In an effort to keep the Martin Luther King holiday from becoming just another day off from work, many groups and agencies, locally and nationally, are urging people to engage in a day of service in their communities.
This is a fine evolution, which we believe Dr. King, who strove to improve the lives of others while fighting for equality for all people, would endorse.
In addition to helping the less fortunate, however, today needs to be a day of reflection.
In March of 2006, some Snohomish County citizens were stunned to learn that members of the “Snohomish County National Socialist Movement” held a rally outside the Everett Events Center in an effort to recruit people to its cause – which is to “re-establish America as a white nation, with white standards.”
The disgust and opposition from citizens was swift and immediate. It was a good moment of awakening – some people were unaware that racist groups and people live, and recruit, among us.
But the National Socialist Movement is easy to identify as an enemy of equality – its members literally wear their hate on their sleeves.
What’s more troubling is the insidious racism in society that is rarely challenged or discussed.
That changed, for half a second, because of comic Michael Richards’ racist outburst in November. The man who was beloved because of his Cosmo Kramer character in “Seinfeld” quickly became hated. In anger and humiliation from bombing on stage, he shouted at hecklers, “He’s a (expletive)!” over and over.
At the time, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson observed: “I’m not saying that evil lurks in the hears of all men and women. But I am saying that as a society, we still haven’t purged ourselves of racial prejudices and animosities. We’ve buried them under layers of sincere enlightenment and insincere political correctness, but they’re still down there, eating at our souls.”
If we are honest, nearly all of us will admit that at one time or another, maybe even more often than not, we have heard of, or witnessed, someone telling a racist joke, spewing a racist epithet, or making a stereotypical remark about any given group. More often than not, no one objects, or says anything.
It shouldn’t take someone up on a stage to get us outraged. When we let racism pass, without saying a word, we are obviously part of the problem.
As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King today, we must acknowledge that racism still exists and that we have a long way to go before people are judged solely by their character, not their color.
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