I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another mans freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro the wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating that absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963
Every so often, I re-read this letter.
I ran across it again tonight, and this excerpt stood out to me as a parallel to my own frustrations at the the “civil unions for everyone” people or the “let’s do away with legal marriage altogether” people, or, most of all, the “I agree with you but now’s not the time to push for marriage equality” people.
Posted: July 5, 2010 at 9:10 pm.
