5 ms·

Yay for nuance and social & historical context! I'm always seriously surprised by how easily convinced people are of flimsy equivalencies. Every debate on the

Yay for nuance and social & historical context! I'm always seriously surprised by how easily convinced people are of flimsy equivalencies. Every debate on the Internet, it feels like there's a swarm of people that believe that taking a stand against intolerance or bigotry is the same as bigotry itself. I always encourage everyone to read MLK's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, especially his critique of white moderates: "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

lliamander 9y ago
If we talk about tolerance as a peace treaty (which the article encourages us to do) then I might rephrase what you said slightly differently: "Holding people to account for breaking the treaty is not the same as breaking the treaty" If you accept my rephrasing, then I would like to argue that many things which people claim as "taking a stand against intolerance and bigotry" are themselves acts which break the peace. If tolerance is not a moral precept then it cannot in any sense belong to an ideology.
drunkenmonkey 9y ago
My grandfather was a white male police captain during the civil rights troubles in Birmingham, AL. He also gave King the notebook he would use to write Letter from the Birmingham Jail. His quiet support of King literally enabled King's actions in more ways than I can relate. To divide a people based on skin color is wrong. King, and my grandfather, were not lovers of one skin color over another; they were lovers of respect. It is respect that will break the chains anywhere they are found.
- ebola1717 9y ago
  Did you just try to say that MLK and his jailer did the same amount of good for Civil Rights????
  - cup 9y ago
    >His quiet support of King literally enabled King's actions in more ways than I can relate. He genuinely just said a policemans actions during the Civil Rights era enabled MLK. You can't make this up. And then to talk about respect in the context of race, when black people are routinely disrespected by individuals, institutions and the state in America.
  - david38 9y ago
    Show me where it says "same".
- thethrowawayboy 9y ago
  "Begun on the margins of the newspaper in which the statement appeared while I was in jail, the letter was continued on scraps of writing paper supplied by a friendly black trusty, and concluded on a pad my attorneys were eventually permitted to leave me." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Why We Can't Wait" Either you or your grandfather are outright lying, unless your grandfather literally handed Dr. King the notepad his attorneys brought him and told the story as him "giving Dr. King a notepad", which is merely a lie by omission.

lliamander 9y ago

If we talk about tolerance as a peace treaty (which the article encourages us to do) then I might rephrase what you said slightly differently: "Holding people to account for breaking the treaty is not the same as breaking the treaty" If you accept my rephrasing, then I would like to argue that many things which people claim as "taking a stand against intolerance and bigotry" are themselves acts which break the peace. If tolerance is not a moral precept then it cannot in any sense belong to an ideology.

drunkenmonkey 9y ago

My grandfather was a white male police captain during the civil rights troubles in Birmingham, AL. He also gave King the notebook he would use to write Letter from the Birmingham Jail. His quiet support of King literally enabled King's actions in more ways than I can relate. To divide a people based on skin color is wrong. King, and my grandfather, were not lovers of one skin color over another; they were lovers of respect. It is respect that will break the chains anywhere they are found.

ebola1717 9y ago
Did you just try to say that MLK and his jailer did the same amount of good for Civil Rights????
- cup 9y ago
  >His quiet support of King literally enabled King's actions in more ways than I can relate. He genuinely just said a policemans actions during the Civil Rights era enabled MLK. You can't make this up. And then to talk about respect in the context of race, when black people are routinely disrespected by individuals, institutions and the state in America.
- david38 9y ago
  Show me where it says "same".
thethrowawayboy 9y ago
"Begun on the margins of the newspaper in which the statement appeared while I was in jail, the letter was continued on scraps of writing paper supplied by a friendly black trusty, and concluded on a pad my attorneys were eventually permitted to leave me." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Why We Can't Wait" Either you or your grandfather are outright lying, unless your grandfather literally handed Dr. King the notepad his attorneys brought him and told the story as him "giving Dr. King a notepad", which is merely a lie by omission.