Got MLK Quotes?

Some favorite quotes from the man whose life and legacy we honor today. Feel free to add your own in "comments":

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." from "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

"...freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." from "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice." (using a quote originally attributed to Rev. Theodore Parker, Unitarian minister and abolitionist of the 19th century who said "the moral universe" instead of "history")

"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. " posted by FB friend Justin Seabe

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent." posted by FB friend Justin Seabe

"The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and , therefore, brothers." posted by FB friend Ed Sunday-Winters

What words of inspiration or conviction would you add?

Prayers for Haiti, Comments on Dunderheads

The devastation in Haiti is beyond belief. It seems a cruel fate that such a disaster should befall the poorest country in our hemisphere. And it is no accident or fault of theirs that they are so poor. Few commentators have made clear the historical causes of Haiti's dire poverty. Just as the Kerner Commission report in 1968 boldly declared, in the wake of urban riots, that "we [the white community in power] created the ghettos," so it is true that "we [the white-dominated nations of our hemisphere, led by the U.S.] created the impoverished state of Haiti." Haiti's slaves overthrew their cruel masters in a rebellion/revolution from 1791-1803; the white-controlled slave empires of the hemisphere, in order to make a cautionary tale out of such obstinate slaves, did all they could to totally isolate this rebel country politically, economically, etc. With no immigration or travel in or out, no trade, no investment, no cooperation of any kind for over 100 years, it is not surprising that Haiti, a small island country thousands of miles from the homeland of blacks, was unable to progress economically and develop sustainable industry and farming. To now blame them, as if lazy or irresponsible or unintelligent, for their plight, is ridiculous.

Which brings us to a couple of dunderheads named Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson. First Rev. Robertson, that epitome of Christ's compassion for the poor and outcast. I would almost say that he deserves kudos for knowing the history of Haiti as the first country in this hemisphere where slaves were freed, and where blacks gained political power. Yet the inevitable conclusion he draws from these events is that the only way blacks could possibly defeat whites is by selling their souls to the devil.

As for Limbaugh, his knee jerk reaction is to cynically see Obama's response as an opportunistic attempt to "look presidential" while expressing racial solidarity and thereby gain points with the Congressional Black Caucus. Gee, with so much to gain (and at a cost of only a few hundred thousand casualties), Limbaugh might even believe that Obama somehow caused the earth to tremble so violently in order to serve his purposes. Now THAT would be a powerful black man to make every white racist tremble in fear.

Again, prayers for those in need of water, food, medical attention, shelter, and loving compassion. Our hearts go out to yo as we can only imagine the extreme difficulties you face. May you heal in every way, completely and as quickly as humanly possible.

Harry Reid Speaks of the Unspeakable!

My reactions to the storm brewing over Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid's reported comments (http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20100111/pl_politico/31340)

1) What a crock. The GOP's colorblind ideology police want to make it a crime for anyone to talk about race honestly. And the mainstream media play along. I don't know the exact context or intent of Reid's comments, but it's a joke to think that Obama's skin tone and speech patterns were NOT a factor in his crossover appeal to white voters. Get real...

2) "Negro dialect?" "NE-gro dialect?!" "NEGRO dialect?!!" "KNEE-GROW dialect?!!!" You gotta be kidding me! What decade are those Mormons caught in the vacuum between the West Coast and the rest of the known world living in?

3) Needless to say, to compare these comments to Trent Lott's comments about how things wouldn't been better had Strom Thurmond been elected president under the Dixiecrat's eternal segregation platform is not a stretch, it's a laughable stellar leap.

Quote from Cornel West

Food for thought:

"The paradox of race in America is that our common destiny is more pronounced and imperiled precisely when are divisions are deeper"--Cornell West in his book Race Matters

He also says we "talk about the 'problems' black people pose for whites rather than considering what this way of viewing black people reveals about us as a nation"--thus, we should "begin not with the problems of black people but with the flaws of American society."

Comments?

Healthcare and race and poverty

With the healthcare issue, perhaps the most important life and death issue of (in)justice in our lifetimes, at a critical juncture, I thought a couple of short quotes from 48 years ago might by apropo. I've been reading a classic from an earleir generation, Blaming the Victim by William Ryan. Hear are the quotes that jumped out at me: you judge how timely or dated they are:

"The reason whites live longer than blacks..is very simple. They buy, at very high prices, that extra seven years of life from the merchants who have it for sale" (158). "The poor are less healthy for the same reason they have less of everything else: they can't afford to buy health" (159).

Kind of cuts through the b.s. and hits you upside the head like a two-by-four, no?

Is the White anti-racist movement racist?

I've subscribed to a white anti-racist network web newsletter for some time now. The latest carries an intriguing, insightful discussion of racial issues within the anti-racist movement. the link is at http://www.wacan.org/wacanupdate/archive/wacanupdate20091104.shtml
Jeff Hitchcock, in the article "A Blessing or a Curse?" responds to a blog entry by "Guerilla Mama" http://guerrillamamamedicine.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/anti-racism-what-went-wrong/
Excerpts from Guerrilla Mama (AKA Mai'a): "the ones who are the most ’successful’ in anti racism are white. they are the authors, bloggers, consultants, workshop trainers, speakers etc." While critical race people of color provide most of the theory, whites benefit most from the antiracist "industry." "...the line in the anti racism mvmt is that it is white people’s duty and responsibility to speak to white folks about white privilege. people of color shouldnt have to do it."
"but. when white folks are getting mad props, respect, accolades, book deals, professorships, awards, etc. when white folks use the fact that they identify as white to gain a leg up on people of color in the anti racism industry/profession. then it is racism pure and simple. and if you are white and in the anti racism movement then that is what you are doing."

And excerpts from Hitchcock's response: "Her words are troubling, partly because they hold truth, and partly because they obscure." "White people benefit from the very thing we work against." Yet he defends white racist leaders, saying they all acknowledge their debt in learning from people of color (my reply--and do they point their listeners to these voices rather than making them disciples of their own?)He also mentions the "People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, an organization and anti-racist collective led by people of color which over the course of nearly 30 years has single-handedly trained a few hundred thousand people and introduced more white people to anti-racism than the collective body of white anti-racists and whiteness studies scholars combined." He admits that the mainstream attention to the antiracist movement enriches the white practitioners, but claims that in "In the smaller, more concentrated community of white anti-racist activists who wish to be part of a larger multiracial anti-racist movement, that's as much an obstacle as it is a benefit." And what's to be done about this racial injustice within the movement, I ask? My reply on Mai'a's blog is this: "In religious terms, perhaps what the antiracist movement needs is less evangelism and proseletyzing, and more confession and penance and restitution."

Interesting issues--make me squirm a little, gotta fight the defense impulse, ("How dare you question my motivation and sincerity!") and see the white privilege at work within the very movement meant to expose and expunge said privilege.

La. Justice of the Peace: no interracial marriages, but "not racist"

The story out of Louisiana: Keith Bardwell, a white justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, refused to perform the ceremony for a white woman and black man looking to marry. The story is at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091016/ap_on_re_us/us_interracial_rebuff

Bardwell uses two old refrains: 1) his "concern for the children" of interracial unions, i.e., "I don't have a problem with it, but I'm looking out for the best interests of potential kids and the problems they'd face." Yeah, mighty big of him to take upon himself the burden of deciding whether two people would be doing right to have children. 2) His "I'm not a racist. I have racist friends." THen he adds a new twist to that one: "I even let black people use my bathroom"--everybody knows a real racist would never do that!

Check your calendar. Yep, it's 2009. Post-racial my fanny.