One of my friends, Shanna Katz (a brilliant activist and champion of Justice), remarked that the MLK Day sales for businesses are "inappropriate cultural appropriation". I was shocked to hear that businesses would even dare to capitalize on the holiday. How have I not noticed this in years past? It can't be new this year. Then, I suppose, Memorial Day sales are rather insensitive. Memorialize the dead - and get 20% off your purchase! Yikes. So a national holiday is a national holiday, here in "capitalist", corporate-run America.
But what about Saint King? I see him a lot. In fact, he's actually depicted among the panoply of saints on the facade of Westminster Abbey in London. And deservedly so, right nearby Dietrich Bonhoeffer, another modern martyr. There's no question that King's life's work altered the course of our cultural growth, and provided people with a beacon of hope.
I believe that by sanctifying King as we do, we lose our sense of the hard work that Justice demands. I get a sense that people allow King to have died for our sins, that people think he sacrificed himself to do the hard work so that we wouldn't have to. And it's that complacency, that apathy, that disturbs me.
I also notice that people who aren't African-American tend to say more, chest-thump more, pontificate more on Martin Luther King Day than African-Americans do. There's a chasm of meaning in that relative silence from racial label to racial label. I count myself as one of those chest-thumpers, since, well, I'm writing this treatise, and my skin color affords me (sometimes unwelcome, but ever-present) privilege. Whose saint, whose martyr is he? Does he belong to all of us? Some of us? Do some of us need to remember, or speak of him, more than others? Why is that? I wish I understood.
At church today, the pastor read a large excerpt from one of King's speeches. It was very moving to hear those words. I'm not gonna lie, I was a wreck. He called King a "prophet", and then at the end of the service, we sang "We Shall Overcome". Whew. Okay, great. NOW WHAT? Is that it? Why bother to hear those words and sing that song, unless they become a CALL TO ACTION for all of us?
Every year in Denver, there is a "marade" honoring King. A march/parade. That is, in my opinion, one of the only memorial celebrations that really has some power behind it, because it CALLS US TO ACT.
I'm reminded of another statue of King. This one's new, it was just installed on the National Mall in Washington D.C. It was created by a Chinese citizen, and built by Chinese laborers. American artists submitted to the competition to create the memorial, but in the end, The People's Republic of China won the prize. According to news articles written at its unveiling, there was some controversy (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/26/305092/mlk-jr-memorial-statue-completed-using-unpaid-chinese-laborers/) about whether or not the Chinese laborers had been paid in a timely manner for their herculean efforts to create the memorial. Well, I suppose the Chinese laborers they shipped in to do the project weren't part of a protective labor union that would ensure fairness, respect, and human dignity. The Chinese government doesn't really support those kinds of things. Not like America does...or at least, not like America...DID.
Let me get this straight. CHINA was honored, through this artist, to pay homage to an American civil rights leader? CHINA, who has oppressed the Dalai Lama, who has oppressed and all-but-destroyed Tibet, who has oppressed and humiliated its own people...CHINA is chosen to craft what should be a symbol of Justice and freedom? I can't imagine a worse way to honor this man's work.
Not only that, but Dr. King was mis-represented on the memorial by an unfortunate paraphrasing of one of his quotes, which is now being "repaired". But isn't that just it? Don't we paraphrase, and borrow, and snatch King's words all the time? I feel like we're starting to toss around catchphrases of his like we do Bible verses...when it's convenient for us, and when, taken out of context, it supports our own views. And then, of course, there's that lovely ability that the internet has, of being able to attribute a quote to anyone. You know, like when Dr. King famously said: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Or something like that. I looked it up on Google. I'm paraphrasing. But Wikipedia had a footnote on it, so I'm sure it's accurate.
But really, I don't think Dr. King would want a giant, oppressive Chinese statue. Or a spot in the cornices of Westminster Abbey. I don't think he would want us to revere him as some kind of saint, or biblical prophet. I don't think it does Dr. King any good for us to read out his speeches with tear-filled eyes, or sing his favorite songs. Because without ACTION, these homages mean nothing. If we do not extend ourselves to our neighbors and work for the greater good, if we do not become champions of Justice and demand--as unpopular as it might be--that people stop making a mockery of others and filling the air with hateful words; if we do not shine the harsh light of shame on ignorance and fear, and call one another to a higher purpose, then these statues, these songs and speeches and "reverent" words, they are bitterly cold and empty.
My parents lived through the 1960s, they EXPERIENCED King working for Justice. They were part of those days of tumult and change, and progress. But I see Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. swiftly slipping away from the imperfect activist he was, into the shadow of some mythical figure borne upon the foggy, glistening clouds of history. Dr. King wasn't a saint. He was a womanizer, he had a temper, he did some stupid things. HE WAS A HUMAN BEING. My parents, and their generation, remember that part of him too. The human part. I know about it, intellectually, but I didn't experience it, except through the lens of the generation who did. And when that generation, and mine, is gone, my fear is that King's ascent--or descent--into the misty (or murky?) "heavens" of legend will be complete. And we as a country will forget his CALL TO ACTION, go through the honorific motions, sing "Precious Lord" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing", and the meaning won't matter. It won't matter that his speeches were very dangerous, brave things to say. It won't matter that those hymns were all that kept some of King's supporters going, during frightening KKK-filled nights and oppressive days. I'm afraid that those tokens will be...just...things...that we do on MLK Day, like presents at Christmas. (Who knows why the traditions are there? Oh well, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that we do them, and make money on it. Buy your new Kenmore refrigerator at the MLK Day Doorbuster Sale! Sit-ins for justice get the Groupon price! Wait...)
I don't want us to forget. Even though I can see that we already have. It's not enough to sing "We Shall Overcome", unless it compels you to speak out when someone calls someone else a "retard". It's not enough to quote "I Have A Dream", unless you are willing, as Dr. King was, to go to jail because you refuse to stop peacefully protesting corporate greed. It's not enough unless you have a dream too. It's not enough unless you work for Justice and Equality. It's not enough unless you swear that you will never let another person in your presence hate Mormonism, hate homosexuality, hate fat people, HATE...again. Only then will we memorialize Martin Luther King, with our commitment to each other, with our commitment to Peace, Justice, and ACTION. Only then will we overcome.
"How long? Not long, because the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward Justice..."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAYITODNvlM
