2005-01-17
MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr || 1929—1968, American clergyman and civil rights leader
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.
Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.
For More Info on Dr. King || Vernellia Randall's Newsletter on Race and Racism is a great place to start your reading today | Don't think you harbor racial prejudices ? Read Inkling's Consequential Angel before answering Tolerance.org's Hidden Biases Quiz || Finally, lest people fall into the mistake of believing that Dr. King's Crusade was only about race, see Martin Luther King Jr's Vision for Worldwide Economic Justice by Adetokunbo Adelekan | His visit to Memphis in 1968, where he was assasinated, was, after all, to show support for underpaid sanitation workers who were both white and black | He criticized the nature of capitalism and military adventurism | He was concerned about Social Justice, the problems arising from race prejudice being a significant but not the only part of his vision and mission | Finally, a short audio clip of Martin Luther King "...it seems that I can hear God saying to America: “You are too arrogant! If you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power..." from The Institute for Public Accuracy
¶ 15:53
