immigrants will go into effect. It is also the day when thousands of activists and concerned citizens from all over the country will converge on Phoenix to protest the law as racist and unconstitutional. The protests will be held regardless of whether or not the law takes effect.
There are already seven suits pending in U.S. District Court challenging the law as unconstitutional. There will be a showdown for sure on that day. The long-range question to be answered is, how will we address an issue that is largely about brown people by a government that is mainly white? Will there be a rush to a remedy such as what happened in the Sherrod case, in which head man, Tom Vilsack, forced a hasty resignation by a valued employee from the side of a dusty road? Can we ever have a sane but passionate discussion about race relations in this country?
Some will say the Arizona law is not about race; it is about the law. Or they will say it is about economics and those who are sucking dollars from the U.S. economy. I submit both of these are bogus arguments. I always look to how these same people have left corporate America to their lawlessness with minimal opposition. The Wall Street capitalists took the country to the brink of economic destruction with all props from the Bush Administration and there was barely a squeak from the now fist-throwin’, spit- blowin’ gallery. Their racist venom toward Obama is the same venom that had Sherrod paying the price for the historic racism in the Department of Agriculture that has left black farmers in a lurch.
It is a deliberate redirection of where our attention needs to be. SB1070 may have gotten a lot of attention but it will not solve the problem of undocumented immigration. The public discourse is lopsided because mainstream media has not offered a balanced discussion on this complex issue. The first contradiction is that there is rarely an informed Latina or Chicana that is part of the debate. White experts know best how to resolve the issues of brown people, an attitude African Americans know all too well.
We will be talking about Arizona in the coming days, maybe weeks. Meanwhile, there will be countless jabs by racists who have been activated by the current climate of hate that has been building since the election of President Obama. If we aren’t vigilant, a series of racist policies, procedures and laws will follow the attitudes of a growing legion of whites who feel they are losing control, losing ground, losing privileges, losing rights, losing jobs or just plain losing. Progressives, whether they are in the media or organizing in the streets, must begin framing the race issue in a way that builds toward a genuine race analysis in this country.
There will be many battles in the war for racial equality; immigration is but one of them. This is not about scoring points or who can get the most people unjustly fired. It is about creating a society that is just and humane. Fair- minded people of all colors have a responsibility to - as Bob Marley urged - to “get up…stand up for your rights.” But we cannot trounce on the human rights of others. We must uphold the rights of all peoples in this country if we all are to enjoy “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
CHAPTER TWO
Understand the Dream, Reclaim the Legacy
Jamala speaks at rally held by progressive organizations
as an alternative to the annual Dr. Martin Luther
King march and commemoration. (1995)
Another Dimension of Dr. King
January, 1996
“...These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born....We in the West must support these revolutions...”
These are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yes, you heard me. Our non-violent, turn-the-other-cheek King asked us to support revolution in the world. This is another side of Dr. King that rarely gets attention and as with other world leaders, the focus on their lives is narrow and one dimensional. We rarely get to see their growth and development over a period of time.
We know that Dr. King was a very young man when he was thrust into the position of heading up the Montgomery bus boycott, a campaign that marked his initiation into the civil rights movement. As an inexperienced organizer, he had to learn what it would take to make change in the South.
As King organized poor, black people to take power on the various fronts, he began looking beyond the surface to find out how such conditions were created, perpetrated and maintained. His analysis of the root causes of exploitation and oppression took him directly to the system of capitalism. King discovered that racism and classism were essential to maintaining profits and control.
Like Malcolm X, King really got into trouble when he began making the connections between the United States’ role and the suffering and underdevelopment of the Third World. He began looking at the struggle of African Americans as part of a world-wide struggle for equality and self-determination. His last writings affirmed that he truly grasped why the lives of poor people of color would continue to deteriorate until they understood the source of the problem. He told us about that in From Chaos to Community.
There are some folks who want to keep serving us the limited vision of Dr. King and we shouldn’t let them. Hail him up, sing praises unto him, put him on calendars - just remember the real essence of his beliefs. Remember that King was growing in his knowledge about power relations, although he may not always have had the right tactic for a particular struggle. He was the epitome of a great leader because he was a great learner.
As we ready for the many activities to celebrate the birth of a King, I would like people to appreciate the two things that I admired most about him. One was his activism and two, his unselfish commitment to the struggle for human rights.
There are many who claimed to have walked with Dr. King during those tumultuous times of the Civil Rights Movement. There are many who observe his birthday in a number of ways. The real question is - do people carry out Dr. King’s ideals every day? Are they actively involved in challenging the white power structure as he did, in order to uplift a race of second-class citizens? Yes, King was non- violent, but he was an activist.
Dr. King’s genuine commitment helped him to keep his “eye on the prize.” You’d better believe there were plenty of times that he was bribed with big dollars to stop what he was doing. Unlike too many of our so-called leaders, money was not a motivating factor for Dr. King. To his death, he and his family lived moderately, but comfortably. He did not drive a fancy car, or wear fancy clothes. He did not walk with the people in his overalls one hour and then go to an extravagant life in the suburbs in the next hour. He paralleled his life, more than most, to the legendary man referred to as Jesus Christ.
Let January 15th serve as a time of renewal and re- dedication to the REAL philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He correctly told us that “anybody can be great because everybody can serve.” By doing so, we can take our cities from “chaos to community.”
Rethinking the King
February, 2001
St. Louis boasts of having one of the biggest commemorations in the country for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is also one of the oldest celebrations. The annual march is a time for rejuvenation and re-commitment. A time for networking and organizing. A time for raising the issues of the day and setting a course for the year. I’ve always maintained that if the thousands of people who march
