How Long, Very Long!
The long legacy of slavery in America left horrible political and social birthmarks in the minds of millions. Slavery was the vehicle by which the institution of white supremacy sought to control the status of Black people through social and economic exploitation. In doing so, they hammered into the minds of millions white supremacy and the false concept of Black inferiority. Segregation was based on these falsehoods. Many of the followers of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s saw segregation fall with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but what they did not want to understand was even after this victory the battle against white supremacy had only just begun. Unfortunately, many in the Black middle class were short sighted and did not understand the rebellions in the ghettos of 1960s that saw American cities explode in violent actions that sought to end poverty, police abuse, and other forms of discrimination.
Unfortunately, many of the followers of MLK did not realize that it was more than they bargained for. In the famous MLK speech of 1965 titled “How Long, Not Long” many were hopeful that voting rights would be granted, and they were, but the struggle for justice and freedom is a long road not a sprint but a marathon that is still going on. Some in the Civil Rights Movement of the early 1960s went to sleep never to awaken again after the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was passed. That speech no longer has relevance in the 21st Century as police abuse and white terrorism continues. Despite King’s on words, Martin Luther King knew it would not be over and this is why he went on to oppose the war in Vietnam and support the sanitation workers in Tennessee. Those who controlled the joysticks of white supremacy hoped it was over and that Blacks folks would just go home and called it quits. This would not happen even though some folks did go home and go to sleep as if the struggle was over. It never ends until there is built a non-racial democratic society that does not seek to control others in the world or build a dictatorship of white supremacists. It is not over, not by a long-shot.
There are now more hate and white supremacist groups in America, a number far greater that MLK ever had to deal with, and headed up by a man that is seeking to become president again. Those that thought the Republicans would never allow Trump to become president the first time were sadly mistaken, and now he is preparing to do it again with full Republican Party support. Things change, they are never static, but social change is dynamic and can change in a heartbeat. Those that thought the Soviet Union would never collapse had the same short vision. Those that think the victories against segregation and voter suppression are permanent are also unaware of the power of white supremacy outlast progressive changes.
Those that thought that crime in poor neighborhoods was the new civil rights struggle did not understand the bigger picture of power that brought the crime and drugs into the neighborhood in the first place. Not long, but very long is a better understanding of what still is unresolved, and as Nelson Mandela put it the road to freedom is a very long road. The most common abuse today is police abuse along with mass incarceration of people of color, and white terrorism is an ugly sore that has come back to life
