Some thoughts at the foty.
Apr. 4th, 2008 10:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fancycwabsToday marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination. In Memphis, there will be commemorations, marches, vigils, speeches, official presidential candidate visits to the site (The Lorraine Motel is now the National Civil Rights Museum), and a media frenzy. I thought it might be nice to take a moment and reflect on Dr. King's legacy.
Dr. King had come into town to help with the Memphis sanitation workers' strike--the workers had to perform in appalling conditions, suffer indignities and humiliation, and endure the sort of casual racism that was endemic to the city and the South in the 1960s. Forty years later, Memphis is still one of the most racially-divided cities I've ever known. The number of white folks I know who begin their racist statements with "I'm not a racist, but..." is far too high.
One of them told me that he and his redneck buddies in high school in the 1980s would drive into the black part of Memphis, single out some random black teenager coming out of a convenience store or gas station, and do their best to pick a fight with him so that they could give him an ass-whoopin'. He then commented that he thought blacks were carrying a chip on their shoulder about something that should have been long forgotten.
I asked if he was referring to slavery or to unprosecuted random violence by groups of white teenagers.
Casual racism isn't the exclusive domain of whites, of course. Many blacks in Memphis are outright offended that they have to suffer the indignity of being represented in Congress by the white Steve Cohen, who is probably a better congressman than Memphis deserves, given their tendency toward electing career criminals to office. Opinions about the mayor, also, are divided along racial lines, instead of opinions of his complete and utter incompetence and failure to do anything about poverty, education, crime, blight, or any of the other things that keep Memphis from becoming more than a small-time slum in western Tennessee. To his credit, the mayor has worked very hard on improving a ten-block section of downtown Memphis, but the remainder of the city festers or cyclically improves in spite of the crime, poverty, and poor educational opportunities.
I'd like to think Dr. King wanted better for all of us in this city. Improvements to the situation of the sanitation workers improved the situation for all Memphians--better incomes meant a stronger economy, better health conditions meant less blight and disease. The spite that white and black Memphians feel toward their brothers drives them to make decisions that make the community as a whole worse, just because it makes things worse for the people with different skin colors and brings their racist hearts some modicum of joy.
At least that's what I think happens. I like to think I was raised differently, by mildly racist parents, and overtly racist grandparents, who taught me that we were all the same under the skin, even if they didn't believe it themselves. I've never had to suffer the indignities of being black in America--while I've witnessed them, I can't claim to really understand them.
I like to think that things are getting better, but I speak from a position of immense privilege. Honestly, I've not seen a great deal of progress in the last ten years towards improving the situation for blacks--in Memphis, at least. Incremental improvements exist, but we've got a long way to go before we reach Dr. King's "promised land." With each passing generation, his influence diminishes--ten years from now he will have been dead for fifty years, and the number of people who know him as a historical figure (myself included) will grow.
Edit: this is an interesting read, linking to an even more interesting read, on the atmosphere in Memphis at the time, on the events of that fateful day, and on the aftermath.
Dr. King had come into town to help with the Memphis sanitation workers' strike--the workers had to perform in appalling conditions, suffer indignities and humiliation, and endure the sort of casual racism that was endemic to the city and the South in the 1960s. Forty years later, Memphis is still one of the most racially-divided cities I've ever known. The number of white folks I know who begin their racist statements with "I'm not a racist, but..." is far too high.
One of them told me that he and his redneck buddies in high school in the 1980s would drive into the black part of Memphis, single out some random black teenager coming out of a convenience store or gas station, and do their best to pick a fight with him so that they could give him an ass-whoopin'. He then commented that he thought blacks were carrying a chip on their shoulder about something that should have been long forgotten.
I asked if he was referring to slavery or to unprosecuted random violence by groups of white teenagers.
Casual racism isn't the exclusive domain of whites, of course. Many blacks in Memphis are outright offended that they have to suffer the indignity of being represented in Congress by the white Steve Cohen, who is probably a better congressman than Memphis deserves, given their tendency toward electing career criminals to office. Opinions about the mayor, also, are divided along racial lines, instead of opinions of his complete and utter incompetence and failure to do anything about poverty, education, crime, blight, or any of the other things that keep Memphis from becoming more than a small-time slum in western Tennessee. To his credit, the mayor has worked very hard on improving a ten-block section of downtown Memphis, but the remainder of the city festers or cyclically improves in spite of the crime, poverty, and poor educational opportunities.
I'd like to think Dr. King wanted better for all of us in this city. Improvements to the situation of the sanitation workers improved the situation for all Memphians--better incomes meant a stronger economy, better health conditions meant less blight and disease. The spite that white and black Memphians feel toward their brothers drives them to make decisions that make the community as a whole worse, just because it makes things worse for the people with different skin colors and brings their racist hearts some modicum of joy.
At least that's what I think happens. I like to think I was raised differently, by mildly racist parents, and overtly racist grandparents, who taught me that we were all the same under the skin, even if they didn't believe it themselves. I've never had to suffer the indignities of being black in America--while I've witnessed them, I can't claim to really understand them.
I like to think that things are getting better, but I speak from a position of immense privilege. Honestly, I've not seen a great deal of progress in the last ten years towards improving the situation for blacks--in Memphis, at least. Incremental improvements exist, but we've got a long way to go before we reach Dr. King's "promised land." With each passing generation, his influence diminishes--ten years from now he will have been dead for fifty years, and the number of people who know him as a historical figure (myself included) will grow.
Edit: this is an interesting read, linking to an even more interesting read, on the atmosphere in Memphis at the time, on the events of that fateful day, and on the aftermath.
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Date: 2008-04-04 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 04:23 pm (UTC)Heck, there are areas up here (Wisconsin) where you won't see a non-white for days/miles. Unless you count the Native Americans in northern Wisconsin, and we don't want to open that can of worms right now.