We must not tolerate racism.
Political leaders in the US have fanned the flames of ignorance and racism for personal gain in an unprecedented way not seen since our own Civil War over 100 years ago. As Paul Tudor Jones astutely pointed out in a TED talk, observing all of human history, “This gap between the 1% and the rest of America, and between the US and the rest of the world, cannot and will not persist…Historically, these kinds of gaps get closed in one of three ways: by revolution, higher taxes, or wars. None are on my bucket list.”
The reflections on these difficult times of leaders both present and past have strengthened my resolve to listen with compassion and to speak out and act against injustice. Thanks to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for being a voice of reality and wisdom and speaking out for action. I hope you will take the time to listen and reflect on his timeless advice as we have set aside a day to reflect on the progress our nation has made, but how far we still need to go.
We must not tolerate racism.
Over 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech on “The Other America” at Stanford University’s Memorial Auditorium. He drew attention to the imperatives of economic and social equality, and in light of present events, I found the his remarks especially compelling:
“I use this subject because there are literally two Americas. One America is beautiful for situation. And, in a sense, this America is overflowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of opportunity. This America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies; and culture and education for their minds; and freedom and human dignity for their spirits. In this America, millions of people experience every day the opportunity of having life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in all of their dimensions. And in this America millions of young people grow up in the sunlight of opportunity.
“But tragically and unfortunately, there is another America. This other America has a daily ugliness about it that constantly transforms the ebulliency of hope into the fatigue of despair. In this America millions of work-starved men walk the streets daily in search for jobs that do not exist. In this America millions of people find themselves living in rat-infested, vermin-filled slums. In this America people are poor by the millions. They find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.
“In a sense, the greatest tragedy of this other America is what it does to little children. Little children in this other America are forced to grow up with clouds of inferiority forming every day in their little mental skies. As we look at this other America, we see it as an arena of blasted hopes and shattered dreams. Many people of various backgrounds live in this other America. Some are Mexican Americans, some are Puerto Ricans, some are Indians, some happen to be from other groups. Millions of them are Appalachian whites. But probably the largest group in this other America in proportion to its size in the Population is the American Negro.
“…[Racism] is still alive in American society. And much more wide-spread than we realized. And we must see racism for what it is. It is a myth of the superior and the inferior race. It is the false and tragic notion that one particular group, one particular race is responsible for all of the progress, all of the insights in the total flow of history. And the theory that another group or another race is totally depraved, innately impure, and innately inferior.
“…In a real sense, we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. John Donne placed it years ago in graphic terms, “No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” And he goes on toward the end to say, ‘Any man’s death diminishes me because I’m Involved in mankind. Therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.’”