If Martin Luther King were around today, he would be a writer and he might publish articles like “An Open Letter to Birmingham” or “An Open Letter to Ferguson” or, most recently, “An Open Letter to Deputy Ben Fields.” I believe that if King were alive today, he would continue to be pushing for civil rights for all people of color.
Now I get it, racism then isn’t racism now. Churches aren’t being bombed, and buses aren’t being set on fire, but racism has evolved, and some even try to justify it with, “Well, he shouldn’t be resisting arrest,” or, “She should have done as she was told,” but King himself would disagree with this logic, and I’ll get to that soon. I fit perfectly into the demographic that cannot personally relate to the oppression that my friends of other races experience. I’m a white, middle-class, 20-something man. I have not experienced racism or brutality that my brothers and sisters in Christ have, but that does not mean that it does not break my heart to read these hate-filled headlines day after day.
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I recently read King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” for a Christian ethics class at Lee University, and it has been the most relevant writing I have read yet. In it he discusses the difference of just and unjust laws. King was a huge believer in doing what is right morally and politically. When it comes to civil disobedience, he confidently compared his movement to the likes of the Boston Tea Party, the Freedom Fighters, and early Christians in Rome.
In the case of the girl from Spring Valley High School in South Carolina, the school resource officer felt the need to flip her chair over and drag her across the floor in order to put handcuffs on her. He called it “resisting arrest.” People are exclaiming, “But she punched his arm, that’s assault!” So, what if she were white, and maybe male? What if this theoretical boy’s mother just died recently? He just moved to a new school and became completely uninterested in his classes. The administration would keep a watchful eye out for him. Maybe the school counselor would try to bring him into their office, just to check up on him. Well, the only difference between the student and the theoretical boy is that the black student was seen as disruptive and as a criminal, not as a troubled teen. She is in foster care, and she’s already suffered so much; she did not need police brutality to add on top of that. School resource officers should be guarding the school, and issues such as hers should be handled with more care than it was. She is not a criminal. She legitimately thought she was not doing anything wrong. Even if texting in class was so disruptive, it was not enough of a reason to give this kid injuries to her arm, neck, back and forehead.
In the case of Ferguson, Missouri, there is much to be said. When it comes to protest, there can be two extremes: doing nothing, and rioting in the streets, as we saw. King, in his letter, warned that without his movement, the extreme of hate and rioting will become the majority and cause even more violence. King’s words were true then, and they are true now. The rioting in Ferguson was due to, in my opinion, the lack of a single leading voice for civil rights today, and the people of that city did not really know of another alternative. Rioting and chaos was their way of protest. Yes, I agree that the protesting in that extreme was a bit unnecessary, but that does not take away from the heartbreak that one can experience from these times of injustice. If Ferguson had an individual or group to properly provide a movement and the means to speak out, I believe things would have been a lot smoother.
King in his time would cry out to the Church as a whole to defeat this injustice, but I would like to extend that cry to all because we are no longer a nation that is dominated by the Church. If we could all become the “King” in our social circles and speak out against these injustices wherever we are, we don’t need one single individual to do so. We need to be people who will not tolerate injustice any longer. Our brothers and sisters have fought for their rights and have fought to be respected long enough. We need to love each other. Just as King hoped of a unification of all people one day, that will respect people for who they are, and not segregate for their skin color, I hope that you believe in this unification too.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
