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"Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals." -- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (b. 1929-01-15, d. 1968-04-04), Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 1963-04-15
[And this'd be why talking about structural racism is both a bigger deal than whether any one person is a bigot, and why it's so frustrating that mentioning the existence of structural racism makes so many people get defensive as though they were personally attacked.]
(no subject)
I have also been thinking about how many of these patterns repeat across bigotries. Recently I have been thinking about this famous passage from Letter from a Birmingham Jail:
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly 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 good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
and how this attitude applies to/pushes back against women's rights, queer rights, trans rights, disability rights....
(no subject)
I think about the passage you quoted a lot, yes. And in all the conexts you mentioned.