MLK Loved the Dirty South

I've never really known the history of MLK Jr. I mean, I know that he fought for equality with blacks and whites, but I don't remember ever studying him in history class. Admittedly though, history is probably one of my least favorite subjects ever, so it could just be that I didn't pay attention to start with.

Living in the dirty south, and it being Monday, January 19, EVERYTHING down here is about MLK. Growing up in the NW, MLK day is basically a day when the mail isn't delivered. Down here they dedicate everything they do to him.

My daughter's school is in session today post-hurricane Ike, to make up for the two weeks that they missed because of no electricity, flooding, etc. Apparently it was a big deal to some parents that their kids were having to attend school on such an important day in history honoring one of the greatest people to walk the earth right next to Jesus (in their mind). The school, still having to make up days that they missed, decided that they would make the day an educational event all about MLK starting with an assembly program in the morning dedicated to no other than MLK of c course. The parents were invited and despite my not really caring if I attended or not, I went at the begging and pleading of my daughter at the breakfast table.

Please Note: Before you read further, I am in no way saying that racism is okay. Nor am I belittling the efforts and sacrifices of the great African-American's in our country's history or endorsing that what our white skinned forefathers did to slaves and the like were in any way okay.

I knew it was going to be interesting when I arrived at the church where the program was and I saw that I was one....count it...one of six white parents in attendance. This means that six parents out of a church full to capacity of 500 were white. Either the white people had to work today because they were white and didn't celebrate MLK day, or they knew something I didn't know. It ended up being the second option.

I was initially excited to take part in a true southern re-enactment/historical program about a person that was obviously very important to so many people down here. Then the first girl got up to speak. Everything was going so well, until she started talking about our white forefathers and how horrible they were and how bad white people were. I sat there, probably unknowingly with my jaw hanging open. Granted, our forefathers did some things that I don't agree with whatsoever, slavery and mistreatment of people of other skin tones being right up at the top, but this country wouldn't be what it is if we didn't have those forefathers. They did both right and wrong, but I don't think you can lump them into this horrible group of people simply because they were white. There was definitely a taint of anger in her voice while she was reading. And a lot of people in the crowd made their agreement known with a "Mmmmhmmm." "Yeah sista" or "Giiirrrrlllfrrieeendd."

The program went downhill from there for me. I didn't want to be offensive to anybody around me or make them even more angry at me simply because of the color of my skin (I felt so out of place), but I wasn't going to clap and cheer to endorse what they were saying up front. Isn't that the same as being silent trigirl82? To clap for something that you don't agree with? Fearing a lynching afterwards as a payback to what my forefathers did to them, I declined clapping for the things that I didn't agree with, and happened to be one of two people who didn't give a standing ovation to the student Martin Luther King Jr. who re-enacted the famous speech given at the Lincoln Memorial. There were tears and cheers, and everyone was on their feet...except me...and one other white girl across the isle from me. I don't know her reasons, but I'm not going to stand and endorse hatred for people with my very own skin color. I don't think hatred for skin color of any kind is okay.

Not a single person said a single thing to me the entire time I was there, before or after the program and every once in awhile I wondered if I was offending the hispanic lady who was sitting next to me, enthusiastically cheering, clapping, oohhhing, and awwing every time they flashed a picture of Obama on the screen.

I don't get it. I just don't get it. The days of slavery are over. Yet people can't move on. My generation is all young enough to not know the barriers of skin color, yet it seems that the formerly oppressed can't seem to get over it or at least reminding us how awful we were as white people. I did not oppress them. I did not enslave them. I did nothing to harm them, yet they have it out for us because we are white and horrible. I just don't get it. Doesn't it seem counterproductive to celebrate a monumental racially freeing day by sharing the hatred of people with white skin color? They kept using the word progress and showing clips of Obama using the word "Progress." Is it really progress if you can't let go of the past and let it anger you every time you talk about it, study it, present it to a group of people? Is that progress?

Obama was put on the same pedestal today as MLK. I will endorse that MLK was a person to be admired. He was a phenomenal being and had the good of everyone in mind. I truly think that he was a good person to the core. To place Obama, a person who we don't know what is going to do, who hasn't even become president yet (at least until tomorrow), up on a pedestal with someone who achieved so much in their short-lived life is ignorance. To be so excited about a president simply because of his skin color is absurd to me. If the white people were to rejoice every time a white president got elected we would be considered racist pigs and discriminating against others. Now that a black person is elected (and we are made well aware of that in the south mind you) it is ALL about skin color. Nevermind what he is actually going to do as a president. We will back him up because he is black. I doesn't make sense to me. I could care less if our president is yellow, brown, black, white, purple, green, man, woman, gay, straight. What a president does is definitely more important and "Progressive" than what color his skin is.

I guess I'll climb down off my soapbox now. I wish some other poor white soul had been in attendance with me today. It was definitely awkward and uncomfortable. I thought about walking out, but it was like a train wreck that I couldn't take my eyes off of. There was some definite anger towards the white people for things that we, today, cannot change or make different in our history. The best thing we can do is to make sure that history does not repeat itself in any way. Educate yourself. Learn from other people. Love differences. Even grow to love the white people, because as horrible as you make them sound, they actually did some great things for this country.