The most
dangerous people are not the extremists on either side of discourse but those
who consistently straddle the fence and try to both-sides their way to
rationalizing their stances thereby showing theirs is a morality of
convenience. In this year’s MLK post, we examine the most dangerous people in
America: the moderate. Certainly, the
extremists on both sides of the political coin pose an existential risk to the
rest of us as we know where their intentions lie; however, where does that so-called
reasonable thinker stand? Does he sit down when it comes time to rise up? Is
she one of the types who encourages such a gradual change that icebergs move
faster in comparison? Do they think there is always a better approach to
circumstances of the days as prefaced with assorted whataboutisms than what is
presented in the very real moment?
Just to be
real, a LOT of people need to sit this one out and watch the real ones
show them how we get things done. Don’t shoot the messenger; take heed to the actual
words and do better.
Not limited to the conservatives among us; the moderates also have difficulty with the works in addition to the words Brother Martin spoke.Enquiring minds want to know Throughout
American history – and in the present date, we see that anti-Black racism has
always been a bipartisan effort. From limiting voting and diluting varying
voices to waving a boogeyman regarding what is taught in public schools, how we
wear our hair to work, and even how wearing masks during the past couple of
years, the people who are chillin’ on the sidelines unaffected fail to see how
their actions reflect on not only the larger community but also represents a
bit of NIMBYism on their parts. In a roundabout kind of way, they are the same
people who gladly fucked with us some nineteen months ago during our Hot Summer
coinciding with the Black Lives Matter protests nationwide but came up MIA when
the time to put substance behind these token actions such as the black profile
pictures on any social media platform and how their employers were quick to
poke out their chests about diversity and equality save two industries [banking
and environmental sciences, namely waste management] but silent like dead
church mice regarding equity.
These
moderates are always quick to form a taskforce over stuff that they know is
wrong but are too comfortable in their lanes to amend their errors. Maybe the
access toward certain societal privileges is too strong of a drug to put down
the crack pipe; an answer escapes them. Yet we know they are going to tell us
how to make our desires known by being devoted to order.
What is
order?
Order is defined as the following: the
prevailing mode of things; the rule of law or proper authority.
In my Allen Iverson voice, you’re talking
about order?
“Order
that prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive
peace which is the presence of justice; who consistently 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’. Shallow understanding from people of
goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill
will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
Brother
Martin wrote these very words in the Letter from a Birmingham Jail. He knew
what he was against back then – and the larger question is, do we? This is
larger than getting a law passed or some signature political legislation that
can all but ensure a successful reelection bid for one group of people or prove
to the rest of us that the set of laws that supposedly bind all of us are only
for me not thee as has been the case for most of this nation’s history.
Are we built
for it? Our moderate brethren have proven otherwise.
This link takes you to Letter from a Birmingham Jail.
For a First
World economy that has it all with highly ranked schools, medical facilities,
the world standard of language and banking, Americans as a whole have shown a
strong preference for overhyping some events while minimizing the contributions
of others as we live confidently in our comfort zones as we have find ourselves
not needing God save for those “Lord, help me” situations or when we want Him
to be our spiritual Santa Claus (ex. praying for a specific automobile when the
one we currently have suffices our needs). As a result, many congregants find
themselves with the “we take care of our own” mentality which in itself is
extremely insular. Why are we putting our Creator in a box? By doing so, we aid
the enemy in shrinking our effectiveness in Kingdom building through our
lukewarm reactions as we unintentionally slap back His helping hand.
This is what is meant by the danger of the moderate. We’re not limited to a Joe Manchin/Kyrsten Sinema/Susan Collins/Lisa Murkowski/Mitt Romney type of politician; sometimes all we have to do is take a
look within the mirror at ourselves to see a lukewarm individual resembles. In
the concept of this letter, Dr. King implored those who have the ears of masses
– white Birmingham-area pastors – to move the middle toward the side of justice
and equality as they enjoy the benefits of being spiritual kinfolk and
simultaneous skin folk to only be disappointed in their at best glacial efforts
in forcing this nation to live up to its lofty words written in the
Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Even more
painful than the openly pious folks who are presently whitewashing any ounce of
ink that bunks their cherrypicked lies that to them have become a reality of
sorts are those who are supposed to be standing in the gap but are nowhere to
be found.
Neither an interfaith
breakfast on the third Monday morning in January nor a stilted - and to an
extent, insincere - blended onetime (or twice) service can change the fact that
11 am on Sunday morning is still America’s most segregated hour some fifty
years later. Consequently, the moderates are perfectly content with platitudes
aplenty with a side of apathy since their titles, committees, and assorted
nonprofit organizations tend to provide them with a bit of social cover in the
event he or she says some really foul stuff that damages business reputations
and sullies friendships. Their overly cautiousness has presented them a
crossroads which no one is pleased with their cowardly inactions: As the OGs told us, poop or get off the pot.
When it
comes to moving beyond racial and economic injustice, the next person to say
these are societal issues and that the gospel has no real concern deserves to
be slapped across the face with a King James Version family Bible. Did Jesus
not treat both Gentile and Jew equally? Equally galling is the simple fact that
the moderate declines to rock the boat in favor of maintaining a status quo
that clearly benefits him because he is too worried about what the neighbors
may think if he sticks his pencil neck out of his mock turtleneck for the first
time in a pretty long time if not for the very first time.
With
apologies to the length of this post (well, not really – you’ve been reading my
blogs for nearly a decade and should know what to expect by now after nearly
500 posts, none of which have gotten me paid or anywhere closer to my dream of
becoming a fulltime writer), we know what extremists on the left and right look
like – and in Arkansas, it seems like the ones on the right get all of the
airplay in a contest to make some of the most head-scratching statements as
they overzealously beat their chests a brand of slaveholder religion that tells
them from one Sunday to the next that condemns everyone else to a existence of
subservience if not outright becoming a square in a peg hole. However, at least
we do know where they stand even as they attempt to pontificate two, four, six
or more years of falsehoods into a blatant superficial effort of being for all
people for one day. However, their moderate brethren have enjoyed the dual privilege
of their own adjacency to their harsher skin folk and the invitation from some
Black person to the proverbial cookout, and as a result, the turds in the
punchbowl they cannot stand to eat Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with are
the same ones who often provide them the lifestyles necessary to maintain their
pole positions in American society. With those advantage, it is no wonder why
they are the most dangerous allies Black Americans have.
