Since the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, the United States has arguably been engaged in greater than usual work on itself. Nationwide, the dismantling of systemic racism is a greater priority than it was before.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks in Atlanta in 1960. Five years later, in a commencement address at Oberlin College, Dr. King said: “There would be nothing more tragic during this period of social change than to allow our mental and moral attitudes to sleep while this tremendous social change takes place.” Associated Press, File
In the best cases, that prioritization is personal, structural, financial, educational or otherwise meaningful and tangible: laws rewritten, institutions rebuilt, businesses supported, reparations paid.
In other cases, as in the extremely fraught world of “diversity training” and similar (or the cringeworthy pursuit of “diverse” individuals for posts), costly consultants make sure racial equity tops various lists but results in no more than something to gesture at. These efforts are not concerned with what is needed above all: radical change.
This style of feel-good lip service exists for environmental activism, gender equality and is shot through the marketing jamboree that now dominates gay pride. That it should exist at all is unfortunate, but that it was ever extended to box-checking “inclusion” of people of color should be a source of deep shame for anybody or any organization self-consciously engaged in it.
The tension between the actual progress and the damaging optics is considerable. Worse than posturing, though, is the increasingly sinister response by factions of people resistant to either kind of effort. People who reject both the strengthening acknowledgment of the fact that racism is widespread, the consensus that racism of any kind cannot stand, and any attempts to eradicate it or assist people to overcome its ills.
Not that we wish to give it as much as one sip of oxygen, but the pathetic lawsuit being filed by a national conservative group against Portland Public Schools for daring to have a single dedicated group for staff members of color is a horrifying reminder of the elaborate lengths people will go to to victimize others based on the color of their skin. It’s the latest and closest to home in a long line of racist “anti-woke” maneuvers by groups who want to channel their discomfort into outrage and new forms of intrusive discrimination.
In the midst of such contemptible retaliation, how does the average Mainer honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 2023? Daily, has to be the answer, and studiously. The fear animating recent crusades against racial minorities is the fear of social change. In a 1965 commencement address at Oberlin College, Dr. King said: “There would be nothing more tragic during this period of social change than to allow our mental and moral attitudes to sleep while this tremendous social change takes place.”
The teaching of Black history is under attack. Meeting spaces for marginalized communities are decried as segregation. The backlash has extended to allegations of “racism against white people.” Leonard Pitts, the recently retired Miami Herald columnist and beloved former contributor to this newspaper, expressed his fury about it in November:
“Sometimes I wish white people could be Black.
“Not so they could feel the sickly apprehension that can accompany a simple traffic stop. Not so they could feel the indignation of being asked to account for yourself just walking down the street. Not so they could feel what it’s like when your bank loan is denied, your home appraises for less, your doctor doesn’t take your pain seriously, you don’t get the job, your preschooler gets suspended, the shopkeeper follows you around, you can’t hail a taxi or you wind up in handcuffs, because of the melanin in your skin.
“No, I wish white people could be Black so they could know how it feels to deal with all of that – and then hear white people complain how hard they have it.”
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