Evening thoughts. June 29, 2020
Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Seth Godin and the 2020 legislative
session.
Black Lives Matter.
During my Sunday run I found an audio performance of Martin
Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” on Seth Godin’s Akimbo podcast. After
listening to it I decided to pull a few excerpts into my latest blog. I won’t
attempt to annotate Dr. King’s words other than to say that, like passages from
James Baldwin and Langston Hughes I’ve shared recently, some of these words
could have been written last week. Reading more Black authors is one of the best
things I’ve done this year. Below are my selected excerpts. The hardest thing
was trimming the list down. The full performance is here: https://soundcloud.com/williejackson/dr-martin-luther-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail
·
I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.
·
Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly
segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of police brutality is
known in every section of this country. Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the
courts is a notorious reality.
·
You deplore the demonstrations that are
presently taking place in Birmingham. But I am sorry that your statement did
not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the
demonstrations into being.
·
Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a
crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has
consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.
·
History is the long and tragic story of the fact
that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.
·
There comes a time when the cup of endurance
runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of
injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair.
·
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion
that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not 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;
·
We will have to repent in this generation not
merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the
appalling silence of the good people
·
In your statement you asserted that our actions,
even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But
can this assertion be logically made? Isn't this like condemning the robbed man
because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery?...Isn't
this like condemning Jesus because His unique God-consciousness and
never-ceasing devotion to His will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion
·
Was not Jesus an extremist in love? --
"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that
despitefully use you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice? -- "Let
justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
·
So the question is not whether we will be
extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for
hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the
preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?
And a long passage on the church…
·
I have been disappointed with the white church
and its leadership…all too many others have been more cautious than courageous
and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass
windows.
·
In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted
upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sidelines and merely
mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a
mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard
so many ministers say, "Those are social issues which the gospel has
nothing to do with,"
·
The contemporary church is so often a weak,
ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of
the status quo.
Performed by: Winnie Kao, Mike "Ambassador"
Bruny, Doc Waller, Darius Gant, Garfield Hylton, Jermaine
Maree, Shaun King, Pamela Slim, DeRay McKesson, Dr.
Ivor Horn, Charlie Gilkey, Neal Ludevig, Charles Davis,
Soledad O'Brien, Greg Hartle, Kimberly Nadia Scott, Lisa
Nicole Bell, Paul Drayton, Codie Elaine, André Blackman,
John Montgomery II, Daniel Jarvis, James Lopez, Donna Queza,
Marc Aarons, Stella Santana, Alex Chavez, Spencer Pitman,
Ankit Shah, Cliff Worley, Keylor Leigh, Stephanie Hasham,
Willie Jackson, Don Pottinger, Rachel Rodgers, Dr.
Angelica Perez-Litwin, Akilah Hughes, Diana Alvear, Danielle
Jenene Powell, Emmanuel Azih.
Read the whole thing here. http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/letter_birmingham_jail.pdf
The 2020 Legislative Session
A weak Hate Crimes bill passed, overwhelmingly, but without
the support of any of the Forsyth County delegation. I’ve mentioned my call
with Todd Jones and Greg Dolezal a couple of weeks ago. Their rationale for voting
against the bill? It should follow Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act (translation,
don’t include LGBTQ, who, thankfully, after the recent SCOTUS decision are now
covered under the Civil Rights Act). Also, you shouldn’t value one life over another
in sentencing (translation, All Lives Matter). These guys all have to go.
More from Seth. Seth Godin says more in a daily 100 or so
word blog than others say in pages of prose. From a recent blog (https://seths.blog/2020/06/without-ambiguity-black-lives-matter/):
Without Ambiguity…Black Lives Matter.
The systemic, cruel and depersonalizing history of Black subjugation in my
country has and continues to be a crime against humanity. It’s based on a
desire to maintain power and false assumptions about how the world works and
how it can work. It’s been amplified by systems that were often put in place
with mal-intent, or sometimes simply because they felt expedient. It’s painful
to look at and far more painful to be part of or to admit that exists in the
things that we build.
From the Cape Up podcast. Jonathan Capehart of the Washington
Post, interviewing Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility: “And I would just ask, what happened to us
that we don't have an emotional reaction to (George Floyd) being murdered in
front of our eyes? But we have a emotional reaction of some people taking some
food out of a shop or breaking a window?” Full podcast. https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/cape-up/the-author-of-white-fragility-doesnt-think-most-white-people-care-about-racial-injustice/
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