MLK

Today was Martin Luther King day, and I wondered why it was today, MLK's birthday was on the fifteenth, turns out you can thank LBJ and the Holiday Reform Act for putting certain federal holidays on Monday to encourage three day weekends and allow federal employees who work away from their family a longer visit during the holidays, MLK day isn't specifically covered under it, but it kind of set the standard it seems.

Anyway, along with the holiday we also got to queue up various sorts making sure everyone knows how aware they are that MLK was a pretty big deal, and also that racism still exists. Both statements are true as it happens, and the latter is not really addressed enough, but it sorta bugs me that it only seems to come up for a lot of people on days like today. Hell I am kind of doing it myself, though at least I am consistent when it comes to talking about racism no matter what day it is.

...

Not actually sure that is better come to think of it, oh well.

I've seen some exhortations from African-Americans on social media with the goal of getting white people to stop telling everyone what Dr. King would have thought about things today, pointing out that if we didn't you know, kill him, we might actually be able to find out. It's true, but it also seems pretty redundant to even try to predict what he would have though, my guess is he would be appalled by the lack of progress, and encouraged by what progress was made at the same time, dude knew he was up against a society built on racism and knew that the backlash against the movement to equality would be pretty ugly, I am not really sure what point there is to be made by anyone, but particularly white people on the internet, putting words in his mouth.

And no, when I say "we" killed him I do not mean every white person in the country literally is responsible for his murder, but as representatives, and beneficiaries of the policy and culture that made his assassination possible, we do have a responsibility to try to prevent it happening again.
We can do that in a lot of ways, first of all, vote, roughly half the eligible voters in the country don't, but we still do live in a time where votes matter, maybe not much, but there are a shitload of people out there, not much adds up to quite a lot in the end.
Think about privilege, simply by being white in America we have a lot of advantages, one of them being the ability to not have to think about racism, we grow up knowing that life will treat us fairly, or at least if it is unfair, it isn't because of the color of our skin, I don't know if any of us can really comprehend what it is like to grow up without that confidence and security, but we can try, and when we are aware of our advantages we can perhaps work on not abusing them.
Fight racism, call out hate speech sure, but also confront the little things, call out jokes that rely on stereotypes, confront your uncle when he makes sweeping generalizations about an entire community, chastise your friends when they do something that makes a minority uncomfortable, this is something only you can do safely, micro-aggression's like that are everywhere and nonstop for people of color, and it is both not worth their time, and kind of unsafe, for them to confront every instance of it, but you can, and you should.

That's all I got tonight.