The Rights Stuff, or, How I Learned to Love Instead of the Bomb
- Dr. King admits that, after that grand tour of human history, his choice to live in the present (again, we're talking the 1960s—no zombie apocalypse yet) might seem strange. Because, to be honest, the world is pretty messed up.
- But he's confident that something good will come of all this messed-up-ness: "only when it is dark enough can you see the stars" (10.4).
- But why is the world so messed up? And what good can possibly come of that?
- First, the bad news: at the time King was speaking, people of color all over the world had long been suffering under various forms of oppression: social and institutional race prejudice, colonial rule of their countries by European powers, that sort of thing.
- But here's the good news, the silver lining, the stars twinkling in a dark sky: remember that cliffhanger from the beginning? That "something" we were told was happening in the world? This is it. Basically, people everywhere are saying, "I'm a human being, [darn] it; my life has value." In short, they're demanding their freedom.
- As important an issue as race is, though, Dr. K thinks the problem is even bigger than that. Conflict has existed since the dawn of humanity, but basically, King says, we've just sort of lived with it. Now that's no longer an option.
- It's not just people of different races who have to learn to live peacefully together: it's everyone.
- Yes, that includes your annoying cousin.
- Why? King doesn't say explicitly, but he alludes to the reason, and his audience would have understood. In an age of nuclear weapons, "It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence" (11.5).
- One big fight could mean the end of, well, everyone. No more you. No more Grandma Josephine. No more Shmoop. Nobody.
- We should probably avoid that.
- Now King returns briefly to race, but this time with an economic angle.
- Oppressed people need more than just freedom: they need economic opportunity, and also the plain old decency and respect that they just hadn't been getting.
- Otherwise, global peace will never be achieved—and, as we now know, that's a serious liability: King says that if political and economic racism isn't addressed, the world is doomed.
- So, paradoxically, that's why King is happy to live when he does. He thinks humanity has reached the point where human rights will finally be a priority—even a necessity. He thinks change will happen and he's happy he's around to see it.
- Now we bring this global freedom movement back home to the States with a recollection of the bad old days.
- King remembers when, in order to survive in a white-dominated country, African Americans had to pretend to be subservient buffoons, the minstrel stereotype.
- But those days are over. Like the rest of the world, African Americans want to be treated as full human beings.
- King emphasizes that that doesn't mean tearing anyone else down. It means lifting everyone up.
- Plus, Dr. King says, God has his back on this one. So if you disagree with him, you disagree with God. Which is…possibly not the wisest idea.