Written by Wayne Hare
Monday, January 18th is the day that America set aside to honor Civil Rights Icon the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King. But it’s worth remembering – or maybe learning for the first time, that when he was alive Dr. King was generally despised by white America. When he finally spoke out against the war in Vietnam, he lost support from even the NAACP. It took fifteen long years of bitter argument to pass legislation setting aside this day.
During the spring of 1968 I was stationed at Camp LeJeune, NC, undergoing what was termed Advanced Infantry Training. Lots of hand grenades. Lots of machine guns. Lots of long, pre-dawn, ‘forced marches’ – which was mainly short guys like me running like hell mile after mile after mile to catch up with the rest of the platoon. In other words lots of fun! My least pleasant memories of my days in the United States Marine Corps however was on April 4th, 1968…the day King was murdered at age 39. Maybe time has skewed my memory, but in my memory virtually all of my fellow white Marines celebrated his death. It was my turn that night to be security at our pathetic, on-base beer joint. I was supposed to ward off or break up fist fights with my night stick…alone. But with so many taunts of, “What are you going to do now, nigger?” I pretty much just tried to get safely through the night.
So on this day, this is what I want to say: It is no longer enough to simply not be a racist. Simply not being something does nothing at all to move the needle. If you’re not moving the needle, you’re perpetuating the problem. Several, years ago I concluded that we are all either actively opposed to racial justice or we are for racial justice, but there is no middle ground. Nothing in between. There’s no, “By not being a racist, I’m against racism.” Not really. You’re a person simply enjoying your privilege. Join the movement.
Reposted from the last Civil Conversations Update in mid-November: I’ve been asked the question many times… “What can I do to join the movement?” A few months ago two gentlemen, both of means and both seniors had almost the identical conversation with me. It went something like this. “I’m used to being able to do something and to have influence on the outcome. But I just have no idea how to fight this hatred and racism that is blowing up all across this country I love. I feel helpless. What can I do?”
That’s a good and legitimate question. And I guess that I’ve been rolling that one around for a long time. Several friends have expressed to me that they’ve kind of thrown in the towel because they feel there’s nothing they can really do except vote. And yeah voting is super important of course. But so is knowing the candidate, and so is being aware of the state the country is actually in, not the state that our rhetoric says we are in. In 2016 or so I had conversations with several people who voted for our current president who said either, “I didn’t really know that he’s a racist.” Or, “Yeah, I sorta knew, but I just didn’t think that racism was all that important.” And finally, “I’m white. So racism doesn’t really affect me.” All of those statements are wrong.
Two years ago a doctor, a man who I think could be described as brilliant, in talking about The Civil Conversations Project asked me, “But isn’t all that stuff over with? Hasn’t all that been fixed?” I’d call that statement more ignorant than wrong. How oblivious do you have to be to think that race in America is all good? Hard to fight against something that you believe doesn’t exist. So my answer to, “What can I do?” is this: Up your awareness. Listen. Read. Engage. Say something. Give. Amplify. I coined the easy to remember and easy to pronounce acronym of ULREGSA!
Up your awareness. There’s a lot of news to select and digest, so we all have to pick and choose which articles we read and which we let pass. But if you care about the country and you can and do read, between Charlottesville and George Floyd, you’d be hard pressed to not know that racism is alive and well and that the entire country is affected and suffering. Ain't none of us can breathe! If 2020 hasn’t taught us anything else, it’s taught us that.
I read the NYT, the Washington Post, and the Atlantic every day. And of course I take note of articles having to do with race. But they are often not headlined as such. So start with upping your awareness. There’s never a day that the leading news sites don’t wrestle with race. Notice how many articles that are seemingly not about race, are. When you read that the administration is trying to eliminate food stamps to hundreds of thousands of people…wonder. Wonder how many of those folks that politicians don’t care if they starve are Black. Wonder how many of the sixteen hundred polling places that have been closed since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights act 7 years ago were in Black communities. Read former presidential advisor Steve Bannon’s Brietbart News and wonder. Wonder why the only ‘crime’ section they carry is of Black crime. No Asian crime. No white crime. No Mexican crime. Only Black crime. You’ll likely be surprised at the real estate that race takes up in your national paper of choice and how much of America revolves around race.
Listen without prejudice or pre-conceived thoughts. Don’t put the Black speaker in the position of having to negotiate your insecurities. In her book, Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People about Race, author Reni Eddo-Lodge explains her frustration with trying to talk with White folks about race. “I’m no longer engaging with white people on the topic of race. Not all white people. Just the vast majority who refuse to accept the legitimacy of structural racism and its symptoms. I can no longer engage with the gulf of an emotional disconnect that white people display when a person of colour articulates their experience. You see their eyes shut down and harden. It’s like treacle is poured into their ear canals. It’s like they can no longer hear us… They’re itching to talk over you but not really listen, because they need to let you know that you’ve got it wrong.”
Yeah, that sounds so trivial. But just listen. Listen, feel, and learn. Again, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll uncover.
Read. Read about George Floyd's life of systemic racism; dreams and ambition; missed opportunity and unrealized potential, finally giving in to despair. Discover that he was a real, live, actual person – much like people that you know and befriend - who could not break the bonds of systemic racism until that system killed him.
Read this Rolling Stone Magazine best analysis I’ve ever read about how this country got to where it got to. And bonus…it’s not even all about race.
Read this sad story about a nonprofit that serves victims of abuse and violence and about the organization’s suffering when they came out in support of Black Lives Matter. They lost some major funding and almost every law enforcement organization in the four-county are area that Embrace (the nonprofit) covers, pulled their support. It’s a portrait of how far there is to go and how deeply imbedded hate and racism are.
As an aside, it is deeply troubling that law enforcement equates being for the Black Lives Matter movement with being against law enforcement. Being for racial justice is not incompatible with support of law enforcement and it says something that police so often interpret it that way. If that’s the law enforcement community’s assumption, then one wonders why? What have they been doing within the Black community that they assume they are hated by the Black community? That has never been BLM’s message nor does the Black community want to defund the police.
It’s noticeable that in their minds and in the minds of much of America, unerring and unquestionable respect for police in general should be a higher priority than respect for the lives of Black Americans. Can’t we be for law enforcement and only against bad cops? Shouldn’t we all, including their brethren in blue, be against bad cops? I’d think so. But as Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm said so many years ago, “Racism is so embedded in America, that when a person protests racism, people think they are protesting America.”...or our police and armed forces. That's nonsense. But just ask Colin Kaepernick. He lost not only his job, but his career by simply asking for justice. Take note that there is always something more important and has to take priority over racial justice. Always. Doctor Martin Luther King bemoaned the white moderate who says again and again, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action”. Or as SNL's Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, "It’s always something.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQAS3WCTxG4
Read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ now famous article in the Atlantic about race in America. And then watch Netflix’s short documentary about the 13th constitutional amendment that abolished slavery and slave labor…except when it doesn’t. Named simply ‘13th’.
And finally read Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Pulitzer Prize winner (The Warmth of Other Suns) Isabel Wilkerson. It’s an easy read and the best work that I’ve read on the intricacies of race. Incredibly well researched, it gives good, worthwhile insight into the human brain and our receptivity to a hierarchical system.
Now that you’re race-smart, engage in the national discussion. Plant seeds. Don’t shoot for changing minds and enlightening on the spot. Be content with just planting a seed. Some will germinate. Others will not. Be gentle. Speak from knowledge, not emotion. And there’s no sense talking to the choir. Engage those who have views and beliefs that do not align with yours. Maybe you can arrange a neighborhood or town-wide discussion group. Bring the unemotional discussion to traditionally conservative groups. Your police department…the Rotary Club.
Give a bit of time and money to organizations that fight hate and ignorance. The Civil Conversations Project. The Southern Poverty Law Center. The Equal Justice Initiative. Barack Obama’s My Brother's Keeper. The Future 5 organization. The multi-racial NAACP. There are many. Search out those that work for you. Join their committees and boards.
If you see or hear something, say something. Don’t tolerate those subtly racist conversations or jokes. If you are white, use your voice to amplify Black voices.
Try to find ways to have more diversity in your life. Make it the norm rather than the exception. Or at least be aware of and dwell on how little diversity there is in your life and in your neighborhood.
And if you come up with something that works, spread the word and by all means, let me know. Eventually we’ll have space on our web site for civil conversations.
There you have it! ULREGSA! And thank you Doctor King for all that you did.
