#ReclaimMLKDay

MLK Jr Day, 2016.

The school I work at has special events to commerate MLK Jr's life and work.  One of them being to watch Selma, the new movie from 2014.  We just finished the film, and I am just...seething.  Seething with anger, seething with sadness, seething with a feeling of powerlessness.  So many thoughts and emotions.  The movie reminded me of the struggle, the suffering, and the violence that people went through for a dream, for rights they were denied, for equality.

What will students take from this movie?  What does this message from a different time and place mean to them, to young people of today?  Do they make the connection between Selma, Ferguson, Blacklivesmatter, incarceration rates of people of color, and all that is still happening right now?  Will it open up their eyes to the racism and inherent inequity that is the framework of our country and how it operates?

While I think the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) and all that has come after it is our's as a country to own and know, and like critical for white people to know and accept, I'm not sure anymore if that is what the new generation of activists need to know in order to move forward, to make change now with the issues that are present day.  I feel frustrated more and more by well meaning people choosing actions and "celebrations" that are based on the past, highlighting some aspects of a problem and not others, and how little ... substance or real...conversation comes from them?  Instead of talking about how far we've come "from those days," where are the reflective looks inward at ourselves as individuals, as schools, as a nation, to see what is really happening, what biases and frameworks do we intentionally or unintentionally live in?  Perputuate?  Real meaningful conversations about ways the CRM only started the work, ways that racism is alive and strong today, and talking more about whiteness than always about blackness/otherness.

Because in our country today, blackness and African American are only two experiences among others, and the others category is growing larger and larger.  And the others category and all those allocated/forced/there are still not fully receiving equal membership in this country.  Are still not getting justice in the same way white people get justice.  Are still not getting access to health care or facilities for health care in the same amount and ease of white people.  Are still not getting the educational tools, buildings, and personnel like that of white people (and we can add to all the "white people" that of $$$ as well).  Even Selma itself is not that much different than when King was there and that is fucked up.

I think I'm crying more knowing this, having seen the people, seen the places, walked that bridge. And then hearing and seeing once more all that it stands for...or is it stood for?  I mean for one, EDMUND PETTUS WAS A FUCKING GRAND DRAGON OF THE KU KLUX KLAN!!!  Why is that name still on that bridge?  Why is that bridge not named after one of the many people who died during the CRM?  Because people living safe, secure, and happy lives want to believe that everyone else has that right, no in fact is living safe, secure, and happy lives too.  And that is the lie most white people and people in power tell themselves.

What this movie also pointed out to me is that "agitators," people willing to speak out, people who put themselves out there, are targets of opposition.   If large enough of a presence, say on the national or world stage, they are threats and become targets of another sort.  Only recently has research been revealed on how closely LBJ and the FBI were involved with monitoring MLK Jr, his personal life as well as his work, and the CRM as a whole.  What did they know?  Where could they have done more?  Less?  MLK Jr would have been in his 80s today, if he'd lived.  I feel such a loss to even think of what he could have gone on to do... and that is another thought that leaves me here still in tears... tears of LOSS, but more of ANGER.

Maybe instead of taking part in MLK Jr celebrations, I should try to join up with a local/state/national  organization that is doing more of the work I want to be a part of.  I feel like that or either boycott MLK Jr as it is in order to make a point.  What would MLK Jr think of actions, thoughts, and  efforts taken on this day, today, right now?  I just don't know. I feel like we're honoring this man and his dream as history, as something done and over.  This is the disservice, this is dishonorable, this is injustice at its core.  The very antithesis of what MLK Jr was working for, to change.  I'm starting to see this hypocrisy play itself out in small ways more and more.  I'm not able to ignore it anymore.  I can't unsee it.  I'm not ok with being complacent.