Today, Monday January 16, is designated as Martin Luther King Day in the United States. Although this date is not his actual birthday (he was born January 15, 1929), the U.S. government usually puts federal holidays on Mondays. This holiday has been officially observed by the federal government since 1984, resulting in a long weekend off work for many people for the last 22 years.
Dr. King was a man as important in American history as Abraham Lincoln. In the 1950s and 60s he worked bravely, tirelessly, and persuasivly to save us from ourselves. When I started school in North Carolina in 1960 the schools were racially segregated. There was not a black kid in any of my classes until I was in the fifth grade. Nowadays, government-sanctioned racial segregation is impossible to imagine in the U.S. And that is a direct reflection on Dr. King’s work to teach Americans that they should build a just society, once and for all.
So what did I do to observe this holiday? I slept late, since I didn’t have to teach school today; I did a 25-minute exercise workout with FitTV; I shopped for hardware for the new doors for my house; and I went to the movies.
Some commemoration.
I participated in no special commemoration of how far Dr. King brought this country in the thirteen active years of his career. For thirteen years–from 1955 until he was killed in 1968–he put himself in harm’s way again and again. In the 1950s black people in the southern U.S. could be arrested for using the same water fountain as white people. When folks like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King and the students at the Greensboro Woolworth’s lunch counter started just saying no to this American apartheid, it began to change everything.
Yesterday I was thinking about how hollow this holiday has become for a lot of white people as I was sitting in the choir at my church.
Now, like a lot of churches in the U.S., my church has an aging membership. The church was founded in 1955, the very year Dr. King started his work on the national stage, as an overt gesture of racial integration.
The founding ideals of this church remain at the center of its philosophy, and most of its members can remember the days before the Voting Rights Act of 1965. They can remember when the simple idea of “mixing the races” was a powerful notion, when black people as a group were completely disconnected from mainstream, middle-class (read: white) America. In 2005 this view seems quaint, but 40 years ago it was anything but.
As we celebrated MLK Day in church yesterday, we made the standard one-time shift in our musical selections: both the choir and the congregation sang “Negro spirituals” instead of the 19th- and 20th-century European-American hymns we usually sing.
The ephemerality of this one-time change has bothered me for several years now. If these songs are so worthwhile, why do we save them up for the Sunday before the third Monday in January? What point are we making by singing these songs this weekend in particular? And what does it say that practically all the people doing the singing are European-Americans from the suburbs? When we as a choir try to infuse a bit more “rhythm” into our performance, isn’t it a rather lame gesture? (In any event, it’s usually a futile effort. Our choir remains resolutely locked into square eighth notes and diatonic scales.)
I know I’m sounding like a guilty, liberal, self-criticizing curmudgeon, but for some reason, the fact that our congregation is overwhelmingly white struck me yesterday.
I always feel as though I should attend one of the official commemorations of the life of this great man–and I always blow it off and treat the day like just another free day on which I don’t have to work. And then I’m always sorry about it.
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I find it very interesting that your interpretations of things are somewhat different from my interpretations of the same things. For the record, I should state that I got to the same church and sit in the same choir as you. But I saw things yesterday somewhat differently.
I too was bothered about the “musical choices” that our church has made, and the “one time” nature of the spirituals. But I remember that previous choir directors did this music much more often, and I think it reflects the choices of the choir director, more than anything about the church.
I also did not attend a special commemoration of Dr. King. But I did listen to some of the special talk shows on my favorite radio station today. One guest in particular was arguing that the commemorations, with their special music and all, really don’t mean much to the memory of MLK. What really matters is making a difference throughout the year.
That, I would argue, our church does with a vengence. Sunday our Christian Social Action committee had a letter writing campaign going about the minimum wage. They also had a session in their ongoing “Public Policy and Faith” series, which has addressed issues of justice and equality in a very active way. Our youth is preparing to take a summer trip to the gulf coast area to help with hurricane rebuilding. We’ve struggled with our “whiteness” and are as a church approaching an evaluation of becoming a “multicultural, multiracial” church - a change of self image that I think will be effective in the same way declaring ourselves “open and affirming” was a half dozen years ago.
One person, one church can’t do everything. But I think we as a church do the best we can, in following MLK’s lead, both in the area of race relations, and in the area of peace and nonviolence. I think it’s more than the choice of music.
I think most important is that we are teaching our children that this stuff matters. It’s so hard to change the dominant view of adult society. But if you can change how young people think about these values, then you change the future. That is what we hope.
Julie Holm
Yes, Ms. Holm, that is the key, to have the courage to change the things we find wrong and injust.
I think Mr. King was a great man. I still can’t believe that the USA was literally a racist country half way through the 20 century. But also our country was under British rule till 1947. I guess that was the time of change and the time to take a stand against all that was wrong.
Simran
Also, Dave, I don’t think it’s about that one day. It’s all about how we lead our lives. It’s not about remembering him and his fight only on that one day. It’s great that he has been acknowledged and this day, a national “day”…. I just feel there’s more to everything than the one “day” for it. I cherish my independence and my right to live in a free country every day, not just on independence day! I feel proud of my forefathers and admire their fight for the independence of our country. And I’m serious, I actually do.
So, don’t be bothered that you didn’t “commemorate” the day. It isn’t the day that matters…..
Sim,
The really sad thing here is that there are still many, many racists in the USA, and we still have a kind of cultural classism/racism that allows the gap between rich and poor to widen without us doing nearly enough about it.
I find it deeply embarrasing, and I’m often dejected at how slowly we are moving to do what was clearly the right thing to do a half century ago.
But it is moving. My grandmother would leave a store if a black person was in there. My mother always felt uncomfortable around black people, but rebelled against her mother and did everything she could to be warm to them, and to teach her children acceptance. I work every day in a highly diverse office, where less than 25% of the employees are white, Anglo-saxons, and get to enjoy the richness of that environment.
I do think teaching our children is the key to change. You’re not going to change a 50 or 60 year old racist. You can, however, affect the thinking of your 6 year old.
Right on. You can’t change your mother or your grandmother, but you can definitely teach your children.
I can’t believe it… can’t they arrest racisits or something? It’s horrible. And I feel horrible, because I might come across as a “black” person. My skin tone’s not black, but a whole lot darker than white. This is ridiculous, I still don’t understand it, what has skin colour got to do with anything???
I’m glad it’s changing and I think it’s high time that it does. You should judge another person, by their character and behaviour and not their skin colour and that’s if you judge a person at all, which I’m not sure I would do.
Simran
Sim, it’s not universal, it’s not even the majority, but it is there. If you ever come to the US, I hope you’ll come visit with me, and see the positive parts of America.
America is BIG. We have just about every type of person here. We have racists, and we have people of extraordinary hospitality and welcome. We have insular americans, who never travel outside the borders of our county, and we have true internationalists, fascinated with the beautiful diversity of humankind.
I can’t imagine India isn’t similar.
Actually, Sim, I reread my last post and part of that came out wrong. I have to say that the positive parts of America, are really everywhere. It’s a beautiful country that strives, and that also falls down a lot. I sometimes think our biggest problem is to ignore our faults.
Julie
Of course there’s positive and negative, that’s everywhere. And you’re completely right, there are all types of people here too. You have people who’ve never seen more of the world than their neighbouring city and some who’ve seen the world and still travel. I know of some people that might not be racists, but treat their employees badly and disrespect people. Problems are different in different countries and places.
I was just a little shocked that even today, racists exist in a country with such tough laws. I’ve heard of an American lady that sued McDonalds because her coffee was too hot. If one can do that, then why not sue the racists, that do more than just make hot coffee?
I was really shooken up when I read about the Neo-Nazi rallies and then after reading a few stories in Google News, went and visited their propaganda site. They’re all sweet and the main page, but one click in and you find this page about how the continents with white people need to be rid of other-coloured ones and how the US and the EU must pull out their citizens, tourists and emigrants from “coloured” countries. And this isn’t some story from the early 1900s or something. I read this in 2005! What the hell (excuse my language)! I really couldn’t believe what I was reading.
I know that America is a great and beautiful country and would love to visit some day, thank you very much for the invite. I’ll make sure to email you if I ever do visit.
oops: “they’re all sweet on the main page”
Sim,
What gets us in America is that good old first amendment. Free Speech. One of our most dearly held values. As soon as someone starts deciding what is OK to think and say, you have the opportunity for some sort of repression. So anyone can think anything, and SAY anything, but until they actually harm someone, they can go their merry way.
Now hate crimes, which are crimes motovated by bigotry of some sort, are becoming increasingly more serious in our law. But anything that is short of a crime will always be fine.
Julie
but wouldn’t racism count as slander/embellishment of image as well… in the context of a group. Couldn’t an ethnic group sue racists just like a brand can sue someone in the media for slander?
Dave,
I’m a little late in on this conversation. Haven’t had time to sit down to the pc for casual purposes all week. But I wanted to make an observation about your concerns.
First off, I did not get MLK day off, but still celebrate the spirit of it. I’m betting you don’t jump and shout and hail the Spanish every Columbus Day either — nor do you go to tht Toumb of the Unknown Soldier every Veterans’ Day, even though it’s within 10 miles of your house.
I don’t think it makes you less of a person if you celebrate holidays in an attitude of relaxation. I know for a fact you celebrate the 4th of July, because I have done it with you on the lawn of Vienna Elementary School a few times (guess you can figure who I am, if I’m not JLH).
So you celebrate the spirit of the patriots who founded our country and gave birth to the rights we now enjoy (albeit limited by the Bush Patriot Act).
I don’t think its right for us, as middle class white suburbanites, to feel guilty for the racist injustices of others, regardless of what color they are. There are racists on all points along the color line.
The best we can do, as Julie and Simran have said, is to make sure we don’t, by action or inaction, teach the rising generations to judge others by the color of their skin. And I believe that living by example, we can even teach a few old dogs such as ourselves to celebrate richly diverse and respectful lives.
MSH