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Sometimes The Message Is Lost On White People

Recently, I was at an MLK Day luncheon in Ithaca and the lunch itself was to raise money, awareness and activism in honor of the man many believe to be one of America's greatest, if not the greatest, activists. The room was filled with people of various racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds, but the majority, a far greater majority than which represents the country, was white.

There were folks singers, singing Arlo Guthrie's response to Francis Scott Keys' Star-Spangled Banner, the folk classic, This Land is Our Land to start it off. Then there was a Native American couple, speaking in their tribe's native language, telling us about their land and immigration. Then a group of angry high school kids, screaming about not getting parts, because of the lack of diversity. This all ended with different groups, all of different backgrounds, introducing their workshop programs, all to follow the luncheon. Very few people listen, as they ate their free food. Privileged people, listening to those on the "stage," speak of poverty, oppression and civil rights. They clapped furiously at first, then a little softer, their muttering soon matching the volume of those with the microphone. Then we took our kids and left, off to another center, where a choice of activities was given, ours choosing play, although it did consist of an urban game.

It dawned on me, especially after living in Ithaca for a few years, that white people, especially white liberals, love being connected to activism and what they feel is action directed at important social issues, but how much they hear, from those who are actually affected by the topics they choose to champion, is very little. Sympathy is not empathy, and old adages aside, most of these people, despite dressing in homeless-chic, are walking in their own designer shoes and always have. Poverty may inflict itself upon them, but there was no life of sorrow on their faces. Then again, those who have endured it, persevere, so they hide it from their white counterparts. Many of the speakers, especially the younger ones, had anger in their voices, apparently missing the point and the message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Many quoted others, seemingly forgetting his words. At one point yesterday, I asked my boss, who was there, "Did they even mention MLK?" She paused, though, then looked up, "NO!"

As I've said before, one of the reason many whites have a hard time embracing Dr. King's philosophy, is that it's so similar to that of Jesus. In The Bible, Jesus is a very different man, than those who follow are taught about in church and if one were to believe what is taught in out culture, Jesus is even further removed from how he's depicted in The Bible. Dr. King, like Jesus, wanted those to do for others, before themselves. To do for the cause, understanding they may never see the fruits of their labor in life. To understand that their children and grandchildren, and those of their neighbors, would prosper from their work. It's a tough pill to swallow for many and as someone who has seen the struggle of whites and blacks, who do, not for them, but for their children and their children's children, it's done similarly, but with a completely different understanding of why and why it matters.

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit 

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