Martin Luther King Jr. (click here) often spoke about institutional and systemic racism, saying that true racial equality cannot be reached without “radical” structural changes in society, says a Texas A&M University sociology professor.
“Justice for black people will not flow into this society merely from court decisions nor from fountains of political oratory…White America must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society,” King wrote in an essay published in 1969 titled “A Testament of Hope.” In his 1958 book Stride Toward Freedom, he wrote, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
Joe Feagin, the Ella C. McFadden Professor in Sociology and Distinguished Professor, said those are just two of the many times King spoke of structural changes needed to achieve equality, but first and foremost of the need for white and Black people to agree on what “equality” actually means.
Feagin said King noted in a speech not long before his 1968 assassination that a major problem was getting white people to understand the meaning of the civil rights movement because there isn’t even a common language when the term “equality” is used.
King said that many white people, even well-meaning people, think that equality means Black people have to improve.
Feagin said King’s commentary on what equality means to many white people, and how some do not want to face that, is as accurate now as then.
“We whites created slavery, Jim Crow segregation and contemporary racial discrimination over 400-plus years now,” Feagin said. “Whites are the main racial villains in this story and have most of the political and social power to change that racial discrimination and inequality now. We cannot have a truly free and democratic society, with ‘liberty and justice for all’ until we do that.”
“The first step to do that is for whites of all ages to learn an honest history of this country’s systemic racism and the Black movements against it—something many whites today are not even willing to begin doing.”...
Example of racism. The minority populations always have to accept watered down meanings of justice. The same is true of confederate flags and statutes. Somehow that is okay. The injustice is that when minority members of the USA have to face objects of hate from the civil war, that it hurts them and the legitimacy of our country's leveraging of equality in all that is the USA. The symbols of hate must be removed forever for the sake of young minority people. The biggest injustice right now that lingers in the USA is segregation and it is not even discussed in a way that allows resolve in political dialogue.
Steph Sommer, Feature's Editor
February 2, 2017
Every third Monday in January, (click here) Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights activist who was shot in 1968. In 49 states, this federal holiday is explicitly referred to as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but here in Wyoming the holiday is called Equality Day.
It took 10 years for Wyoming to originally accept Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday, but with the help of Wyoming Senator Harriet Elizabeth (Liz) Byrd- the first African-American woman to serve in both houses of government they eventually accepted it as a holiday. Wyoming accepted it on one condition-
It had to be called Equality Day....
February 2, 2017
Every third Monday in January, (click here) Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights activist who was shot in 1968. In 49 states, this federal holiday is explicitly referred to as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but here in Wyoming the holiday is called Equality Day.
It took 10 years for Wyoming to originally accept Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday, but with the help of Wyoming Senator Harriet Elizabeth (Liz) Byrd- the first African-American woman to serve in both houses of government they eventually accepted it as a holiday. Wyoming accepted it on one condition-
It had to be called Equality Day....
IT IS NOT EQUALITY DAY!
