A Photograph Forty Years Later
04 April 2008 3:00 pm by Taylor Marsh
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| John McCain at the Lorriane Motel via Marc Ambinder |
Stunning photo.
Considering Senator John McCain voted against the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday back in 1983, to go to the Lorraine Motel today took some spine. Of course he
was booed. He earned those catcalls for his vote from long ago. He had to hear them in order to get past them. This video shows how uncomfortable
McCain is talking about his vote. He should be, because it took him way too long to make this journey. It’s a reminder of where we’ve come from in the
20th century and how difficult it is for people to undo the wrongs marked by the history they’ve made themselves.
I’m not a supporter of John McCain. I’m also likely to get creamed for even
suggesting what I’m about to write. But in the interest of racial reconciliation,
which I’m adamantly for, it’s impossible not to look at the photo of John McCain
today, as well as his apology, and not think about its importance. Another moment of clarity and courage in the race debate that’s bubbled up
this political season, coming from a surprising corner.
Geraldine Ferraro is another, standing up and pushing back on the
race-baiters who hoped to humiliate her into silence. How’s that working out?
It’s not. Ask Randi Rhodes.
But John McCain going to the Lorraine Hotel, standing there on that same balcony
stopped me for a moment today. Later I saw another shot on MSNBC of McCain standing
in the rain with an African American holding an umbrella for him, but that kindness
didn’t cause me to rewrite the storyline. Sometimes holding an umbrella for a presidential candidate is simply holding an umbrella, unless we decide to view everything through 20th century racism. I refuse.
I also do not share the cluck-cluck clucking of others who are having a
field day on McCain getting booed. Republicans have a long way to go when it
comes to race relations, but without their efforts to come out of their malaise,
which includes not going to forums and turning down debate opportunities to
talk to the African American community, this country cannot move forward together
into a new era.
Being the contrarian I am, I was also was stopped a moment by Juan
Williams’ article today in the Wall Street Journal.
… .. While speaking to black people, King never condescended to offer Rev.
Wright-style diatribes or conspiracy theories. He did not paint black people
as victims. To the contrary, he spoke about black people as American patriots
who believed in the democratic ideals of the country, in nonviolence and the
Judeo-Christian ethic, even as they overcame slavery, discrimination and disadvantage.
King challenged white America to do the same, to live up to their ideals and
create racial unity. He challenged white Christians, asking them how they
could treat their fellow black Christians as anything but brothers in Christ.When King spoke about the racist past, he gloried in black people beating
the odds to win equal rights by arming “ourselves with dignity and self-respect.”
He expressed regret that some black leaders reveled in grievance, malice and
self-indulgent anger in place of a focus on strong families, education and
love of God. Even in the days before Congress passed civil rights laws, King
spoke to black Americans about the pride that comes from “assuming primary
responsibility” for achieving “first class citizenship.”… .. But as his campaign made headway with black voters, Mr. Obama no longer
spoke about the responsibility and the power of black America to appeal to
the conscience and highest ideals of the nation. He no longer asks black people
to let go of the grievance culture to transcend racial arguments and transform
the world.He has stopped all mention of government’s inability to create strong black
families, while the black community accepts a 70% out-of-wedlock birth rate.
Half of black and Hispanic children drop out of high school, but he no longer
touches on the need for parents to convey a love of learning to their children.
There is no mention in his speeches of the history of expensive but ineffective
government programs that encourage dependency. He fails to point out the failures
of too many poverty programs, given the 25% poverty rate in black America.And he chooses not to confront the poisonous “thug life” culture
in rap music that glorifies drug use and crime.Instead the senator, in a full political pander, is busy excusing Rev. Wright’s
racial attacks as the right of the Rev.-Wright generation of black Americans
to define the nation’s future by their past. He stretches compassion to the
breaking point by equating his white grandmother’s private concerns about
black men on the street with Rev. Wright’s public stirring of racial division.… .. But when Barack Obama, arguably the best of this generation of black
or white leaders, finds it easy to sit in Rev. Wright’s pews and nod along
with wacky and bitterly divisive racial rhetoric, it does call his judgment
into question. And it reveals a continuing crisis in racial leadership.What would Jesus do? There is no question he would have left that church.
Courage seems to be tipped on it’s head on this 40th year since Dr. King was murdered. An aging white man, after
far too long a wait as his conscience finally screamed out, comes to the scene where
the greatest civil rights leader in American history was assassinated, to catch the heat and make
amends. While the brilliant new African American political star pulls his punch and misses an opportunity
to stand apart from historical racial prejudice against whites his community has every right to feel, but from which they must walk away to move us forward. Then you have the woman,
whose work on civil rights, along with her president husband’s, has been ignored, even vilified, because
people choose to believe the worst at every rhetorical turn, since calling racism as a two-way street seems one hand clasp too far.
Senator John McCain learned the lesson on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. very,
very slowly. But forty years since King’s assassination, Senator McCain came
to where the greatest civil rights leader in American history died. It’s on
this long awaited moment that we can build. There’s nothing to be built on the
excuses Senator Obama offered for Rev. Wright, whose anti-American and hate filled speech keep us stuck in 1968.
