The motto of Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference was “To Redeem the Soul of America,” which probably seems like an odd word choice to many people, given that America views itself as all that is good in the world. King often said that blacks would love whites into justice. (I like to tell people that African Americans taught Christianity to America.) African Americans were the first to speak out against Vietnam, and over 70% of blacks opposed invading Iraq in 2003. In that vein, most African Americans feel a strong obligation to speak out for justice, as part of our cultural charge, even when we are not the target of injustice. I know I do. In this post, writer Dell Gines argues that it’s time for blacks to lay down the burden of seeking social justice for others, and focus on our own economic and social hurdles.
“It is time to lay that mantle down. Why? It is because we must deal with the realities of our situation as Black Americans today. In our effort to be the arbiter of social justice for all, we have effectively eliminated our own progress as a group. In our desire to ensure equality for everyone our effectiveness at creating equality for ourselves has diminished. As we spread our intellectual capital, our human capital, and our emotional energy into issues such as this immigration issue that clearly benefits another ethnic group while doing nothing to materially advance our own we keep ourselves in post-civil rights limbo. Our best and brightest seem to co-mingle social justice for all with black elevation for us. This is a mixture that doesn’t mix well when economic growth and power is the next hurdle that must be jumped in our continue struggle as blacks.”
TheStateOf . . . Justice. I understand what Dell is trying to say, and I agree to an extent. But if “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” that means people of good will have to stick together.
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