Of all the definitions one could ascribe to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the above diary title is the most accurate one as a kid who grew up in the upper-middle-class WASP-y suburbs of northern New Jersey. It honestly wasn’t even that good a day off from school, if we’re ranking them.
A cold Monday in mid-January. Psssh. Nothing compared to the 4-day long weekend we got off a mere two weeks before Thanksgiving break; two 4-day weekends in a single month! Thanks to our teachers who partied and gambled attended their New Jersey Education Association convention in Atlantic City every November.
You see, for us kids growing up in WASP-y suburbia, we were taught that MLK, Jr. was this great unifying man, that we should live up to his values of judging people by the content of their character, and that his calls for unity were met with some resistance, but it’s 2005, of course black people shouldn’t be discriminated against. Oh, and at least he wasn’t some crazy militant like Malcolm X. OK, onto the next chapter in AP U.S. History.
Reflecting on my high school years, it’s not exactly surprising that the above paragraph recaps our entire education on MLK, Jr. After all, my town once had Yom Kippur designated as a school holiday, but then actually changed it to a full school day, attributed to the fact that there were only a few Jewish families in town. A town — in northern New Jersey — not including the holiest day in Judaism as an official holiday off from school. I see that’s since been reversed, but it highlights the type of collective town mindset we have.
Fast forward to my first year at Rutgers University, one of the most diverse campuses in America. It was the first time I ever was surrounded by peers who didn’t celebrate Christmas. I like to think of myself as a fair, open-minded person, with progressive parents who never hid truths from me. However, I was honestly stunned at this discovery. I mean, we weren’t religious in any sense, but we still celebrated Christmas, because that’s what people do.
”Wait? You mean you don’t even put up a tree or stockings or anything? I mean, it’s not like we go to church or Midnight Mass or anything like that, but we still celebrate the spirit of family gathering. You don’t even do that?”
“Nope.” — replied my best friend from college and now adulthood, a Jewish classmate and friend.
It was about this time that I realized I had a lot of learning to do.
The reason why I tell the above story is that it illuminates the fact that one’s experiences can shape their knowledge of the world and the version of the truth.
And the simple truth is that my white, conformist suburban town hid much of the truth about Martin Luther King, Jr. MLK, Jr. was most certainly not universally loved by white people. You can visit the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee as a testament to that. He had much criticism toward the “white moderate”, something I never even knew about until I came to Daily Kos. I will cite some of his most pertinent passages from his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, since they are speaking to people like me (bold my emphasis):
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.
As you may predict, if I remember correctly, we never read a single word of that letter. Certainly not the parts that I blockquoted. His letter should be required reading for every single high school U.S. History student.
It is said that history repeats itself. Regarding the white response to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, it is easy to see how this often is true. Add in Tea Partier to the White Citizen’s Counciler and Ku Klux Klanner and you would think this letter was written last year.
Progress is never guaranteed. In this very sobering article entitled “Welcome to the Second Redemption”, published in The Atlantic two days after the 2016 election, the opening lines are a reminder to this very truth.
Between 1870 and 1901, there were 20 black representatives in Congress and two black United States senators. Between 1901 and 1929, there were none.
The point here is that we must start early as it pertains to telling the truth about the Civil Rights movement, particularly that the white response was deeply antagonistic, and that many white folks were at best casually indifferent. It starts at home and continues into our schools. Because even in progressive New Jersey, there are plenty of pockets of white, conformist suburbia that wants people to grow up thinking that MLK, Jr. was a kumbaya figure who white people adored.
And that’s why as a kid and teen growing up, we mostly thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as just another day off from school.