A CALL FOR A NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
INSPIRED BY DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. AND THE REV. VERNON
JOHNS
(This paper was read at a meeting of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for Nonviolence and then promptly ignored after that. We quickly found out the institute had turned Martin Luther King, Jr. into a multiculturalist. The perfidity of man: black and white! Even the most enlightened blacks and whites are now working for multicultural segregation. Is there any hope?)
The
major reason why sociology has not had and probably will not have much of
an impact on staving off the triumph of white supremacy at the turn of the
century is that, like American liberalism itself, sociologists fail to see
the primacy of race and racism in explaining the character and behavior of
the United States is the factor of race and racism. The failure to see that
the American system is a combination of racism and capitalism, rather than
race or capitalism separately, has contributed to the American left's inability
to understand the nature of the United States. American liberalism and American
sociology have never been radical forces. Instead, they have accepted the
overall system and worked within that system for gradual and cyclical changes
in the structures of inequality. This allows American liberals and sociologists
in particular to "feel good" about themselves (after all, they are fighting
social evils), but not enough for the overall populace to become alarmed.
For instance, sociologists feel great empathy for the white working class
and the suffering black population at the same time. This lets them avoid
confronting the racism of the white working class, a class they have always
let off lightly, and white racism in general, preferring to focus on the
evil influence of corporate money on America. Liberals have always been able
to have their cake and eat it too. They have been able to appear radical,
while not really being radical; to oppose racism, while not really confronting
white racism.
American radicalism has also never really been a radical force because, like
American liberalism, it has refused to understand the role of racism. It
has instead traditionally focused on class and other economic inequalities.
The end result of the failure of the American left is that America is still
a solidly racist and comparatively unregulated capitalist system.
A review of all the competing theories explaining the American system and
find that all of them underplay the role of racism in American life. Even
those theories that acknowledge that America is clearly a racist country,
do not see that even America's culture and values with their emphasis on
a mean-spirited moralism are the result of racism.
The American left has never been able to accept the way the United States
works in actuality. The United States still maintains a modified caste system
based primarily on black skin color and other African features. This caste
system has always weakened the white working and middle classes' interest
in fighting the excesses of capitalism, as many whites are fearful of, and
ever watchful of, the blacks on the bottom. Compared to other advanced industrial
societies, this split in the American white working and middle classes has
allowed only slight modifications of the abuses of the American capitalist
system. Non-black ethnic groups have been able to advance economically, stepping
on or over blacks at the bottom, by accepting and working within the overall
racist-capitalist system. This acceptance of the system means also accepting
American racism. The American left has contributed to this situation by refusing
to admit how the system works. Instead, the left periodically adopts a kind
of populism wherein they maintain the absolute fiction that the abused minorities
can bind together to combat the system. (They cannot and will not as long
as whites hold the power.) Current non-black ethnic groups can give lip-service
to their solidarity with the plight of blacks, all the while gradually stepping
over them. The minorities may form temporary alliances with blacks that are
in their self-interests, but even the Hispanics will eventually step over
the blacks and become honorary whites.
Currently, sociologists and other liberals have adopted a new populism known
as multi-culturalism. Sociologists, as a part of the general liberal trend,
have traded the traditional emphasis in liberalism on inequality in the economic
structure of America for an emphasis on dividing scarce resources among the
various racial/ethnic groups. This new racial/ethnic liberalism has split,
and therefore, weakened the American left. Opting out of the multi-cultural
left have been the neo-conservatives, the traditional economic liberals,
and "radicals" who focus on inequalities in the capitalist system.
Multi-culturalism has also split the black intellectual community with the
rise of many black neo-conservative writers. Moreover, multi-cultural
sociologists and other multi-cultural liberals have strengthened the forces
of white racism as many Americans see multi-culturalism as a complete rejection
of the traditional American way.
One of the major themes of our 1994 book is that the United States has become
like the South. This piece of very bad news, however, actually provides us
with a great opportunity. For if the United States is like the south, then
we can apply the philosophy and strategy of Martin Luther King, Jr. to the
entire US instead of to just one region as Dr. King did.
IN ORDER TO APPLY DR. KING'S APPROACH, WE NEED A NEW VERNON JOHNS
We need a new Vernon Johns to open the way for a new Martin Luther King,
Jr. As you know, Vernon Johns was a forerunner of Dr. King who called on
blacks to fight against the apartheid system. As a forerunner, he faced
resistance from both the white and black communities of the South. In Montgomery,
Alabama, as elsewhere in the South, there was an intimate relationship between
the more progressive whites and the black leadership. They cooperated so
the apartheid system ran smoothly. This insured that fewer people were hurt
in any needed forceful reinforcement of the system. But it also meant that
progressive whites and blacks had become disarmed intellectually because
they had worked out a mutual accommodation to apartheid.
Vernon Johns opposed that accommodation, and this was what made him appear
so radical in his time. He kept getting fired from his preaching and teaching
positions, the most notorious firing being that from the Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church in Montgomery, a firing which made way for his successor, the Rev.
Dr. King.
I. FIRST MAJOR OBSTACLE
The situation we face today is much worse than that faced by Vernon Johns
in two major ways. The first major obstacle is the disappearance of the
historical north and, among whites, an emphasis on neoconservative separatism
and, among blacks and white radical-liberals, an emphasis on multicultural
separatism. Historically, most blacks lived in the rural south. This physical
segregation allowed the creation of a more racist society in the south and
a less racist society in the north. And also historically, progressive forces
made great progress by pitting the less racist north against the more racist
south. By appealing to the north, progressive forces won two major victories
in the field of race relations: the victory over slavery and the defeat of
the legal apartheid system.
But the demographic situation has now changed. Blacks have moved out of the
rural south to all the major metropolitan areas of our nation. The result
has been that the attitudes and behaviors that were once characteristic of
the south only, are now characteristic of the entire United States. And we
can now truly say that the United States is uniformly and solidly a racist
nation.
The New Racial System
We would like to comment on the new racist system in America before proceeding
to the second major obstacle facing us. The new racist system is not based
on legal discrimination, but rather on constant, pervasive, and surreptitious
discrimination. And it is clear that the white community has no political
desire to change this situation.
The new racial system is backed by a new racist ideology known as
neo-conservatism. While the old racist belief system was based on a belief
in the biological inferiority of blacks, the new belief system insists on
the sociological inferiority of blacks. Blacks are sociologically inferior
because their communities are falling apart. Thus the new racism has dropped
biology, and taken up the terminology of sociology.
The new litany of neo-conservative racism goes something like this. In the
United States, we have cleared the legal hurdles to success, thereby making
the society open to equality of opportunity. If blacks have not been successful,
they have only themselves to blame. And the primary factor explaining the
failure of blacks is to be found in the deterioration of the black community
and other black institutions.
According to the litany, instead of taking any responsibility for their own
failures, blacks simply blame whites for all their problems. The key racist
phrase of neo-conservatism is "individual responsibility". Of course, white
neo-conservatives never take any "individual responsibility" for their role
in the continuing system of discrimination against blacks.
Neo-conservatism has been very successful. It has intellectually devastated
the progressive community. For the neo-conservatives have successfully asserted
that we progressives cannot even use the label of "racist," except against
those who believe in the old-time biological racism. We say to hell with
that! Neo-conservatives are racists, sophisticated racists, but nevertheless
racists. If we cannot use the label of "racist," then what do we really have
as an intellectual weapon in the fight against racism?
The End of the Second Reconstruction
Politically speaking, we find ourselves in a period of the second reconstruction
and on the verge of switching completely to a "plural but equal" system of
segregation.
The first reconstruction that followed the end of the civil war was a period
in which (under the cover of supposedly being reconstructed) southern whites
started to take back all the power for themselves, imposing an economic slavery
on blacks. In our second reconstruction, following the destruction of the
apartheid system, whites (under the cover of equality-of- opportunity) are
again taking back the power they feel they lost. And their main instrument
of revenge was been the presidency of Ronald Reagan who was successful in
turning back the clock on many previous gains in economic equality.
The United States has not had a liberal president since 1968. Indeed, one
can mark the political death of liberalism in America with the riots at the
Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. Both Jimmy Carter and
Bill Clinton are clearly in the spirit of neo-conservatism. They are both
southern governors who ran on an anti-government platform (which is just
the opposite of the liberal's faith in the power of government to reform
the nation in a positive direction).
II. SECOND MAJOR OBSTACLE
Of the two Democratic presidents, Clinton is quite clearly the more
neo-conservative. In his first election campaign he went out of his way to
impress white voters that he would not cow-tow to blacks. And he did this
by engineering a deliberate insult of Jesse Jackson over the Sister Souljah
affair. In his re-election campaign, Clinton committed himself to seriously
weakening the American system of welfare.
The second major obstacle facing us that Vernon Johns did not face: the existence
of a competing paradigm in the black community. Vernon Johns did not have
to compete against a full-fledged existing paradigm. While the black leadership
in the South publicly condoned apartheid, privately they condemned it. Their
accommodation to apartheid was built up over years of trial and error, and
did not constitute a full-fledged theory or paradigm. This made it easier
for Vernon Johns and Martin Luther King, Jr. to have their voices heard.
Multi-culturalism
The situation today, however, is quite different. While whites have stressed
separatism through their neo-conservatism, blacks have responded with their
own separatism. The whole thrust of what has become known as political
correctness emphasizes black separatism. Think of some of the key phrases
of the multi-cultural movement: a separate African-American culture; the
call for a multi-cultural approach; an African-American history of the United
States; and the very insistence on being called African-American. On this
last point, the danger of insisting on being called African-American is that
it encourages whites to compare blacks to the various white immigrant groups.
This then reinforces white neo-conservatism, as whites feel confirmed in
their belief that blacks have failed to assimilate because of their own internal
problems. Multi-cultural separatism is backed by other forms of separatism
such as the philosophy of the black muslims and their chief spokesperson,
Louis Farrakhan.
Multi-culturalism has been backed and protected by what has become known
as the desire to be politically correct. Alternative ways of viewing our
current problems are usually condemned as "racist" by the righteously indignant
multi-culturalists, thereby preventing any real discussion of alternatives.
The dominance of multi-culturalism in American liberalism leads one to think
that the situation has to get worse before it gets better. American political
paradigms are only discredited and then discarded when the political situation
becomes so bad that the paradigm holders and the paradigm itself are discredited.
A CALL FOR A NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT INSPIR
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. AND THE REV. VERNON JOHNS
(cont.)
The United States government has
also backed multi-cultural separatism. After all, when the government offers
monetary and other support for separate ethnic groups, it automatically creates
a constituency interested in continuing separatism. Indeed, we have many
academic and professional service industries devoted to politically correct
multi-cultural separatism. Instead of studying a separate black culture,
this industry ought to change its emphasis to studying white people and mainly
to studying why white people cling so intensely to their racism.
We want to stress that the emphasis on multi-cultural positions does not
threaten neo-conservatism, but rather compliments it and is, therefore, an
accommodation to white racism. Furthermore, the stress on politically-correct
separatism makes it difficult for new voices to be heard and almost guarantees
that no new Vernon Johns will appear.
My advice to those on the multi-cultural left is that they should realize
that no real progress towards a decent society can be made in America without
overcoming racism. Hispanics may have more success than blacks in integrating
into American society, but they will integrate into a second-rate, ineffective,
and racist society.
HOW THE PHILOSOPHY AND TACTICS OF DR. KING ADDRESS THESE TWO MAJOR
OBSTACLES
The King philosophy can overcome the problem of the absence of an historical
north, for seeing the United States as the South means that the world community
can now be seen as the north. We can appeal to the world community as Dr.
King once appealed to the north against the south. We should follow the King
approach and appeal to the world community for help in forcing the United
States to change. Because of its solid racism, one cannot expect the United
States to change without this "outside intervention."
An old criticism of Dr. King that still circulates today is that he was,
in a sense, too white, that he wanted blacks to assimilate completely into
white culture. Nothing could be further from the truth. Dr. King never wanted
to assimilate into white southern racist culture. (He may have been guilty
of naivete about the non-racist nature of the North, but that is a minor
fault compared to his many virtues.) Similarly, a renewed demand for full
acceptance of blacks into America does not call for assimilation into white
culture. Seeing the United States as the South means that the present United
States culture is too racist for any decent person to accept. Present American
culture has to change.
As regards the second problem, the philosophy of Dr. King can overcome black
separatism and black accommodation to neo-conservative racism. Dr. King demanded
full acceptance of blacks into American society. We should demand no less.
We should not settle for a new "separate but equal," under the guise of "plural
but equal," set of black institutions in the name of a so-called progressive
multi-cultural philosophy.
The problem with black separatism is that it has no higher goals and it does
not think in the long run. It does not think in larger terms. Dr. King was
a man beyond black and white. He had larger goals than those limited to
present-day American racist politics.
The real tragedy we face today is that there is no real civil rights movement.
No one is really challenging today's multi-cultural accommodation to so-called
subtle or "new" racism. Progressive whites and blacks seem to have been totally
paralyzed by this "subtle racism." They almost use this phrase as an excuse
for not making progress on the civil rights front. (As if there was anything
subtle or new about discrimination! The problem is that we lack the political
will to root it out.)
SPEAKING TO THE WHITE COMMUNITY
So those are the two major problems that Dr. King's philosophy can overcome.
But there's much more; Dr. King's approach can overcome the real problem
facing both white and black progressives, and that is the lack of an approach
that speaks to the white community, and from there to the world community.
The obvious question to multi-cultural black separatists is how are blacks
going to be successful in their attempts to strengthen the African-American
community when whites basically control all the political and economic power
in the country? And given that whites control virtually everything, we have
to have an approach that speaks to them.
So what should be the message to the white community? We have to appeal to
the self-interests of whites. We have to stress that whites themselves have
paid a terrible price for their racism. They have created a society and
government that doesn't really work. You don't have to take our word for
this. Just listen to any doom-saying conservative spokesperson, like Rush
Limbaugh. Everyone seems to agree that the United States is falling apart,
but of course they blame different sources, the blacks being the most popular
source of blame. Whites pay a terrible price for their racism in an ineffective
government that cannot insure job security, that cannot insure an effective
economic net, that cannot insure health insurance.
The realization that the United States is the South creates the possibility
of a positive message to whites. Just as the South paid a terrible economic
and moral price for its systems of slavery and apartheid, the current US
will pay a terrible price for its continuing racial separatism. This separatism
will only lead to the US falling farther and farther behind the rest of the
world economies. This will mean in the long run that the US will become the
most impoverished of the advanced industrial societies.
The failure to talk rationally with whites, instead of confronting them with
hostility, has brought us to the verge of a new era of long-term segregation.
Bill Clinton signed the welfare bill that overturned the nation's commitment
to provide an assured safety net for the least fortunate in our nation. This
is the precursor to the serious weakening of affirmative action, which means
there will not be much to distribute to the disadvantaged multi-cultures..
Turning to the global stage, we can make both a moral and an economic appeal.
First of all, the entire world is interested in fighting the scourge of racism.
We can tap into this concern. Secondly, we should stress that in the long-run
the world community cannot permit its largest economy to continue with an
inefficient and immoral racist system. The US has to be forced into the modern
world, just as the South had to be forced twice into modernity.
If you accept the idea that the entire United States has become like the
South, then
WHAT SHOULD WE BE DOING?
We make five suggestions.
I. ADOPT AN APPROACH INSPIRED BY MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. AND NOT BY
AFRICAN-AMERICAN SEPARATISTS
Apparently, there is no market for an approach to today's problems inspired
by Dr. King. We used to rail against the racism of publishers, but we now
see that their political censorship really reflects the larger racism of
both blacks and whites in our racist society. And we would say that most
blacks today are racist in the sense that rather than challenging the racist
system, they have accommodated to it.
Blacks in a sense have their own American dilemma. For although every January
they celebrate Dr. King and his message, few appear to believe that Dr. King's
philosophy has any relevance to present reality. Instead, they increasingly
revise history and turn Dr. King into a multi-cultural separatist. We would
like to remind everyone that Dr. King was not a multi-culturalist. If he
had lived he may have drifted with liberalism into a new multi-cultural
liberalism, but that would primarily be the result of a man living past his
times.
II. FOLLOW AN EDUCATION STRATEGY INSPIRED BY DR. KING
Instead of a black history month and multi-culturalism, we should ask for
a non-racist history month and a non-racist culture. There should be one
history, not one hundred plus histories for each ethnic group in America.
(We don't want black history, we want non-racist history. And we think that
our book goes a long way to satisfying the demand for a fair and just history.
The book also satisfies the black demand for attention to influential black
personalities for there were many blacks who presented radical alternatives
to racist policies.)
In this educational strategy, we can get young people involved in pushing
for non-racist books, such as the one we wrote, getting such books accepted
by colleges and then by high schools.
III. START THE SEARCH FOR A NEW MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
There are many people with charisma, but few with the right message. If we
push a new Dr. King-inspired message, a spokesperson, someone with the right
mix of charisma and message, will appear.
IV. LEGAL AND ACTIVIST STRATEGY
After a reasonable delay to give whites a chance to respond to the new
integrationism, the new movement will have to take its case to the various
world organizations, such as the United Nations and the world court. The
United States cannot and will not change by itself. It is too solidly racist.
Our political demands have to be backed by the clout of world opinion and
possible world economic sanctions and boycotts.
The progressive forces in the US should follow a strategy similar to the
one that brought success over apartheid in South Africa. So while we are
looking for a new Dr. King, we should also be looking for an American Nelson
Mandela.
V. DEMAND STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE UNITED STATES
We want real governmental and economic change in America to insure that this
time nothing stops us from attaining full integration of blacks into American
society. Just one of the changes we want is a change in the mandate of the
Supreme Court so that the court has the goal, the will, and the staff to
fight racism on a massive scale. Heavy fines against those who discriminate
could pay for the education of every black child who wants to go to college.
WHAT ARE OUR CHANCES OF SUCCESS?
If American society and others of the left continue their multi-cultural
separatism, the chances are not good. But if we confront neo-conservative
racism, abandon multi-cultural separatism, and promote full integration,
our chances of success are very good. After all, the world is heading in
the direction of increased equality, and in the long run the United States
cannot be permitted to lag behind. Just as the South could not in the long
run lag behind, but was forced to change, so too will the United States be
forced to change.
RACISM IS NOT PERMANENT. IT IS TOO IMMORAL.
IT IS TOO DESTRUCTIVE. IT IS TOO INEFFICIENT. IT
CANNOT ENDURE.