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I don't have any guilt. If the black has fear thats his problem. If I were black I would fear that my pants would fall down and my rims were more expensive than my car and my woman had more invested in her Indian weave than next months house payment.
The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt.
This is on the money. Some use the fear of black people, and the guilt of white people to their advantage and profit.
Things could be much better in this country if each group would acknowledge what MLK said here and apply it to their world view.
It would help if more people studied what Dr. King was talking about more closely, and applied it to daily life. Perhaps it would be more beneficial to race relations. One of the biggest issues with race relations is the amount of anger and distrust that exists in some people.
The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt.
One of the things that I have truly come to despise about the internet is the ability for folks to stumble upon quotes freely floating out in cyberspace devoid of all context. Quotations which can then be dropped into any discussion for no other reason than that they fit the perceived rhetorical flow of the argument. Like the quote above.
The line comes a lengthy speech that King gave at the Grosse Pointe High School outside of Detroit in 1966 a period in which rising Black militancy was steeling the thunder of King's non-violent movement. It was giving during a period in which King's leadership was being challenged by Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and others. It was given in a period when black racial violence erupted New York to Hunter's Point in California. In that historical context, in this speech King lays out the case for more than simply racial justice but economic justice as well and lays out his belief that non-violence remained the most effective tool to combat injustice.
Now I wanted to say something about the fact that we have lived over these last two or three summers with agony, and we have seen our cities going up in flames. And I would be the first to say that I am still committed to militant, powerful, massive, nonviolence as the most potent weapon in grappling with the problem from a direct action point of view. I'm absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt. And I feel that we must always work with an effective, powerful weapon and method that brings about tangible results.
In the above quotation King emphasizes that evoking white guilt for the crimes of slavery and discrimination and the economic disparities that it created along with the guilt of white inaction to correct those disparity where the basis of the entire non-violent movement that he and others created. That violence undermined the ability of the Civil Rights movement to appeal to the morality consciousness of white Americans.
King goes on to say:
"...it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.
And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity."
After a long expository on the unfulfilled promise of equality King concludes his remarks that contain the quote listed in the first post on this thread.
Now, let me finally say something in the realm of the spirit, and then I'm going to take my seat. Let me say finally, that in the midst of the hollering and in the midst of the discourtesy tonight, we got to come to see that however much we dislike it, the destinies of white and Black America are tied together. Now the races don't understand this apparently. But our destinies are tied together. And somehow, we must all learn to live together as brothers in this country, or we're all going to perish together as fools.
Our destinies are tied together. Whether we like it or not, culturally and otherwise, every white person is a little bit Negro and every Negro is a little bit white. Our language, our music, our material prosperity and even our food are an amalgam of Black and white, so there can be no separate Black path to power and fulfillment that does not intersect white routes, and there can ultimately be no separate white path to power and fulfillment short of social disaster without recognizing the necessity of sharing that power with Black aspirations for freedom and human dignity.
We must come to see--yes, we do need each other, the Black man needs the white man to save him from his fear, and the white man needs the Black man to free him from his guilt.
In this context guilt is not that of the conscience, but guit of the sin of racism, discrimination and economic injustice.
I cannot stress enough the importance of reading this speech in its entirety because it is as relevant today as it was when it was first given 47 years ago.
One of the things that I have truly come to despise about the internet is the ability for folks to stumble upon quotes freely floating out in cyberspace devoid of all context. Quotations which can then be dropped into any discussion for no other reason than that they fit the perceived rhetorical flow of the argument. Like the quote above.
The line comes a lengthy speech that King gave at the Grosse Pointe High School outside of Detroit in 1966 a period in which rising Black militancy was steeling the thunder of King's non-violent movement. It was giving during a period in which King's leadership was being challenged by Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and others. It was given in a period when black racial violence erupted New York to Hunter's Point in California. In that historical context, in this speech King lays out the case for more than simply racial justice but economic justice as well and lays out his belief that non-violence remained the most effective tool to combat injustice.
Now I wanted to say something about the fact that we have lived over these last two or three summers with agony, and we have seen our cities going up in flames. And I would be the first to say that I am still committed to militant, powerful, massive, nonviolence as the most potent weapon in grappling with the problem from a direct action point of view. I'm absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt. And I feel that we must always work with an effective, powerful weapon and method that brings about tangible results.
In the above quotation King emphasizes that evoking white guilt for the crimes of slavery and discrimination and the economic disparities that it created along with the guilt of white inaction to correct those disparity where the basis of the entire non-violent movement that he and others created. That violence undermined the ability of the Civil Rights movement to appeal to the morality consciousness of white Americans.
King goes on to say:
"...it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.
And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity."
After a long expository on the unfulfilled promise of equality King concludes his remarks that contain the quote listed in the first post on this thread.
Now, let me finally say something in the realm of the spirit, and then I'm going to take my seat. Let me say finally, that in the midst of the hollering and in the midst of the discourtesy tonight, we got to come to see that however much we dislike it, the destinies of white and Black America are tied together. Now the races don't understand this apparently. But our destinies are tied together. And somehow, we must all learn to live together as brothers in this country, or we're all going to perish together as fools.
Our destinies are tied together. Whether we like it or not, culturally and otherwise, every white person is a little bit Negro and every Negro is a little bit white. Our language, our music, our material prosperity and even our food are an amalgam of Black and white, so there can be no separate Black path to power and fulfillment that does not intersect white routes, and there can ultimately be no separate white path to power and fulfillment short of social disaster without recognizing the necessity of sharing that power with Black aspirations for freedom and human dignity.
We must come to see--yes, we do need each other, the Black man needs the white man to save him from his fear, and the white man needs the Black man to free him from his guilt.
In this context guilt is not that of the conscience, but guit of the sin of racism, discrimination and economic injustice.
I cannot stress enough the importance of reading this speech in its entirety because it is as relevant today as it was when it was first given 47 years ago.
This is why we need to study things more thoroughly and much closer. I didn't even know he gave a speech in Grosse Point,MI. I didn't even know there was more to his quote than that. I would not have known if I had not come across this.
I don't have any guilt. If the black has fear thats his problem. If I were black I would fear that my pants would fall down and my rims were more expensive than my car and my woman had more invested in her Indian weave than next months house payment.
Blacks can't own expensive things? When did that law pass?
Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapperJohn
How much would I need?
A lot more than you'll ever have. If you had it, you sure as hell wouldn't be here kibbitzing with me, that's for sure.
This is why we need to study things more thoroughly and much closer. I didn't even know he gave a speech in Grosse Point,MI. I didn't even know there was more to his quote than that. I would not have known if I had not come across this.
It isn't your fault, as I pointed out, it is the fault of the internet and those whose motivations while having the best intentions have may it far to easy to cobble quotes which upon repeating may have nothing to do with their original intent.
By the way, it has become a habit of mine to seek out any quotation not only for veracity but also for the original context in which they were written. It is a policy, while time consuming, has saved me from posting more erroneous posts than I care to acknowledge. It has also opened my eyes to some pretty interesting information, like this speech for instance.
What if me and 500 guys each kicked in $2 million...could we buy the government for $1 billion?
I didn't say "buy the government." I said that money and those that have it control the government, meaning the politicians we elect.
I can't tell you what a billion would get you. But it would surely get your voice heard so long as politicians have to raise multimillions to win elections. Favors must be returned.
Of course again, you already knew this.
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