Next Monday is the first national and school holiday of the new year, but Martin Luther King Jr. Day is much more than simply an excuse to have a day off.
This year, the day has taken on even more meaning in these times of escalating discord regarding the fair treatment of minorities and equitable justice for all.
With the disturbing shooting statistics in Chicago, racial tension across the country and an often antagonistic national dialogue in many locales, it’s almost as if we haven’t moved the calendar at all from the days King walked the streets of so many cities in his bid for peace.
Communication is key in expressing our differences and coming to a meeting of the minds as to our varying personal experiences and how those experiences define the quality of life for each of us. However, strident discussion without an equal dose of quiet listening to the perspectives of others is completely unproductive and can be very divisive.
I don’t know what it feels like to be black in America. Up until 44 years ago, I didn’t know what it felt like to be in a minority at all, although I remember once as a child during the 1960 John Kennedy presidential campaign a neighbor kid taunting me that no one would want to have a Catholic for president. Those were insulting words to a young Irish Catholic parochial school girl. But that was nothing to what I experienced later as an adult after converting to Judaism.
Suddenly I had become a “crusader,” as my dad often jokingly tagged me, a person once in the vast majority of those who innocently proclaim they are not discriminators , only to find out later with the help of my new perspective that I had acted prejudicially more often than I realized. I found myself taking on teachers who refused to acknowledge Chanukah in their red-and-green decorated classrooms and choral directors who couldn’t seem to find one holiday song to include in celebration of the Jewish holiday. There were pennies tossed on the floor in school hallways in symbolic taunting.
Because of my background and the change in my status from majority to minority, I felt more compelled to not let these small yet important things go unaddressed. Speaking up became crucial for me.
Discrimination is best defined by those discriminated against, not by those in the so-called majority. Unless you’ve walked in those shoes, you can’t really know the full truth. That’s why listening is so very important. Until we as a society begin to open our ears and minds to what so many black Americans express that they have experienced, we can’t fully empathize. Instead we continue to protest that discrimination doesn’t exist, which gets us nowhere.
No doubt, there is work to be done by everyone to realize King’s dream of a peaceful, equal world. That work begins with effective listening.
Pat Lenhoff is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press and can be reached at viewfromvh@yahoo.com.
