Monday, January 18, 2021

You say you want to end white supremacy? Really?

Great! I agree 100 percent with the goal of ending white supremacy. It won't be easy, but with diligence, we can achieve this goal.

Let's look at today - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. President Reagan signed the bill making the third Monday in January a federal holiday and then it was first observed in 1986.

Of course, not all 50 states agreed to celebrate Dr. King's birthday. It took until 2000 for South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia to recognize the holiday. 

In addition to white people and their representatives not wanting to honor Dr. King, there are two states that still have a Robert E. Lee Day around the same time as Dr. King Day: Alabama and Mississippi.

There are still states that celebrate Confederate Memorial Day

If you are a white person who truly wants to take an anti-racist stand and you live in a state that officially honors the traitors who fought to uphold slavery, I encourage you to work with others around you who also want to be anti-racist and make these holidays disappear. It won't erase history, the Confederacy lost and slavery ended. That's the history. Instead, ending these holidays sends the message that the white supremacist beliefs that lay at the foundation of slavery and Jim Crow and murderers with badges that go unpunished are unacceptable and not meant to be put on a pedestal of false honor.

Ending these holidays won't be the end of our troubles, but it's a good step in the right direction. I don't have a ton of cash, but I'll gladly donate to organizations that are doing this work.

 

No comments: