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It’s always that time of year where my friends and strangers scour the inter webs for their absolute favorite MLK quote to post, and completely forget about it for the remaining 364 days until his birthday again the following year.
And it’s usually the same quote that they don’t believe in themselves, namely the one about judging someone by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. (2020 really showed a lot of people’s entire assholes re George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery).
So, in tradition of that happening, I decided to post a quote of MLK that is my favorite.
From Letter from Birmingham Jail:
I MUST make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr.
To read the whole letter in full (and I highly encourage you do!), click here.
Happy MLK Day!
