OPINION|
As our community pauses to remember the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it’s not entirely uncommon for people in my generation and younger (I’m a Gen Xer born in 1973) to assume that had we been alive at the time, we would’ve stood with Dr. King in the march for equal rights.
But the answer to where we would’ve stood in the 1960s is found in where we are standing today.
After all, the problems addressed by Dr. King have not gone away. When school board members try to eliminate curriculum that tells the whole story of America — including the perspective of the enslaved and those who experienced oppression under Jim Crow — they are perpetuating the very things Dr. King fought against. As are members in our community who use anti-woke language as code to hide their disdain for equal rights, or who continue to support policies that wreak havoc on the poor.
I fear our nation has gotten to the point where Martin Luther King Jr. Day largely serves as a symbolic gesture, and not much more. Instead of championing the ongoing pursuit of human rights and subsequently pledging to build what Dr. King called the Beloved Community, too many of us (particularly white people like myself) merely give lip service to the causes for which he gave his life.
If we say we admire Dr. King but refuse to support the same kind of work in our community today, it’s almost as if we’ve left him to die on that Memphis balcony, silent and alone.
It’s sobering to recall that only 33 percent of American adults supported Dr. King’s work before his death, mostly because he was viewed as a threat to the balance of power. Throughout history, the powers that be have been much more interested in preserving the status quo rather than disrupting it.
And the same power dynamics are at work in our community today. There are those who wish to preserve the legacy of white supremacy, and its devastating impact on all people. And there are those who wish to work to dismantle it, in order to build a Beloved Community, or, if you prefer, “a more perfect union” with “liberty and justice for all.”
As we honor Dr. King this year, let’s not wonder where we theoretically might’ve stood all those years ago. Let’s pay attention to where we are standing right now.
