As we mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we remember his dedication to a world where people are judged by their character, not their skin color. After Trump’s racist attacks on Latin Americans both in the U.S. and abroad, it is important to keep spreading King’s message of racial equality, justice, and global peace.
President Trump’s actions at home and abroad threaten MLK’s vision of a world built on justice, equality, and peace. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE continue harsh tactics against minorities, resulting in tragedies like the death of Renee Good. At the same time, the administration is increasing military pressure on nearby countries such as Venezuela.
MLK spoke about the need for ‘positive’ peace, which requires mutual respect among all people and nations, and warned against settling for a racist, complacent ‘negative’ peace.
MLK: Positive and Negative Peace and the Complacent Moderate
While he was in the Birmingham city jail for leading a march without a permit, King criticized local white clergymen for being complacent and not taking action to end racist laws in the South.
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler 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; … 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.”
Today, some so-called ‘liberal’ politicians only challenge Trump on the surface. They offer empty words to people afraid of ICE, using ‘strongly worded condemnation’ but not calling for real, ‘positive’ peace. They settle for ‘negative’ peace, focused on order instead of justice. Many moderates ignore the popular demand to abolish ICE, showing their complacency.
Similarly, these ‘liberal’ politicians criticize Trump when he attacks MLK Day and may take easy actions, like Governor Gavin Newsom making national parks free again on the holiday. However, they do not mention abolishing or defunding ICE, which could help stop the agency’s oppressive and racist actions against people of color.
It is clear that these so-called ‘liberals’ will honor MLK as a leader for justice, but their lack of courage and action shows they are not willing to confront tyranny directly.
MLK Bravely Ties the Struggle for Peace at Home to the one Abroad
MLK understood the link between social justice in the U.S. and the anti-war movement abroad. In his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, King shared his vision for a peaceful world:
“So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody that is far superior to the discords of war. Somehow we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race which no one can win to a positive contest to harness man’s creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all of the nations of the world.”
However, many of King’s supposed allies did not accept his message of peace. On March 2, 1965, MLK spoke out against the Vietnam War at Howard University, saying the war was ‘accomplishing nothing.’ Although he worried that opposing the war might hurt his relationship with President Johnson and threaten civil rights progress, King still spoke out, believing that both civil rights and ending the war were essential for peace.
In August 1965, King called for an end to the bombing of North Vietnam, saying that ‘what is required is a small first step that may establish a new spirit of mutual confidence … a step capable of breaking the cycle of mistrust, violence and war.’ He described the Vietnam War as a moral dilemma, stating, ‘I consider war an evil. I must cry out when I see war escalated at any point.’
At his first anti-war march, King told a Chicago crowd on March 25, 1967, ‘The bombs in Vietnam explode at home—they destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America.’ He continued to oppose the Vietnam War, often pointing out how it hurt funding for civil rights and anti-poverty programs in the U.S.
Ten days later, King gave the “Beyond Vietnam” speech in which he stated, “taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem”.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) issued a statement against King addressing the war and civil rights together. The New York Times reported that “The directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People voted unanimously yesterday against the proposal by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to merge the civil rights and peace movements called Dr. King’s plan “a serious tactical mistake.”
Once again, moderates—this time through the NAACP—supported a ‘negative,’ complacent form of peace. The NAACP’s resolution stated: ‘Civil rights battles will have to be fought and won on their own merits, irrespective of the state of war or peace in the world.’ The NAACP of King’s era was determined to classify the problems of race, poverty, and war as separate. King’s words and conscience insisted they were not.
The problems of racism, poverty and war cannot be separated. Racism divides and incapacitates the working class which could otherwise organize to confront warfare profiteering funded by the taxpayers. The Trump administration’s white supremacist agenda is being executed with audacity and shameless speed from behind the cover of a racist, nationalist misinformation campaign.
Honor MLK– Follow in His Foot Steps
‘America is shocked and saddened by the brutal slaying tonight of Dr. Martin Luther King,’ President Lyndon B. Johnson said after King was killed. The nation mourned because MLK represented values that many leaders have forgotten. A peaceful movement against racism and war is stronger than the violence it faces.
MLK taught that the fight to end racial oppression in the U.S. is linked to the global peace movement. King called on us all to transform the negative to the positive. We urge everyone to keep up the non-violent struggle in the streets against ICE and Trump’s actions abroad.
Retrieved from Home – People’s Anti-Racist Coordinating Committee
