remember but don't stand still

on this special day of remembrance, martin luther king jr. day, there's more than just a day off from school for kids and more than just a day off from work for some adults. i won't deny the greatness of a three day weekend, but it's also a day for reflection and remembrance of the strides and struggles that have brought us here today. and a day to re-realize that the fight's not over, the battle is not yet won. we are not the nation that mlk dreamed about because there are still hate crimes based on appearance. and there is still widespread inequality. while the infamous "i have a dream" speech is quite lengthy, i've attached some excerpts (long ones, because i think it's very good and i feel as though most people haven't read through it before or have only read parts of it) - if you want the full text or to listen to the audio clip, here's where i went for it.

but remember also that there was more to king than just the "i have a dream" speech, and more to him than straight up civil rights. and he didn't exactly choose to be a leader of the civil rights movement. leadership was, in many ways, thrust upon him, but he willingly took up that mantle. and, most particularly later in his life, he became actively opposed to the war in vietnam and wook up a poor people's campaign to address economic injustice.

another interesting piece to read written by king (i won't add it here, this post is already too long) is his letter from birmingham jail.

so take some time today to reflect and read and remember that there's still work to be done. social justice is not here yet, but i remain hopeful.


---
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

[...]

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

[...]

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

[...]

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

real talk

i seem to have a lot of time for perusal of some really interesting online blogs (time probably comes from it being winter study and having significant break time between classes - but i feel like this and some extra reading (and sh, some more tv and movies) are a pretty good use of my time)


this is from a post on feministing.com that quotes Al Sharpton that i thought was rather poignant


"There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people's bedrooms and claim that God sent you," Sharpton told a full house on Sunday.

"It amazes me," he said, "when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being [relegated] into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners."

the end of white america?

"we aspire to be post-racial. but we still live within the structures of privilege. injustice, and racial categorization that we inherited from an older order. we can talk about defining ourselves by lifestyle rather than skin color. nit our lifestyle choices are still racially coded. we know, more or less, that race is a fiction that often does more harm than good, and yet it is something we cling to without fully understanding why - as a social and legal fact, a vague sense of belonging and place that we make solid through culture and speech."

an excerpt from "the end of white america?" - an article in the atlantic monthly by hua hsu

excerpt from chinese cooking reading

"life is jiaozi; the years one spent in life are the wrapping, and the life experiences one has had are the fillings, which contains the entire spectrum of taste: sweet, sour, bitter, hot and all" - cui yongyuan

college reads: the absolutely true diary of a part-time indian

so a project of my college's committe on diversity and community is to try and get lots of campus to read the same book and their choice this year was sherman alexie's the absolutely true diary of a part-time indian which i thought was a very interesting book and was also a very quick read. it examines the crisis faced by a boy caught between the world of the reservation and the world beyond the reservation in a comical, yet serious, story. i've never read much about life on reservations before and the interactions between the indians and the whites in the surrounding area are very telling of the wrongs that have been done and continue to be done to indians in america. i'd also recommend alexie's poetry - at least what was read to us on opening night of this "event" was very good.

--

I wept and wept and wept because I knew that I was never going to drink and beacuse I was never going to kill myself and because I was going to have a better life out in the white world. I realized that I might be a lonely Indian boy, but I was not alone in my loneliness. There were millions of other Americans who had left their birthplaces in search of a dream.

I realized that sure I was a Spokane Indian. I belonged to that tribe. But I also belonged to the tribe of American immigrants. And to the tribe of basketball platers. And to the tribe of bookworms.
And the tribe of cartoonists
And the tribe of chronic masturbators.
And the tribe of teenage boys.
And the tribe of small-town kids.
And the tribe of Pacific Northwesterners.
And the tribe of tortilla chips and salsa lovers.
And the tribe of poverty.
And the tribe of funeral-goers.
And the tribe of beloved sons.
And the tribe of boys who really missed their best friends.
It was a huge realization.
And that's when I knew that I was going to be okay.