From my early days of growing up in River Rouge to now, my views on Martin Luther King, Jr have evolved. Like most white kids growing up in the 60’s my views were formed by my parents, other adults, my friends, my teachers, my coaches, and the print media. In the 60’s MLK was portrayed a revolutionary, a radical and a troublemaker. MLK was hated by the Director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover so he must be bad. Because of people like MLK, we had race riots in our cities. Only my black friends thought highly of MLK.
It wasn’t until early adulthood, that I started to appreciate the message MLK delivered during his short lifetime. As I gained more and more experiences seeing the impact of racism and racial injustice, my understanding of MLK’s message evolved. My work on the Ypsilanti Human Relations Commission, the Washtenaw Health Plan, my Saturday Morning Basketball Clinic, Packard Health, U of M Hospitals’ Diversity Committee, and the work on the non-profit Student Development Program Kirk Profit started with Fred Jackson and me, gave me clarity about the financial and healthcare injustices of racism. It is a message from MLK that has often gotten lost.
I have also been blessed to have close friends who I have learned further about the financial injustice of racism. Friends like David Clifton, Danny Brown, Ernie Milligan, Sharon Moore, Vic Wharton, Representative Ronnie Peterson, Vic Roach, Charles Ramsey, Fred Jackson and many others who I have been able to have meaningful conversations about racism and the impact it has had on their lives and the communities they live. My understanding of MKK’s message is so much more evolved because of these friends.
Martin Luther King. Jr.is one of the most influential people in my lifetime. The strides made in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90s and 00’s when Barack Obama was elected president have given way to the extremist of the late 10’s and early 20’s where previously silenced racism has surfaced and has been given a large megaphone by politicians who indirectly support white supremacist.
The message of Martin Luther King, Jr. is as important today as it was in 1968. It is incumbent upon us to reaffirm our commitment to his message.
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Today I read a great article that talks more about the MLK’s message about the financial injustice of racism. The following are excerpts from Esau McCaulley’ guest opinion in the NY Times today about the message of MLK.
In 1968, four days before he was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his last Sunday sermon at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
King opened his sermon by recalling the well-known story of Rip Van Winkle, the character in the Washington Irving book of the same name who slept for 20 years. King notes that when Rip went to sleep, King George III reigned, and when he awoke, George Washington had become president. Rip Van Winkle had slept through the revolution.
King believed that too many Americans, especially those in its churches, were also snoozing through a time ripe for transformation. They needed to wake up to the injustice all around them and make demands for change.
King often focused on the financial impacts of white supremacy and the need for America to make amends for its exploitation of Black labor. In the “awake” sermon, King gave a basic and compelling case for reparations based on the “debt” this country owed its Black citizens. He said:
There are those who still feel that if the Negro is to rise out of poverty, if the Negro is to rise out of slum conditions, if he is to rise out of discrimination and segregation, he must do it all by himself … But they never stop to realize the debt that they owe a people who were kept in slavery 244 years.
In 1863 the Negro was told that he was free as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation being signed by Abraham Lincoln. But he was not given any land to make that freedom meaningful. It was something like keeping a person in prison for a number of years and suddenly, suddenly discovering that that person is not guilty of the crime for which he was convicted. And … you don’t give him any money to get some clothes to put on his back or to get on his feet again in life.
In his sermon, King pointed out that at the same time that this country didn’t offer any assistance to Black people, it was giving away millions of acres of land in the West and the Midwest to whites.
But not only did it give the land, it built land-grant colleges to teach them how to farm. Not only that, it provided county agents to further their expertise in farming; not only that, as the years unfolded it provided low interest rates so that they could mechanize their farms. And to this day thousands of these very persons are receiving millions of dollars in federal subsidies every year not to farm.
For King, waking up is not simply understanding that racism is bad; it is acknowledging that racism created generational wealth for white Americans and robbed Black Americans of the same economic boost. The racial wealth gap King highlighted in his sermon not only persists, but, according to some studies, is basically the same as it was in 1968.
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Quote of the Day: “I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter…because I’ve been to the mountaintop…. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life…. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!” Martin Luther King, Jr.in his speech in Memphis, TN, the night before he was assassinated.
Orchid of the Day: Michigan State and Purdue men’s basketball teams today. They put on a show today. The only determinant of who won, was who was ahead at the time the final horn sounded because with 3 seconds to go the team that was ahead was not the winning team. Although Purdue won, both teams were winners today.
Onion of the Day: The NCAA/B1G rules committees. Due to instant replay, the last two minutes of the game between Purdue and MSU took well over 15 minutes to play. At one point in the game, the referees not only looked at the courtside monitors at the scorers table, they also looked at the FOX sports TV monitors of the game broadcasters. In the end, they decided there wasn’t enough evidence to determine whether the ball went off the Purdue player or the MSU player, even though the call on the call on the court was the ball was off the MSU player. Instead of going with the call on the court, they used the possession arrow to give the ball to Purdue. This was not the only stoppage of play for replay in the last two minutes. There were at least two others, in addition to the multiple timeouts each team took.
Question of the Day: What grade would MLK give for the progress to date in racial equality in the U.S. since 1968?
Video of the Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EinMxyjSDwo
Unfortunately the grade must be D minus. In order to treat the racial problem, truth must be told and realized as truth. The 1619 project and the critical race theory have been misunderstood (on purpose) and used as red herrings/red meat to those who are truth averse. I am not optimistic about much in the realm of justice and equality for all.