MLK DAY CELEBRATION REMARKS
February 5th, 2009 by Racial Justice JBMARTIN LUTHER KING DAY CELEBRATION
Remarks made by Jim Bundy at the celebration of January 18, 2009
I have been part of the Martin Luther King Day Celebration committee since coming to Charlottesville nine years ago. I’m happy to have contributed in a small way to keeping this event going for the last nine years, grateful to those who have seen to it for 25 years, and glad to be able to contribute a few words on this 25th annual celebration in Charlottesville.
The committee chose a quotation from Dr. King to go on the poster advertising this year’s celebration, and therefore maybe to be one of the themes for today. It says, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” And so I want to build my remarks around that thought: “things that matter.” Things that matter.
One thing that matters is that we are here today. It matters of course because Dr. King is worthy of being remembered and honored, because he touched people’s hearts and changed people’s lives, because of his eloquence and his courage and his importance to our history, because of what he stood for. It matters that we lift up such a person so that he can continue to offer us inspiration.
There are lots of other reasons why it matters that we are here today. Let me speak of one that occurs to me as a white person. Those of you who are African American are welcome to listen in, but let me speak just for a moment as a white person and direct my words particularly to white people. There is a phrase that has come into more and more use in recent years, the notion of white privilege. It’s a concept that hadn’t begun to really sink in for me until about a dozen years ago. It basically says that there are some privileges that white people enjoy in this society merely because they are white and that they may not be fully conscious of. It is not just that African Americans have been deprived of many rights. That’s certainly true and the civil rights movement has been largely about correcting those injustices.
But there is this other matter too. It doesn’t matter how good-hearted or well-intentioned you may be or whether once upon a time you marched with Dr. King or what other civil rights credentials you can pull out of your pocket, we all as white people have privileges that we may not have asked for, but they are there and we need to deal with them. All white people have them, and all white people need to deal with them, not just bigoted white people. And one of the things that falls in the category of white privilege is that we have the option, in a way that African Americans and other people of color in our society do not, we have the option of not thinking about race. We have the option of pretending that race is not important. “Oh, I’m not prejudiced. Race isn’t an issue for me.” But it is an issue. Has always been an issue in this society, is still an issue on the almost eve of the inauguration of President Obama. And one of the things white people can do-it’s a small thing, but without it not much else is going to happen as far as we’re concerned-one of the things we can do is refuse to choose not to think about race. We can shed this particular privilege. And being present at a Martin Luther King Day celebration matters because on at least this one day we have not taken the option of “not thinking about it”. Of course, it’s not a matter of just one day. If it is, it doesn’t mean anything. But if this day can serve as a reminder that it’s important to make that choice every day, then it matters that we are here today. And let me applaud the initiative of the Charlottesville City Council reported in Friday’s paper, to be intentional about having conversations about race. Jeremiah Wright is a pastor in my denomination and in the midst of all the furor about Pastor Wright during the campaign his church and our denominational leadership called for sacred conversations about race in our churches. There is, of course, the same need in our communities.
But it also matters, as I have just suggested, how we are here today, in what spirit we are here today. It matters that we don’t treat Dr. King like a celebrity. We’re pretty good at the celebrity thing in our society. We know how to make celebrities out of people. We’re not so good at dealing with race. And if King day is part of our larger efforts to deal with race as individuals, as a community, as a society, then it matters. If it is a matter only of finding new ways to focus the limelight on Dr. King and give him our annual round of applause, then it doesn’t matter so much.
It matters that we remember not just Dr. King but all the people who have risked themselves and some who have lost their lives in the effort for civil rights and the journey toward a beloved community. It is important to remember the people who are not so famous as Dr. King but who have also been people of courage and conscience. It’s why there is an award given each year as part of this celebration, but even the people who receive that award also stand for many others in this community who have done things that were not easy. And if we remember the not-so-famous and the not-at-all famous people who are part of the journey toward the beloved community, then we will know that King Day is not just about Dr. King but is about all of us. It matters that we take King Day personally.
It matters that we remember that Dr. King was not only about civil rights for African Americans. He spoke out against the Vietnam war, against the advice of some of his friends and advisers. He knew that poverty is an issue and that unrestrained capitalism is an issue. He knew the cause of black people in Alabama and Chicago was connected to the cause of black people in South Africa and people straining toward their freedom all around the globe. One of the sayings he repeated most often was that a denial of justice anywhere was a denial of justice everywhere. He knew oppression comes in many forms. And it all matters, not just one part of it.
And he knew that it is not just what you fight against, whether it is segregation or war. It is what you are for. One way he described what he was for was to speak of a beloved community. And so I am called to such a vision too, a vision where all God’s people-black and white, old and young, women and men, straight and gay-where all God’s children come together as brothers and sisters. It matters that we know not only what we are against, but what we are for. It matters that we see ourselves as part of a movement toward a beloved community. May God be with us as we continue that journey.