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March 20, 2006
Why We Can't Wait
Martin Luther King wrote Why We Can't Wait soon after and indeed even in the midst of the direct action in Birmingham that eventually began to eliminate segregation there and the famous march in Washington in late summer of 1963. Someone had left this paperback on the shelf at work, so I read it. I wanted to know whether Dr. King's speaking voice carried across into his writing.
To some extent it does. Trouble is you find yourself reading this book in your own voice. Despite King's powerful arguments, his commanding rhetoric, his stately phrasing, the text does not have the same force when your inner voice delivers it. It would be better coming from him.
To someone of my generation it is remarkable to see how far the US has come from the early 1960s. The words racist, and even more so segregationist have an atavistic connotation. At the same time some of King's later ideas, like his Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged, have not yet come true. Instead we've had affirmative action, for example.
What they have to say over at Wikipedia is voluminous. It even includes a conspiracy theory. In a wrongful death civil trial, 'The jury of six whites and six blacks found Jowers [the defendant] guilty and that "governmental agencies were parties" to the assassination plot.' (Source) He certainly would've made powerful enemies in the last few years of his life. Listen to the end of his April 4, 1967 speech calling for an end to the war in Vietnam.
Posted by Mark at March 20, 2006 08:41 PM
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Comments
Many of the black people in Building Bridges seem to have the idea that we may have made some progress, but also, lots of racism has just gone underground or gotten slightly "politer." Not many acts of severe violence just more subtle forms, paying more for cars, not allowed to buy some houses, being followed or ignored in stores. It is hard for me to say how much of the perceptions are real and how much a different explanation for the same event. I'll keep watching. There is a reality show on TV called Black/White. Two families trade places via make-up. They are made over amazingly, but so far (two shows) the parents have not been able to overcome any of their original ideas about the other race and they argue a lot. (At least they are talking to each other). The teenagers are more flexible. But they actually get closer to people of other races on a day to day basis in a poetry club and at school to make friends and not just meet someone in a bar or at a store for a few minutes.
And in some ways it is just like any other reality show where "contestants" seem to feel the need or the producers feel the need to have them get in everyone else's face. For the drama of it, I suppose.
Mom
Posted by: Teena at March 21, 2006 02:41 PM
King was not suggesting that racism could quickly disappear. Racism remains with us, but it does sound outdated to me, like being a Whig or something.
Nath watched a reality TV show once where they switch moms. They didn't seem to be exploring racism particularly. They mixed up people who had different temperaments apparently. Must've been a French interpretation of Black/White.
If what King was trying to accomplish really were accomplished, then Black/White wouldn't be a show, people of all ethnic groups would earn on average the same amount, and we'd no doubt see more mixed couples than we do today.
Posted by: Mark at March 21, 2006 08:31 PM