Justice: A message fit for a King

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By David W. Shelton | January 14, 2007 |

In celebration of one of our nation’s newest national holidays, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day is observed from schools to banks to churches. Dr. King was one of our nation’s greatest and most visible leaders in the last century. In fact, his legacy is so profound that more people will remember his speeches as well as some of the defining lines spoken by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

His was a voice of unity, a voice of hope. His vision was a “beloved community” that was not devoid of conflict, but made stronger by resolution of those conflicts. His message was not one of peace, but of nonviolence. Sometimes that’s a little difficult to understand. He sought out change. He sought out to put an end to injustice and segregation. He worked to wipe out prejudice.

These are among the many things for which he is remembered. He was a simple soft-spoken preacher who wasn’t trying to lead a movement. He just wanted to be an example.

And he was. For so many of us, he really was. He was an example of how to proclaim a message from the rooftops that would never die. His voice was silenced that horrible day in Memphis when he was gunned down, but his message still endures.

One element of his message is worth mention. King is quoted as saying, “if there is injustice anywhere, then there is injustice everywhere.” So I pose a simple question: is there injustice anywhere today?

Some of us would be quick to answer in the negative. In churches across the country, millions of people, both black and white, gather to celebrate this holiday. There is talk of unity, healing, and of course, the recitations of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. We’ll hear from lecterns across the land that we are beginning to see that dream come to fruition.

Little black boys and little black girls are indeed playing along side little white boys and little white girls. We’re seeing how Hispanic, Asian, African and Caucasian-Americans are all working together to bring out a better world for everyone.

But all is not well. There is still injustice.

The late Coretta Scott King, Dr. King’s widow, understood this. She knew full well that we can never have any semblance of the beloved community so long as any discrimination or prejudice remains. She knew that so long as we look at diversity from only a visceral level, there will always be a gaping hole of injustice in our communities.

That injustice is seen in the violent hatred toward those of other faiths, especially Muslims. Christian leaders unite all across the country to talk about diversity in their communities. But do they welcome those of other beliefs? In addition to the Muslims, what about Buddhists? What about Hindus? What about Wiccans? We are all part of our communities, and to exclude them from our national discussion on equality is as grave an injustice as the systemic racism of the 1960’s ever was.

Prejudice isn’t just an attitude, it is simply pre-judging. Just as so many people pre-judged others because of their skin color (some still do), there is indeed intense pre-judging based on a person’s religion. And finally, there is prejudging based on sexual orientation.

Are people in the GLBT community prejudged because they’re gay or lesbian? Absolutely. Sadly, we also pre-judge our straight counterparts in a similar manner. Prejudice is as subtle as it is ugly. And we see it from every clique, and from every group. What’s even more tragic is that the GLBT community is excluded from MLK observations all across the country.

There are no invitations, and there are no apologies. We’ve been told over and over again that the “gay activists” have “hijacked” the civil rights movement for their own nefarious purposes. But is it really all that different? Is our struggle for equality at all similar to that of our African-American brethren? Coretta Scott King thought so. In fact, she was a powerful spokeswoman for GLBT equality.

According to Reuters, She said in 1998, “I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice.” But she didn’t stop there. “But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere…I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.”

She spoke out for the GLBT community as her husband spoke out for the black community. But in the end, the greatest way for us to honor Dr. King’s message is to speak out for ourselves with the same sense of vision, conviction, integrity, and passion that we honor from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. There is indeed injustice, and it’s up to us to erase that injustice with equality.

It’s the least we can do.