MLK's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is, for me, the quintessential text to emerge from the Civil Rights era. It is especially important in its capacity to explain the purpose of the struggle even when things look very bleak.
There he was in 1963, sitting in the lion's den as it were, decommissioned by the legal authorities and forcibly prevented from agitating in the streets. In the meantime, he was being criticized from every quarter. Yet he maintained his sense of purpose and his pursuit of justice. He even committed his views to paper -- to toilet paper, to be precise, since that was all he was given.
We talk of approaching the challenges presented by Prop 8 with love. MLK would agree. I always return to one passage in particular about law and its willful disobedience. I think that it is particularly apropos:
In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
I understand the other two parts plainly enough -- "openly" and "with a willingness to accept the penalty" -- but what did MLK mean about breaking the law "lovingly"? His meaning becomes clearer when he asserts, "I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time [of WWII], I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers." That is, I believe, what he means about breaking the law with love. One must break the law in service of your fellow woman and man. To do so selfishly, only out of narrow self-interest, is not a loving disobedience but rather a vainglorious one.
As we black people continue to celebrate achievements in human rights, we must always bear in mind the "loving" aspect to the endeavor. We fight for the rights of people we might not even know because to exclude or segregate is to coddle the enemies of love.
Whether we will it or not, the world will be looking to African Americans in the coming years to gage the barometer of human rights in the world, now that Obama has ascended the world stage. Who are we? What is our status? How are we truly treated by our white counterparts? And also how capable or competent are we? Are there more Obamas among us? In these many questions, what we have perhaps neglected to ask ourselves is "how do we as a community treat those who are struggling as well?" We must show ourselves to be loyal allies to all who struggle, not adversaries.
For me, what is most frustrating is that we can be easily drawn into interracial and inter-ethnic competition by consequence of the divide-and-conquer game that the establishment always plays. But those "games" are real, material battles over limited resources. However, Prop 8 presented no such competition: It was not economic. It was not a fight over ownership, real estate, or other resources. Rather, it was about dignity. The most clear analogy is that it was about where gay people sit on the marriage bus!
If as we have been told we are finally realizing the "dream" articulated by MLK those 45 years ago, then we should truly understand what it means. To my mind, it is not primarily about "getting our due." It is about getting the opportunity to show and be recognized for the "content of our character." Civil disobedience therefore continues to play a role. If we are not revealed to be loving, dignified, and consistent with our own values of human rights for all, then the dream will be for naught.
As MLK understood, the Civil Rights era was as much a test of our own mettle as it was a test of the establishment. We must therefore regard this time as both an opportunity and a challenge which we must meet, or again risk becoming a dream deferred.
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