I am always reminded of my elementary school's principal and often share this story. I do not know what grade I was in, nor do I remember what led to me and another kid in my class getting called to the principal's office. But I remember the old black tape player and the principal playing a recording of MLK's famous speech to us because our principal had been there. I wonder how many other kids he played the recording for? You learn about these pivotal moments in history, but often feel removed. Our principal was this towering white man, and listening to MLK's speech just now, I realize he was one of the white* people in the sea of black* people who was there to support the cause and to whom MLK spoke at one part of the speech. He was my principal in a dinky little New England town, and I will never forget that experience.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said many wise things, in my opinion, and if you listen to him orate, it is no wonder he moved people. I have read many snippets of his wisdom, from science to social issues. MLK said:
We have inherited a large house, a great "world house" in which we have to live together - black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu - a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live together with each other in peace.We re-inaugurate our first bi-racial president tomorrow. He is African-American, but he is also European-American. I think it is wonderful that he is our first African-American president, but also that he represents the acceptance of interracial relationships. Although not by design, I love that his inauguration is the same time of year that we remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I need to go figure out if I can watch it live on my computer or if I am taking the day off to watch it at home. That's right - I will take the morning off to watch the presidential inauguration, and I think that is okay. As a matter of fact, I think public schools should watch them and wish I had growing up.
*Recently I have become even more aware and curious and hyper-conscious about words I and we use to describe people. Quite honestly, I think if you are not a part of a defined social group, it is impossible to know what that social group feels is a respectful way to describe the group. Is it more appropriate to refer to the attendants at MLK's speech as 'white' and 'black' or as 'European-American' and 'African-American'? I am of European descent, but would call myself 'white', and usually use the parallel term 'black' for people of African descent. I should really ask someone of African descent what is the preferable way to explain someone is of African descent If you identify in a particular way, and someone labels you in a way that makes you uncomfortable or may be inappropriate, I encourage you to first assume that they are merely uneducated about the issue. This recently happened to me in a group where we were interchangeably using two labels for a particular social group. A member of the conversation told us why we should only use one of those descriptors, and let me tell you, we were all very grateful to her for speaking up and explaining the difference to us.
4 comments:
Political speeches of today just seem so calculated with no real heart in them. Not like the I Have a Dream speech.
It is true. When people run for office, they seem more concerned with whether they will be elected and less concerned with being true to what they think are the right policies.
Last night I caught part of an interesting documentary on TV. It was about how children seem to be born pre-wired with some moral instincts, and the only thing that gets in the way of that is that we are also pre-wired (so to speak) to be able to distinguish between Us and Them. We will be fair and moral among Us but our morals don't apply to Them. Our definitions of in- and out-groups are critical to how we behave. It's going to be a pretty tall order for any leader to be able to redefine "Us" as all-inclusive. I only hope that it can be done.
That's really interesting, Spark! Just goes to show how much you learn from your environment. Clearly people need to be better about teaching their children that Us is all-inclusive.
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