Opinion: MLK’s words still resonate 55 years later.
This artwork by Paul Tong relates to the Rev. Martin Luther King
Paul TongLast Monday, April 4, was the 54th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. That April day in 1968, I was an eighth-grade student at Paul Jr. High School in Northwest Washington, D.C.
It started like any other day. We did not have yellow school buses in D.C., so I took the No. 70 public bus down Georgia Avenue and got off on the corner of Georgia and Missouri Avenue. (Naming streets after states is a great way to learn the states.) But soon after school started, our principal got on the public address system and curtly announced that school was canceled and told all of us to go directly home.
I went to the bus stop and could see military vehicles driving down Georgia Avenue. The National Guard seemed to come out of thin air. A walker passed and told us the buses were not running. We could see smoke beginning to fill the sky south of where we were.
You can take Georgia Avenue past Howard University to downtown D.C. and the federal buildings. So, I started my 2-mile walk home with my principal’s message ringing in my ears admonishing us to go straight home. It was not until I got home that I learned why the early release, why the buses had stopped, why the smoke in the air, why the military vehicles and why the National Guard. King had been assassinated.
Exactly a year before his assassination, King spoke in New York City about the three evils of poverty, racism and war in a speech called “Beyond Vietnam.” King had long been a vocal and insightful proponent of anti-racism and anti-poverty. But it was King’s criticism of the Vietnam War as immoral that led his critics to conclude he was un-American and others to wonder if his murder was not the work of one man.
King’s three evils speech is as relevant today as it was 55 years ago. We are approaching the two-year anniversary of George Floyd’s public murder. Congress let expire the child tax credit that brought almost 5 million American children out of poverty. And internationally, Russia reminds us how capable humanity is at mass cruelty and what economists call the dead-weight cost of war. Earlier this week, we witnessed random and senseless gun violence in a New York City subway and another police killing of a Black man in Grand Rapids, Mich., after a traffic stop. What is common in all these actions is ignorance.
Racism is an expression of ignorance combined with irrational fear. Some racists are illiterate backwoods rednecks, and some sit in positions of leadership in the public and private sectors. Some racists bristle at the accusation that they are racist and counterattack by saying the accusers are racist themselves or the accusers want to “cancel” them for legitimate views. It is for this reason that intellectual debate on the subject fails.
Racists are ignorant of the humanity they share with people who do not look like them, act like them or share their beliefs. Racists are ignorant about the reality that difference and commonality coexist. We may be different, but we are fundamentally the same.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine demonstrates that government-sponsored murder is evil and relies on ignorance just as racism does. The Russian people (and even their soldiers) are kept ignorant by a regime that knows that if the people knew and understood what their government was doing in their name, that government could not stand. Russians who try to enlighten their fellow citizens are arrested. In effect, knowledge is illegal where ignorance rules.
And poverty, the third evil, also depends on the ignorance of the poor, who are a significant number in almost any democracy but are told that suffering is ennobling and that they will receive their reward in another life. And poverty is considered by some wealthy elites as necessary and unavoidable. But as Midnite sings, “Jah make enough for everyone.”
Ignorance prevents a reordering of societal priorities that favor war over peace, avarice over economic security and racial animus over tolerance. There is one party that, it can be said, is the party of ignorance. Many Republicans do not want American history taught; they would prefer ignorance. Many do not want to have conversations about non-binary gender identity; they would prefer ignorance. Many do not respect a woman’s right to choose; they would prefer ignorance. Many deny science; they prefer ignorance. Many want to restrict voting and illegally manipulate elections; they would prefer ignorance. Many preferred Putin over Obama! We cannot afford ignorance.
We can speculate about how the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would interpret the events of today. I believe he would be frustrated, but would still have the stony belief that racism, war, poverty and ignorance can be reduced through nonviolent confrontation. On the issue of Ukraine, I believe King would not object to the Ukrainians defending themselves against aggression. I think he would see non-violence as the tool to change Russia so that the aggression would stop.
But this will not happen if ignorance prevails. I think King would organize communities in America to understand that protecting our children from unnecessary poverty costs less than the consequences of letting those children suffer in poverty. And King would know that racism needs to be confronted with nonviolent action combined with specific policies to eliminate barriers and racist policies and practices.
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