Martin Luther King

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day in the USA - when Dr King's role in the struggle for civil rights is remembered in school classrooms, libraries and homes across the US.

Often less well remembered are King's wider concerns about the society in which he and many others worked so hard against racism.

In April 1967 he made a speech "From Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" - you can read here, or even download a recording of it here (for a small fee).

Two quotes worth repeating from that speech are:

"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

Haiti

If you have been watching news about the earthquake in Haiti you will probably have seen and heard these things:

• Images and talk of Black people suffering, injured and dead, with their suffering made worse by their poverty.
• Images and talk of Black people looting to try to get access to limited resources.
• Images and talk of white people who are healthy, commanding resources with no effort, and generous with their resources.

You probably didn't hear much mention of some other things:

• that Haiti was the site of a successful slave rebellion, led by Toussant L'Overture and others,
• that Haiti became the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, or
• that for over a hundred years the country has been colonised and controlled by the US and other countries for economic gain, with democratically elected governments being toppled by, and brutal and corrupt despots being supported by, international intervention by the US in particular.

Racism

Racism hurts everyone in many ways - one way in which it does this is by legitimising and justifying foreign policies which set up the people of countries like Haiti to be enormously vulnerable to many things, including natural disasters.

Another way is by confusing us all, encouraging us to accept the terrible conditions that Haitians, for example, are facing as just a terrible fact of life. This leaves all of us powerless.

Something else Dr King said, in a speech in Chicago, Illinois in August 1967

"We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifices. Capitalism was built on the exploitation of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor."

Do you think we humans can make the change we need, from a greed- and profit-based society to one where caring for humans is the standard for everything we do?