Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Bates College Hosts MLK, Jr. Day’s Activities
(This is the first of a two-pt. blog series)
I.
This is the day (January 16) our nation set aside a
holiday to celebrate and lift in respect, the memory & legacy of Dr. Martin
Luther King.
Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine, hosted a keynote
speech (given by Professor Kahlil Gibran Muhammed) as well as many break-out
workshops. The theme of the day was Reparations: Addressing Racial Injustices.
The call for reparations to African-Americans, descended
from slaves, in their relationship to their owners & slave identity, has
gained more & more momentum & critical attention has now aided the call
for reparations;
reparations, however, to be sustainable must be founded on a new
declaration of race in our culture, a new conversation, a new language, a new
social consciousness; in other words, the completion of the Oppressor-&-the
Oppressed experiment. So, education
about slavery and issues surrounding it, is the firm base that everything will
rest upon, including reparations.
In his keynote presentation, Professor & author,
Kahlil Gibran Muhammed, he noted that those who support reparations must be intentional about reparations for it to
be efficacious & meaningful to those whom it might benefit, as well as
legislators.
Dr. Muhammed observed that what is presently needed in
our culture, in terms of righting the social justice & criminal justice
worlds, is for Americans to move into a new threshold. Dr. King, said Dr. Muhammed, was passionate
about racism being a type of “cultural homicide.” We don’t need DOA.
Later, in his talk, Muhammed emphasized how President
Obama received the baton from MLK, Jr.
Perhaps this was one of Obama’s central, political axioms: America has
always been about seeing ourselves as one nation, from many, diverse lands all
over this planet. One common
understanding of our “oneness” is that when push comes to shove, we’d give our
lives for our brothers & sisters. We
have many, unspoken & spoken American values that we could agree to hold
these all with respect.
Hearing some of the above comments, some white folks
would respond, “Well, none of my ancestors owned slaves.” This statement is as incongruous as building
an outside brick barbeque, and you tell your buddy, “Well, we’re all set to go. Did you see all the bricks?” “Yes, I did, but that’s all that’s over
there, no sand, no tools, no iron for the grill—nothing but bricks!”
White people are often completely unaware about their
privilege, as white people, in our nation.
So, this is all about education.
First, we need accurate, and not skewed information & knowledge,
about racism, and every other “ism” you could think of.
©Christopher Bear-Beam January 16, 2017
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