“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.”
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."Letter From a Birmingham Jail" April 16, 1963
So….again, rinse and repeat on extra-juridical police killings of African Americans and the pearl-clutching of some liberal white folks because black people choose to protest; protests which turn violent.
Rinse and repeat on those liberal whites that want to bring Dr. King into the conversation...but for what reason?
I will ask the question yet again: With regard to the continuing police killings of (mostly) unarmed African Americans, what would you have black people to do about the situation?
Because it certainly seems as if many (if not most) “moderate” or “liberal” or “progressive” whites can not or do not want to do anything about the situation.
It certainly seems easier for many (if not most) moderate/liberal/progressive whites to blame and try to hold accountable “the other” that they may be politically aligned with than it is to hold accountable their relative, friend, or neighbor who tacitly doesn’t have a problem with police killings of (mostly) unarmed black people (and other police activities that are racially discriminatory) and are, in fact, actively encouraging such activities to continue.
If I am not perceiving this correctly, please tell me.
I’ll take my answer off of the air.