Can You Talk About Racism Without Being Racist?
by UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
As our nation celebrates the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, it is important to remember the breadth and depth of his message and vision. In the era of the first Black President, it would be easy to say King’s dream has been fulfilled and now it is time to move on to new challenges. But this is a misreading of current events and his words.
In his 1967 Riverside Church speech, Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break Silence, Dr. King talked about three major demons; racism, materialism and militarism.[1] Today these triplets continue to haunt us. In fact they have become more entrenched. In the speech, King spoke of youth challenging his disapproval of their use of violence when the U.S. was “…using massive doses of violence…”[2] in Vietnam. He called our government, “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” This continues to be true as our nation is conducting global military operations and occupying two countries with eyes on one or two others. The U.S. is the largest weapons exporter in the world and has the largest military budget, nearly outpacing all other nations combined.
Racism continues to distort the promise of America as people of color have the highest unemployment rates and are blocked from access to resources and opportunity. Speculation and greed caused by rampant materialism has ravaged our economy, devastating the lives of millions, hitting working class and poor people especially hard. The economic and social currents created by the triplets flow together and work hand in hand to divert resources to war for profit’s sake and empire building rather than investing in healthcare, education, jobs, housing and other human needs that would uplift the poor and help change the insidious legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Perhaps Dr. King’s most prophetic words come from this speech when he warned, “The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation.”[3]
We find ourselves today as the clergy and laypersons organizing in our generation. As we remember Dr. King we must applaud how far we have come. We must also reflect on how far we have yet to go, and challenge others to see Dr. King’s full vision of a just and peaceful world. He called for a true revolution of values that will cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies and see that using war to settle our differences is not just. He called on America to lead this revolution of values.
“There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.”[4]
Dr. King wisely saw then what is still true today, that the world’s only hope “…lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.”[5]
This is how we ensure international security. This is how we stop nuclear proliferation and reverse global warming.
This January 18th remember Dr. King by proclaiming his full message. Do not stand by while it is watered down to make us all feel good. Celebrate the journey we have taken, but remind everyone how far we have to go. Will our nation take up the challenge? As Dr. King said, “The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.”[6]
April 4, 1967 Riverside Church speech: Beyond Vietnam
[1] I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. When machines and computers, profit and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
[2] My third reason grows out of my experience in the ghettos of the North over the last three years – especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through non-violent action. But, they asked, what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government.
[3] There is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy, and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. We will be marching and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.
[4] America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from re-ordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.
[5] These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wombs of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to ad just to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.
[6] Now let us begin. Now let us re-dedicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.
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