I've become obsessed lately with listening to MLK's and Malcom X's speeches.
As a middle class white, I never really appreciated the civil rights movement until now. Suddenly, I understand the struggle for race equality. I understand what discrimination is.
Anyone else?
The interesting tack is that Malcom X started kind thinking that revolution was the way to go and towards the end, was coming closer to MLK's position, which meant he was treated as a kind of traitor by those he left behind. The angry, black power movement which culminated in 1968 (with the 100 meter podium at the mexico games with a controversial black fist towards the sky). The black panthers were also seen as a dangerous movement that year.
But, its MLK's movement that had a lasting impact on national consciousness. You can't change people's opinions with a gun or violence; Ghandi knew it and MLK knew it.
I learned that if civil rights and equality are denied for any group, they are denied for all of us.
Harry Truman knew this when he desegregated the U.S. military in 1948.
The turbulence of the 60s, raw violence against gathering power, taught us that violence fixes nothing.
We need to be aware that the evil of mass segregation lives on in the abridgment of individual rights and dignity.
It ain't done yet.
Wing Walker
Democracies never last. That is why we have a Constitutional federal Republic. In our semisocialest system we throw a bone to those who want a revolution to quiet the riots. The reality is things change very slowly because the law is selectively enforced.