It’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2021. A year that is already giving 2020 a run for its money. We’ve been saying that things can’t and likely won’t go back to “normal” and how we treat today should be no different.
Today, instead of sharing a romanticized and likely out-of-context quote from Dr. King, we encourage folks to take some time to re-commit to anti-racism work. We encourage you to think through the following questions:
1) Am I doing enough to combat racism at home, at work, in my community?
2) What else/what more can I be doing?
3) How might I inadvertently be helping to uphold white supremacy?
4) How can I show up better? Do the work versus talking about doing the work?
5) Am I ethically consuming where I get my information from? Am I following current-day changemakers and leaders?
Dr. King would have been 92 years old today. It’s been 53 years since he passed away and still we are fighting the same fight—for equity, justice, and the opportunity for all people to thrive. . We are fighting the same systems, the same institutions. The struggle is still taking place this very moment. This is why we cannot cherry pick the speeches, the writings, the quotes that make us feel good and ignore the rest.
We must recognize the entire humanity of Dr. King, his revolutionary leadership that called out white supremacy and racism, that challenged white moderates for their harmful rhetoric, and that focused on the intersections between economic exploitation, capitalism, and racism. We must not forget that the FBI was watching every move he made and called him the most dangerous man in America, and that he was assassinated just as he was starting to elevate the class and economic issues in this country.
We know these are uncomfortable truths, but there can be no justice without healing, without accountability. Legal Voice will continue to be bold and vocal on issues of racial equity because we recognize that the fight for gender justice is deeply tied to the fight for racial justice. The two cannot be separated. We will continue to fight for equity, for liberation, for happiness for every single person, nothing less.
Legal Voice
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