VERY LITTLE LIGHT BETWEEN MARTIN LUTHER KING AND BLACK LIVES MATTER

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     Our admiration for Dr. King is not accidental. We are inspired by his vision of universal dignity and see it as an important guide for common life in our society. The enduring legacy of Dr. King’s vision thus offers a moral common ground for working toward racial justice.

     I have found that this common ground erodes quickly, however, when the discussion reaches the subject of the role of two contemporary advocates for racial justice: the Black Lives Matter network and the Movement for Black Lives coalition.
     I have heard from parishioners, students and community members with misgivings about the character of the modern racial justice movement. Some are concerned that it is too radical to make a positive contribution to the current conversation about race. Some disapprove of protest as a means of addressing racial injustice, arguing that it is either inconvenient or ineffective. Some go so far as to equate these groups with the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazis.

     No matter how many times I hear it, this latter view of Black Lives Matter and, more broadly, the Movement for Black Lives, always catches me off-guard.
     First, it is important to note the organizational distinctions between these phenomena: Groups like the Ku Klux Klan are hierarchically structured networks, while the Movement for Black Lives is a coalition of loosely affiliated groups with different origins and leadership (including the Black Lives Matter network).

Second, they could not be more different politically or theologically from white supremacist organizations. 

     Whereas groups like the K.K.K. formed to assert racial superiority through intimidation and violence, including the abhorrent public lynching of black people, Black Lives Matter emerged in response to the alarming rates of shooting deaths of unarmed black people.
     White supremacist groups are racially segregated and persecute anyone who falls outside of their definition of racial purity (Jews, Muslims and all nonwhite people); Black Lives Matter brings together people from many religions and ethnicities who seek to affirm the dignity of black life.
     And while I see no logical basis of comparison between these groups, I find that the affirmation that “black lives matter” is a basic theological affirmation that is completely consistent with Dr. King’s vision of human dignity that we commemorate and celebrate each January...

~American Magazine

Read More:  https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2018/03/23/martin-luther-king-jr-and-dignity-black-lives-matter-network

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