Man's Inability to Hear
Irrevocably, the tragic violent
death of Dr. Martin Luther King,
Ji. has moved into a new phase
of the race problem, one of increased and widespread violence,
riots and death. This new phase is
and will be characterized and
stimulated primarily by "white
racism" which will be responded
to by black militants, disillusioned
blacks and tired blacks. The time
is past for mere white talk and
white promises. The time is for
action. Dr. King proposed that his
non-violent direct action program
for this summer deal with the
issues most crucial for the blacks:
economic and educational problems.
Our whole campaign, therefore,
will center on the job question,
with other demands, like housing, that are closely tied to it.
We feel that much more building of housing for low-income
people should be done. On the
educational front, the ghetto
schools are in bad shape in
terms of quality, and we feel
that a program should be developed to spend at least a
thousand dollars per pupil.
Often, they are so far behind
that they need more and special
attention, the best quality education that can be given.
Because I doubt the willingness
of whites to take any type of action, particularly with regard to
race relations, I see death and
violence for many guilty persons.
There is no such thing as an innocent bystander.
On April 4, 1968, the white man,
with feelings of hopelessness and
helplessness, heard the resounding
cry of the Negro. Dr. King was well
aware of the differences in interpretation of the Negroes cry before
he died:
There is a literal depression in
the Negro community. When you
have mass unemployment in the
I Negro community, it's called
a social problem; when you
have mass unemployment in the
white community, it's called a
depression.
With fearful predictability, the
Negroes' cry gave way to the cry
of the white man, fearing for his
own life and property. For possibly
the first time since the "Great
Depression" the white man knew
within his heart a feeling of helplessness, only a part of what the
Negro feels and lives every day of
his life. The helplessness of'de-
piession has been exchanged for
the helplessness of affluence.
So what will be the outcome of
man's inability to hear? If we can
hear, Dr. King says:
If this society fails (in solving
the Negroes and poor whites
problems and frustrations), I
fear that we will learn very
shortly that racism is a sickness
unto death.
D.v
> A. Greenfield
