2003-01-20 - 8:39 p.m.
The 3DW (three day weekend) ends with Martin Luther King day, a day which seemed more like a second Sunday to me. We got up this morning and went to our favorite coffee shop to drink coffee and read/write/peoplewatch. And then we went to a matinee showing of "Adaptation." I bought a bunch of groceries and we cooked a big pot of stew while sipping on wine and planning our springtime trip to Paris. A happy thought, something to get us through the long winter.
I have also spent some time today thinking about Dr. King and what he stood for. I usually have little personal feeling for national figures, but he was a person I admired and revered... and mourned. I have always felt that the cause of racial equality was set back immeasurably by his murder.
I am glad, on the one hand that our country has seen fit to honor Martin Luther King with a holiday. It is one of the few ways that we do endorse the importance of the man and his message. But at the same time, we were noticing today that overwhelmingly white people seem to be the ones who have the day off, who were running around and enjoying the sunny day, the melting snow, sitting in the coffee shop, and in the movies. There is something wrong with that.
As a white person, I feel as though I cannot fully understand all the issues of racism (in that way that you fully understand something only when is a part of your own experience), but it is my responsibility to try. To try very, very hard. To see through my own relative priviledge and understand how deeply racism runs through our society..... and do what little I can to stand against it.
One of things that made that point for me was a web site I stumbled across. I was at work, and decided to do an internet search for biographical information on Dr. King. I pulled up a list of sites and there was one that looked particularly official (and I won't mention what it was because I don't want to give them any more publicity), so I clicked on it. And it was a link to a white supremicist hate site. I was so horrified when I realized what it was, I tried to close it down and it wouldn't close. I had to shut off my computer to get rid of it. It was a deliberate booby trap, intended to ensnare and intimidate people who were interested in obtaining legitimate information about Dr. King (obviously not their typical audience). It left me shaking. How did this hate group get to own the site with his name on it? My heart just ached for every little kid who was looking for information on Martin Luther King for a speech or school report. I think it was my first time to understand how the internet can potentially be as dangerous and threatening as some of the bad people in the world. Some people ask if we still need to be fighting this battle. Oh yes.
I am disgusted by Bush's superficial nod to the holiday, especially after his ruling that colleges cannot admit people based on race. I think we have an obligation to give our minority students a chance to distinguish themselves. Speaking as someone who has worked in university administration for almost twenty years, I can honestly say that much of what we call the experience of higher education is actually just making the student jump through a series of hoops. And of course the bigger the payoff, the bigger the hoops. Getting through the set of hoops known as "standardized tests" "application" "interview" "admission" & "registration" really has no bearing on a person's ability to learn and become a engaged member of the student body or a productive citizen. But the truth is, some students have been groomed all their lives to jump through those hoops and for others it is a new experience. Once admitted, no amount of preferential treatment will save a student who is unprepared or unwilling to work, who doesn't care passionately about his or her education. Students of all races wipe out routinely. But the saddest thing is to not get the opportunity to try. Which is not to say that minority students are necessarily coming from a position of disadvantage, but this has historically been the case with enough consistency that it warrants some consideration.
As a society, we are still so far from where we should be, in terms of respect and equality for all people. This is one day to honor a man who devoted his life to changing that. The least we can do it to try and uphold those ideals.
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