Thursday, April 05, 2018
Political Mayhem Thursday: The False Narrative re Dr. Martin Luther King
The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote for the MLK50 symposium, which will come out later this year in the University of Memphis Law Review.
The
effort to address racial disparities in criminal law faces a large obstacle:
the desire of many of those in power to declare that racial equality has already
been achieved, because the basest badges of servitude and its effects have been
outlawed. That false narrative often includes a reference to Dr. King himself,
as part of a fictional historical arc in which racism existed, Dr. King
intervened, and racism was then resolved. This tidy storyline forcloses the
need for greater inspection and introspection about our criminal justice system
now and allows those with power to avoid the unpleasant task of even approaching
the topic of racial equity within the realm of criminal law.
This
narrative was exemplified in an address at the Department of Justice's
commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this past January.[1] In a speech leading up to
an introduction of former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, current
Attorney General Jeff Sessions illustrated the "mission accomplished"
view of race and criminal law.
First (and inarguably), Sessions recounted the racial
horrors of his Alabama youth, citing segregated schools, wage discrimination,
denial of the right to vote, and the absence of African-Americans within law
enforcement at that time. Next, and also inarguably, he noted the emergence of
Dr. King as a truth-teller, saying "
Dr. King exposed that system for what it was—to the country and to the world—
and helped end it by putting it to shame."[2] But from that point
forward, there was nothing: no recognition of enduring problems, no mention of
lingering racial disparities, and no acknowledgment of a challenge ahead. The
story ended with an abrupt victory.
That sense of the finality of the project was repeated later
in Sessions’s speech, when he again turned to Dr. King's role and claimed, "Indeed,
while he led the movement, the Department of Justice became the engine for
making the dream a reality." Consider that for a moment: to the top law
enforcement officer in the United States, Dr. King's dream is now "a
reality." And, in his mind, it is the Department of Justice that
accomplished this.
The closest Sessions came to defining a vague directive to
"act" was in urging that, "Whatever you do here at this
Department, let us all renew our dedication to promoting justice—whether that’s
by protecting law-abiding people from crime or defending their rights in
court." There was no mention of current discrimination or bias.[3]
Many, understandably, saw hypocrisy in Session's invocation
of the King legacy. Vanita Gupta, for example, said that “It is ironic for Jeff Sessions to celebrate the
architecture of civil rights protections inspired by Dr. King and other leaders
as he works to tear down these very protections.”[4] At base, though, it may be
something more subtle and insidious than hypocrisy that is at work here; by
declaring that the dream has been achieved, Sessions doesn't make racial
justice today a controversial goal, or one in which we might disagree as to
tactics. Instead, he attempts to render it irrelevant, by defining the the
world in such a way that a discussion is unnecessary now that racism has been
addressed. "Move along," the policeman said, "nothing to see
here."
That
narrative of a dream already achieved is, of course, embraced by the President
himself. In January, shortly before Sessions' speech, he reportedly defined
African nations and Haiti as "shithole countries."[5] When he was criticized for
that, he told reporters that he was the "least racist person you have ever
interviewed."[6]
Even given Trump's penchant for hyperbole, it is hard to believe the President
could hold those two thoughts together. Yet, it is possible-- if
"racism" is seen as limited to the atrocities of the Jim Crow era.
From that perspective, a bright line divides people who are racists because
they believe in overt discrimination and segregated schools, and those who are
not—and Trump sees himself as being on the right side of that line. As a staff
editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette printed on that same Martin Luther
King, Jr. Day put it in supporting Trump, “We need to confine the word
'racist' to people like Bull Connor and Dylann Roof.”[7]
The "dream achieved" narrative is understandably
attractive to those in power. If racism is a thing of the past, they are
simultaneously freed from responsibility to address questions of race and
personally absolved of the stain of racism. Instead, it is only those who
insist on talking about race who are
labeled by the dream-achieved believer as the real racists—a standpoint that
allows for the bizarre joint condemnation of white supremacists and Black Lives
Matter.[8] The common bond between those
groups, from that perspective, is that they both talk about race and thus deny
the completion of the race equity project.
[1]
https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-delivers-remarks-2018-department-justice-dr-martin-luther
[2]
Id.
[3]
Id.
[4]
Dan Thomasson, "Sessions Has a Long Way to Go to Win Over
African-Americans," Evansville Courier-Journal, Jan. 22, 2018, available
at https://www.courierpress.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/01/22/thomasson-sessions-has-long-way-go-win-over-african-americans/1053520001/.
[5]
Julia Hirschfield Davis, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, and Thomas Kaplan, "Trump
Alarms Lawmakers with Disparaging Words For Haiti and Africa," New York
Times, Jan. 11, 2018, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/us/politics/trump-shithole-countries.html.
[6]
Brent D. Griffiths, "Trump: I Am the Least Racist Person You Have Ever
Interviewed," Politico, Jan. 14, 2018, available at https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/14/trump-least-racist-person-340602.
Of course, this is not the only, or even the most significant statement leading
to charges of racism by Trump. Michael D. Shear and Maggie Haberman,
"Trump Defends Initial Remarks on Charlottesville; Again Blames 'Both
Sides,'" New York Times, Aug. 15, 2017, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/us/politics/trump-press-conference-charlottesville.html.
[7]
Editorial, “Reason as Racism,” Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, Jan. 14, 2018, available at
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2018/01/15/Reason-as-racism-An-immigration-debate-gets-derailed/stories/201801150024
[8]
E.g. William Douglas & Brian
Murphy, “Pittenger Asks: Why Aren’t Liberals Condemning Black Lives Matter and
others?” Charlotte Observer, Aug. 22, 2017, available at http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article168766842.html.
Comments:
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Mark, you keep popping up in the most amazing places, always amongst amazing people, and you always bring an important voice. Loved the video from Tuesday and the False Narrative piece you posted today. Good, important work.
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