If asked whether they would have participated in the early civil rights movement, most Americans would respond with a quick “Of course!”
People want to do the right thing. And at the forefront of moral courage, we would expect to find our religious leaders. But only a small percentage of clergy participated in the civil rights movement. Hindsight unsettles the comforts of passivity. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words from the Birmingham jail still haunt our thoughts and actions:
More and more I feel that people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will… We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.
Racism bedevils our country. And we want it all to be over. We want to breathe a sigh of relief. We are tired of carrying our national and personal burdens of racism—it has been heavy—made heavier by the energy required to try to cover it. We have wanted so badly for the issue to just go away that we’ve reduced the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. to a sound-bitten dream of color-blindness. No one wants to be guilty. No one wants to be a racist. But socialization and normativity run deep. And in the journey toward white comprehension of the legacy of racism, consciousness comes slowly.
For many white Americans, early in maturity and life experience, our protestations revolved around sometimes spoken thoughts like “Don’t look at me. Slavery was horrible but I didn’t own slaves. Why can’t bygones be bygones? Why can’t we just all get along and not even think about skin color? I have a black friend.” But in some ways this is just a more patronizing form of racism. One just hopes that at some point we experience a slow dawning recognition that just because things have always been this way does not mean things always have to be this way.
And then Barack Obama was elected president, reminding us that unexpected events create new opportunities. With the wonder of election night in Grant Park and with the inauguration a day away, can we breathe that sigh of relief? Has the burden been lifted? Can we know that the torture upon which these United States were built has been transcended? Are we now post-racial? Yes—and No.
Barack Obama removes the “either/or,” firmly replacing it with the “both/and.” Yes we can breathe a breath of joy that something different is in the air. Yes, we can be thankful for Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for revolution; we can smile and enjoy the unexpected, the infusion of hope, the possibilities of life. But the “and” follows. We experience a sabbath, renewed for the remaining work.
Change comes slowly. Dr. King said, “Any real change in the status quo depends on continued creative action to sharpen the conscience of the nation and establish a climate in which even the most recalcitrant elements are forced to admit that change is necessary.”
So now is the time for the hard work. Barack Obama’s style, presentation of issues, and rhetoric pave the way for a sharpening of consciences. Now is the time to attend to the plagues of incarceration, poverty, miseducation, and dealing with difference. Now we have to engage in creative action, the creative exchange, that (re)tells the narrative.
