when I read this…
Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
…I can’t help but think of Barack Obama’s call to all of our better selves…
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs – to the larger aspirations of all Americans — the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
When I see this world through the lens of my 14-year old daughter who takes for granted that a black man has as much right as a white woman to run for President of this country, I see a glimmer of the hope that Dr. King had for the restoration of his people to the standing of “all people” — measured progress, large and small, that gives us all “the audacity to hope”, the capacity to forgive, and the courage to reject that complacent old road for an unpaved new one.
For those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with — be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.
But we have to make an effort in the United States. We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times. – Robert F. Kennedy, speaking to the crowd after Dr. King’s assassination.
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