We honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a nation. But we seem to have different interpretations on what he stood for, that are especially apparent in January 2021.
by Mauve Maude
January 15, 2021
Maybe we’re coming to an understanding.
A friend of mine was told the other day, in response to the riots at our Capitol, that “this is what happens” when people aren’t heard over and over and over again. And that rang a bell immediately, because I was saying the same thing over the summer, when riots broke out over the killings of George Floyd and so many others before him, and more since.
The exact quote I was thinking of was, “A riot is the language of the unheard.” And that pearl of wisdom was given to us by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
As many have been quick to point out during recent times of unrest, Dr. King, assassinated in 1968, was our living monument to nonviolence. In his famous “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” speech, given in Memphis the night before he died, he said, “It is no longer the choice between violence and nonviolence in this world. It’s nonviolence or nonexistence.” Dr. King, though he was arrested many times participating in peaceful protests, and was often criticized by other activists for his pacifism, never rioted or endorsed the constant riots of the 1960s. I have heard some say, “He never threw one brick . . .”
“It is no longer the choice between violence and nonviolence in this world. It’s nonviolence or nonexistence.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
And that is true. But what he did do, was point out the blind hypocrisy of decrying riots, without mentioning why people are rioting. This viewpoint of Dr. King’s is often missed by people who point to his picture, or use his most famous quotes, to plea for peace, calm, order, and unity, without addressing the very thing that has caused unrest. Dr. King’s life’s work toward peace and unity, revolved around addressing that thing.
Before Martin Luther King, this distinctly American issue went virtually unaddressed, and that’s how it was perpetuated. That’s why the legacy of Martin Luther King is what it is. He stuck a stick in the spoke of perpetuity.
I myself was recently told that the way to solve the problem of racism is to stop talking about it, to stop talking about race, to stop “defining” ourselves in that way, to end the discussion. But racism, in our country, was deployed from the beginning as a method of redefining others, in order to define the privileged class. And it worked very well, as long as it was kept silent in the ears and minds of White people. Dr. King broke that method of definition. Without that method, it became clear that racism was never a quiet thing for Black people, or indigenous people, or non-White immigrants who came to this land. And though I completely understand the desire of White people, non-White people, gay people, trans people, disabled people, for all people to be addressed simply as people, the only people who wish to return to the days when racism and many other things weren’t talked about, are the people who benefited from that silence, or who wish to. In the future we must move toward something different entirely. That’s what Dr. King was here for.
It was also suggested recently to me, that a perceived silence regarding the riots of 2020 should be reciprocated for the riots of 2021. And even if that silence was real, and not only perceived, I can not agree, for either 2020 or 2021.
A riot is the language of the unheard. It always has been. In another entry, written in 2020, I said, “Nobody has to scream when someone is listening, and nobody wants to listen to someone who’s screaming.” And that goes both ways. Nobody wants to see riots. Nobody wants to hear rioters. But they wouldn’t be rioting had they been seen and heard in the first place. That is another perpetuating cycle, and I think Dr. King would break that one by listening, instead of insisting that the unheard just be quiet, until they decide to riot again.
Nobody has to scream when someone is listening, and nobody wants to listen to someone who’s screaming.
In 2021, we all have the opportunity to listen. What we think is silent, isn’t really silent. It never was. We just weren’t paying attention.
Perhaps somebody wanted us distracted. I think we’re all being unheard by the same people. It seems we have the ability to hear each other just fine. I don’t think any American can honestly say, that nobody knew what the rioters of 2020 and 2021 were angry about, before 2020 or 2021. Maybe we should be asking ourselves, who would benefit from a country full of people screaming at each other, pointing their fingers, pushing blame, accountability, and responsibility (and the freedom that comes with it) as far away as possible, and pulling their hair out until they just want to burn everything down? And where will they be when we have? I think if unity, order, calm, and peace are what we want, maybe we should bring it up with the people who turn us at each other’s throats. And maybe we should be doing that right now.
Another thing people often miss in regards to Martin Luther King was his advocacy for the poor. In his last book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community, written the year before he was assassinated and published after his death, King “synthesized what was happening in America; the disparity that plagued the poor, the disenchantment of the underserved, the willful disregard of those in power and the unrest that would tear at the moral fabric of this nation,” writes the Rev. Dr. Greg Johnson, in this Christian Citizen article, positing that America, as a country, still hasn’t decided.
I believe what this country still hasn’t decided, Martin Luther King knew very well: that we came from the same place, that we must uphold our own dignity, that we have to work to become the equals we believe we are, and that violence is never the answer. I hope we as a country, can voice that decision very soon.