Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day was especially significant this year due to the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in Staten Island. Many people spent their day volunteering and celebrating and yet many others spent their day enjoying a free day off. As a white woman of relative privilege (who didn't have the day off to join in festivities), I spent much of my day wondering, what does MLK Day mean for white people?
Dr. King was a radical; his legacy extends far beyond sitting in the front of a bus, having integrated schools, or drinking out of a shared fountain -- Dr. King gave hope back to people that had for far too long been living in fear. For about forty years, the majority of our society stood by while women and primarily men were lynched publicly, women were raped with no promise of punishment for the perpetrators, and children were separated from their families. While the first nail in the Jim Crow coffin was nailed down with the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, the hatred and brutality only continued. Through all of this, Dr. King was a leader, a man that stood up for his community, and a man with a vision that transcended racial politics with the hope for improving justice, equality, and peace.
I have the utmost respect for both Dr. King and the many men and women that had the courage to walk the challenging journey of the Civil Rights Movement alongside him. But sometimes, it seems like Martin Luther King Jr. Day becomes a day of remembrance for what happened in the past rather than acknowledging the ways in which his work moves beyond 1960 and seeps into our everyday in the here and now. So what does MLK Day mean for white people? I think for many, myself included, there is a deep sense of guilt. Guilt that often times motivates people towards action or other times inaction.
Hopefully, after such guilt, there is a feeling of hoping to work towards solidarity rather than to act upon guilt. I believe that for white people, MLK Day is a reminder that it is our duty to obstruct the power dynamic that is set up by society's arbitrary rules. I believe it is an opportunity to remember that if we are sitting in a place of privilege, the right thing to do is listen to "the other" and work towards the necessary steps that will ensure equity. It is a day to honor those that have walked in a hardship that many of us will never understand. Lastly, I believe MLK Day is a day to respectfully honor where we can do better as a society.
