For a long time, I have been getting a little irritated at hearing the proviso, ‘We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go…’ when it comes to race relations in this country. I get it. And, almost without reflection, on its face, it is a true statement.
Any celebration of Martin Luther King Day, must include a recitation of his most impactful and impressive Civil Rights victories: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. His monumentally iconic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, as well as his prophetic speech denouncing the Vietnam War, in 1967, the lyrically poetic beauty of his address, in acceptance of his Nobel Peace Prize in 1963, as well as his absolutely mesmerizing ‘Mountaintop’ speech, the night before he was murdered…all of which were against the backdrop of life in America which was not only horrific, but terrifying in an ad hoc way, on virtually every conceivable level.
In the twelve years during which King was a verifiable, visible and respected leader of the Civil Rights Movement, bombings, arson, lynchings, assassinations, denial of entry into public places, defacto and legal segregation, state sponsored terrorism at will and at whim were prospects of daily life in America for Black people. All of these things were true, for the virtual length of King’s career, but for the daily existence of Black Americans, from 1619, when the first African slave came to these shores, until – officially 1965 (although some would say, in the most literal sense, it has never really ended)…
The passages, of federal, state and local laws codifying the illegality of some many of these crimes against humanity, signaled a type of collective maturity when it came to race that should be recognized…but are not, in my opinion causes for the collective attempts at self-congratulation that statements such as, ‘We’ve come a long way…’ seem to imply.
Look, I’m willing to recognize, even personally revel in and privately celebrate, the fact that we’ve come a long way. But Neither personally, nor privately am I about to recognize that long journey as cause for joy. And here’s why: those successes are only tangentially steps toward equality – steps toward equality, sure, but steps to be sure.
The violent insurgency at the Capitol is a wake-up call to serious thinking Americans, we have a ways to go before we acknowledge the full equality of Black Americans. Why does that matter? Because if Black Americans do not have full equality (and equity, for that matter), nobody – no matter race, gender or nationality – has full equality. In fact, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States – not just his presidency, but his ELECTION – was a statement that equality in America, was objected to by a significant section of the populace of our country.
Some may point to the election of Barack Obama to the office of President, of Kamala Harris, as Vice-President, of Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Orsoff as the first Democrats to the Senate from the state of Georgia, in a generation, are evidences that we take equality seriously. To which I say, true, to some extent. But, I think we must look at the fact that these relative firsts, are not ‘patterns’, and frankly, we don’t know how often those patterns must repeat themselves before we see evidence that ‘equality’ is a real thing in our country.
In the meantime, the achievement gap, in education; the wealth and wage gaps in economics; hiring discrimination, in employment; the continued unresolved impact of redlining in black and brown communities, race based health disparities in Black and brown neighborhoods and the unrequited acknowledgement of the extra-judicial killings of Black men, by law enforcement and over representation of Black men and women in our state and nation’s criminal criminal justice and prison systems, are the true evidences of our nation’s refusal to come to grip with inequality in our nation.
So what about things like the Civil Rights Bill, the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act? Were these not efforts to course correct our nation towards greater equality? Yes, but not totally. These legislative efforts to correct egregious corrections of America’s most common sin – indecency. Perhaps that can be considered a baseline. And not a particularly bad one. Even a necessary one. As King also said, “The law may not be able to make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me.” However, wicked lynching may be, however, ‘criminal’ it may be. You don’t lynch people you consider to be ‘human’…a person whose humanity, you revere and respect.
The fact that you can gut, sections of the VRA, giving greater weight in consideration to those who have historically been guilty of oppressive violations of said law – without significant historical evidence of their repentance or commitment to equality – is evidence of such a lack of commitment.
Again, its not that the laws are bad, or unnecessary. But they give both the oppressed and the oppressor, the erroneous sense that the issues have been solved. While in the meantime, the economic ravaging of of minority communities, police brutality and pay inequity, continue with impunity because they are ‘legal’. What’s more, in the constrained thinking of those who commit and consciously and unconsciously support such discrepancies, do so because they don’t think it costs them anything.
They are wrong…
The Civil Rights Bill and the VRA, may not seem to be costly, and frankly the don’t – they pay. Legislation like the Civil Rights Bill and the VRA, that ensure greater inclusion, bring better minds, greater ideas, more talent, through increased competition. It makes everyone better, increases productivity and enhances profit. America gets richer, when more people are included in the economy and culture. If that’s true by insuring that America is more decent…imagine what would happen if America was more equal!
King recognized this when he said, “It didn’t cost the nation one penny to integrate lunch counters….but now we are dealing with issues that cannot be solved without the nation spending billions of dollars and undergoing a radical redistribution of economic power.”
That’s true with every system: political, education, religious and economic. We all get better, when we are not just treated with decency, but when we are treated as equals.
We are demonstrably doing better, but that’s because we have legislation that encourages, if not requires, decency (and let’s be honest – we’re not doing as well as we think on that score). But even with that, imagine how much better we could be doing, if we strove for equality and equity?
A Cup of Black Coffee 