THE REAL KING
Not just a dreamer but a dissenter who jolted the powerful
The third Monday in January is an incredibly important holiday for our nation, not only because we take this time to celebrate the life and vision of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but because we take notice of those who use this day as an opportunity to temper and mischaracterize the man and his efforts.
There are those who celebrate a false Dr. King, a straw man, their own representation of the socalled “peaceful protest.” They may recall the words, but neither the meaning nor the context.
They remember the dream, but not the fight to make that dream a reality. Not the fact that those dreams were often born inside a jail cell. Dr. King was a righteous agitator, a revolutionary. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the leaders of the Resistance.
Leadership through dissent can be an instrument of profound, lasting change, as Dr. King has proven. Those who exercise this kind of leadership today are often met with derision, dismissal and outright anger.
This is nothing new. Disruption of the norm is an essential part of protest, and of course in Dr. King’s time there were a great many people who fought to preserve that norm. But in the current climate, it seems that for some, no method of protest is legitimate, and by extension, no cause for protest is.
We are less than a week from the anniversary of the inauguration of Donald Trump. Alongside other activists, I was arrested outside Trump Tower almost immediately after the ceremony for protesting the hatred that the man who lived there represented.
There were those who thought this act of protest was inappropriate, was too brazen, was ill-timed. They argued that there would be a time and a place to oppose Trump, but this was neither. Just last week, the power of protest, and the incessant will of some to deter it, was again displayed as a large group of protesters, myself among them, came together to oppose the immoral detention and pending deportation of Ravi Ragbir, a man who has dedicated his life to pursuing justice for others.
I, along with my fellow City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez and 16 others, was arrested and detained by police for our acts of protest. But as Dr. King understood, for protesters, our arrest, our detention, is but an inconvenience when compared to the injustices against which we protest. I got out. Ravi didn’t.
This was not an instance where one could credibly argue that there would be a better time or place to express our dissent. The need was imminent, and the result immediate.
It is up to those who possess the privilege to protest to do so for those who cannot. Passionate voices have a moral obligation to act. Stand up, and the world will take notice. Yell, and the world will listen. Question, and compel the world to answer. Protest, by design, raises uncomfortable questions, and unbelievable reactions.
Most of those opposed to these acts of protest would not openly express these same sentiments about Dr. King. Rather, they would present the reverend and the movement he led as the standard for a “peaceful protest” that they could support.
They conveniently forget the fire hoses and the church burnings, the arrests and the assassination, that those protesters confronted with steadfast courage. They forget that Dr. King was the master of disruption and dissent, of civil disobedience.
Decades from now, today’s actions of dissent around the country by the Resistance will be recognized for what they are — igniting progress in a time where even preservation of past gains seemed tenuous, and advancement seemed impossible.
Against those who threaten to pull our country backward, let us move forward, in protest, in resistance, and in progress.
Jumaane Williams represents the 45th City Council District in Brooklyn.