#18 The Cozy Cabin
18 January 2021 // Crestline, California
MLK Day is not a permission slip to feel better about racism.
Every Martin Luther King Day, you can expect a feed full of his quotes. Usually they’re quotes like: “Hate is too great a burden to bear,” and not these: “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
The way we remember Martin Luther King matters.
Like Bernice King points out, “when you tweet about my father’s birthday & on #MLKDay, remember that he was resolute about eradicating racism, poverty & militarism & believed that the church should lead in that work.”
Don’t pick and choose MLK’s words to curate your preferred version of his legacy.
“The radical nature of his message seems to have been watered down into what people think he was—a gentle leader who advocated a non-violent approach to fighting for equality—instead of what he actually was—a passionate disrupter who constantly pushed boundaries and pulled no punches when calling out injustices of all kinds. Many Americans today would undoubtedly call him a "race-baiter" at best, and an "extremist thug" at worst.”
–Annie Reneau
A whitewashed version of MLK’s legacy will make you overlook ways the fight against racism continues in the present.
Don’t let MLK’s present-day adoration trick you into thinking that he was always seen this way. Do you really think MLK would be as widely approved of if he were alive now? Do you think you’d be as comfortable proudly quoting him?
Learn from the ways people tried to discredit MLK in the past.
• Trying to dismiss his message by linking him to communism
• Trying to dismiss his protests and marches as riots and looting
It’s really not hard to imagine how people who use these arguments to today’s movements would’ve likely sounded in the 1960’s.
Consider
✊🏾Skipping the feel-good quote in favor of one that genuinely challenges you. Go with one that so clearly applies to a community you speak to.
✊🏾Sincerely reflecting on the quote and engaging the implications it has on your world. Don’t just post and ghost.
✊🏾Looking to see who has picked up the baton and is continuing the work. See how you can support their present efforts.
✊🏾Using the day as an opportunity to do a self-evaluation of your own anti-racism work.
“We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."
