The events of the last few days reminded me of a letter Martin Luther King wrote to his fellow clergymen in Birmingham, Alabama, back in 1963. The clergymen were criticizing the civil rights demonstrations taking place in their communities and around the south, especially the way the demonstrators were breaking the law. King responded to the criticism with a classic justification of strategic nonviolence, aimed at revolutionary social change.
In the letter, he wrote an especially powerful paragraph about patience. There’s not enough column space to quote the whole paragraph. I’d encourage you to go back and read the whole letter. But the most relevant passages for today are the following.
“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.’ … When you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters, … then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.
“There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.”
Some of what we see in the media is not “strategic nonviolence aimed at revolutionary change.” But it is certainly an indication “the cup of endurance runs over.” For many, the “wait” that means “never” has tested their patience and been found wanting.
A black minister, a mentor of mine, once remarked to me during the demonstrations against the Vietnam War, “You white folks are so impatient. You want everything tomorrow. Look how long we’ve been waiting and working in this country for our God given rights!”
And it’s true. Why must my 40-year- old black friend in Birmingham have to worry about her nephews, jogging through a neighborhood or bird watching in a public park? Why must a black professor at my granddaughter’s college, with his college identification hanging round his neck, have to spend two hours on his way to class, trying to convince police he’s not the suspicious character some white woman identified? Why must a black man living in a mostly white neighborhood always walk with his dog and a daughter, fearful for what might happen were he to walk alone?
The word patience incorporates elements of endurance and submission, of bearing and supporting, of suffering and permitting. Patience is a value that can be affirmed or denied, depending on the reason for the patience and whether “wait” means “never.”
Let’s consider patience in the “white” world. I’m not fond of wearing a mask when I go to the store. Many others around me do not have one. At a box store the other day, I watched people coming and going, some 80-plus without masks, six with. I endure the discomfort because I believe it helps protect those who are offering me a service, should I be asymptomatic. My patience with masks will endure as long as the pandemic. I can only imagine the patience of the care givers wearing protective equipment for hours on end, because they are caring for others.
On the other hand, there are those in the white world who can’t submit to masks and social distancing. They see it as an infringement on their liberty. They are willing to pick up their guns and invade state capitals, even threaten and hang governors in effigy. They are impatient with anything that intrudes on their sense of self and the privileges, like haircuts, they believe are rightfully theirs.
These folks seem to me privileged and self absorbed, the products of a society and culture that emphasizes individualism and celebrates materialism and consumerism. Vulnerable populations that just might suffer because of their impatience, are just that … vulnerable. “If they can’t pick themselves up and do better, so be it.” People of privilege are often void of patience.
The last I checked, people of color made up the bulk of those in South Dakota who had contracted COVID-19, 69 percent. And we are a mostly white state! Are we asking why and recognizing current and historic inequities?
Now with so many of us at home because of the virus, we’ve been forced to look at a series of racially stark and unnecessary murders.
Martin Luther King wrote about losing patience in 1963. Here we are 50-plus years later in a global pandemic and racial crisis, both asking us to love the neighbor.
Will we as white folks patiently endure, perhaps taking on ourselves some modest burden bearing, perhaps addressing some claims of restorative justice?
