OpEd: 'Dr. King’s comments on the benefit of direct action versus negotiation are instructive in our current moment.'
. Relatedly, one of the biggest frustrations in my organizing work has been the challenge of making people and institutions see beyond what Dr. King called “the status quo.” He discussed how the church and elected officials tend to reinforce the status quo — the existing state of affairs — rather than advocating for rapid or radical change. Like Dr.
Dr. King’s comments on the benefit of direct action versus negotiation are instructive in our current moment. The reverend believed that done correctly, direct action could foster the “tension” necessary to transcend back-and-forth negotiations and ultimately force change. “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.
As we’ve seen with Congress’s failed efforts to pass voting rights legislation, you can’t just keep negotiating with people who don’t want to work with you. Negotiation only succeeds if both sides are operating in good faith and you’re negotiating with opponents who have nothing to gain from your oppression. This leaves only marginal growth and is simply insufficient. Or take the difference between police reform and abolition.
When I began my career as an activist I realized that everything I am working to change is rooted in past struggles. As Dr. King wrote, “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’” I love this quote because it rings true today. “Wait” still means “never.
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