Grayson Hauser brought my attention to something I found rather important. This is from Martin Luther Kings famous letter from a Birmingham jail. I have heard about this letter my entire life but never read it or even heard its contents discussed much: I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, 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 Negros great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Counciler 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 to wait for a more convenient season. Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. The ongoing white supremacy in the United States is not a black problem, it is a white problem. Whites in the US have made a lot of progress but we still have a long way to go before we approach the lofty words of the Constitution that we teach to our children.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 16:57:15 +0000