A Debate with a Person

Me: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an eloquent spokesman for social justice and human liberty. He expressed revolutionary statements during the duration of his life. In his 1967, THREE EVILS IN SOCIETY speech, he stated the obvious that the ghetto is a domestic colony and that power must be redistributed as a means to give the poor (both black and non black) the just means to control their own destinies. In that same speech, Dr. King was right to say that: "...We cry out against welfare hand outs to the poor but generously approve an oil depletion allowance to make the rich, richer..." The call for economic justice and the defeat of plutocracy is the great calling of our 21st century generation.

 We should never forget other heroes who stood up for justice too like Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X (who by 1965 critique capitalism and he started to condemn the great evil of sexism), Septima Clark, and other brave human beings that expressed sacrifice not submissive to the status quo as a means to confront the powers that be. Ella Baker was a Sister that was a great organizer and she was the Mother of SNCC literally. Ella Baker was just as important in the struggle for human justice as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood a firm stand in recognizing the truth that BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL.

So, Dr. King loved black people, he loved Africa, and he wanted black self determination to be one concept ingrained in the social consciousness of all those of black African descent. He was a strong religious leader, a socialist, a family man, and a man with great courage & great strength. It takes strength to take blows and a rock without retaliation. It took great strength to handle offensive criticism and to press on. So, we ought to express courage too in our lives to advance the ideal of the BELOVED COMMUNITY.

His last campaigns were the Poor Peoples Campaign and the Memphis Sanitation Workers' strike. Each of those campaigns was about the common people to fight for economic justice, fair wages, and the true defeat against the corrosive conditions of poverty in the world. So, we will never give up. We never gave up when we suffered the Maafa. We never gave up when the capitalist instrument of Western slavery oppressed our ancestors and we never gave up when reactionary brutes used dogs and water to assault our Brothers and our Sisters. So, this fight for a cooperative society continues on. I will maintain my core convictions of truth and creating a humane world.

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 Walter Henrickson: What is "social justice" and how is it different from plain old justice? Is it really something that deserves its own ontological category? What other kind of liberty is there besides "human liberty?" Why must power be redistributed? And how does King propose that power be redistributed? And how does he pull off these schemes without compromising human liberty that he supposedly cares so much about?

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 Me: Interesting questions and they deserve answers. Now, I will take this one step at a time. Social justice is a type of justice. Justice is a broad goal of liberty, respect, and great opportunities sent to people. Social justice deals with making systems of the world or institutions beneficial to humanity, especially to those who are dispossessed or extremely poor. In essence, social justice is about the creating of a just society via legitimate changes in the economy, labor, the environment, etc. It deserves its own ontological category since there are diverse concepts in the world and these concepts sometimes can’t be pigeonholed into one world or one phrase. Human liberty is a real ideal. There is no other liberty, but human liberty. Yet, black people have the right to affirm their heritage in the world. Power must be redistributed, because power has been unfairly and unjustly utilized throughout the ages.

For example, the serfs in Russia were oppressed by the CZARs. The serf rose up to make power more redistributed among them despite the unfair power grabs done by the czars for centuries in Russia. The slavery in America gave undue power to the slave owners and select corporate interests. The Civil War ended overt slavery and caused power to be redistributed from former slave owners. Many Africans redistributed power stolen from European imperialists after WWII in Ghana, Nigeria, and other nations. So, REDISTRIBUTION is not evil in every circumstance. Our wealth has been stolen by the military industrial complex, the FED, Wall Street, and other entities to be sent to foreign banks and multinational corporate interests. Wealth redistributed that has been stolen by SELECT interests is not immoral.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted an ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS, wealth sent to the people that funded the Vietnam, an agency to deal with poverty, a guaranteed annual income, the funding of black institutions, and other solutions to handle this issue of oppression (with redistribution of wealth, fair taxation, ending unfair tax allowances, the ending of the Vietnam War, etc.). Human liberty is important, but liberty is not nihilism. See, reactionaries claim to want liberty, but they want the MARKET to lack accountability and to lack morality.

 See, they want to lecture us on family values, but refuse to promote boundaries in the conduct of economic interests. You can’t do what you want, so the markets can’t do what it wants. There should be boundaries on POWER and revolutionary solutions in the world. There is nothing wrong with saying Black is Beautiful too and there is nothing wrong with fighting for my black interests in the world too.

-By Timothy (Me)