MLK Day

This past January the nation observed the 5th annual Martian Luther King, Jr. national holiday. At my company we always have a celebration: guest speakers, songs by the chorus, a special breakfast for the senior executives, etc. Each year at this time is for me a time of remembrance--which, after all, is what commemorative holidays are supposed to be.

On January 20, 1986 the nation observed the first national holiday in honor of Dr. King. The Congress passed a bill designating Dr. King's birthday a national holiday, and President Reagan signed it--so far as we know, without "any mental reservation or purpose of evasion."

Many in the Reagan Administration appeared to be uncomfortable with the idea of a holiday for Martin Luther King. Ed Meese was. Meese managed to be reluctantly in favor of MLK Day, but he hinted that maybe "secret" information in the FBI's files just might show Dr. King was a commie, and God forbid we should honor a commie. So maybe we shouldn't rush into things, you know.

There were at the time a few die-hard cynics who thought that maybe a dual message was being sent. President Reagan was in favor of honoring Martin Luther King of course, but Ed Meese, as a matter of conscience, had misgivings. You will recall that Ed Meese was often used in this manner, as the "conscience" of the Reagan Administration--if you can imagine such a thing.

At the time, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 56% of black Americans thought President Reagan was a racist, MLK Day notwithstanding. Which I thought was a pretty good showing. Although I have no polling data to confirm it, I suspect a majority of black Americans think almost all white Americans are racists. Distrust and suspicion can linger for generations, long past the time that any evidence calls it forth.

Well, anyway, the law was enacted, on Reagan's watch, and the country went along. Well, most of the country went along. Not Arizona.

I am an Arizona native, and I love Arizona dearly. Something wells up inside me every time I set foot on Arizona soil. I am imprinted on that arid landscape, with its searing heat, scrawny plants and prickly cactus. "People love Arizona," my grandfather used to say, "because the heat fries their brains and then they don't know any better."

In Arizona the natives display bumper stickers, modeled after the state license plate, which proclaim "Arizona Native"-- natives being rare birds in this fast-growing sunbelt state. But Arizona retains something of its frontier heritage as well; conservative and highly distrustful of government, especially federal government. Arizona tends to see any ideas out of Washington as akin to commie conspiracies. The state refuses to participate in Daylight Savings Time, not because Arizonans have anything against daylight (the sun shines 360 days a year in the state capitol) but because ideas from Washington smack of collectivism to Arizonan ears.

So we expatriates expect that Arizona will always be a little odd and out of tune with the nation's song. But I have to admit I was embarrassed, and even a little ashamed, when Arizona refused to participate in MLK Day. You have to let me explain.

You see there is this guy in Arizona named Ev Mecham. Ev Mecham first ran for governor in 1964 on the too-short coattails of Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign. Although Ev Mecham lost about as badly as Barry Goldwater, this did not discourage him, and he has continued to run for governor with amusing regularity. At least he used to be amusing--until he won. The story is a long one, and there is a story, believe me. Suffice it to say: Ev Mecham being elected governor of Arizona was for Arizonans like waking up one morning in early November and discovering that Harold Stassen had somehow been elected President.

Well, Ev Mecham signed a proclamation repealing MLK Day in Arizona. And thus began my long national nightmare.

There was a period there for two or three years when I could not tell anyone I was from Arizona because the inevitable response was: "Oh yeah, the state with the racist governor." I mean people who didn't even know Arizona was part of the Union knew we had a racist governor. And I swear, people looked at me with a new element of suspicion in their eyes, as if I were no longer to be trusted. As if racism were a kind of virus, like the Valley Fever which afflicts Arizona natives, which could be gotten by mere birth and carried latent for decades until it bloomed on the day Ev Mecham took office.

Well, I am happy to report that the good citizens of Arizona impeached Ev Mecham and removed him from office. Repeal of MLK Day was just one of the daffy notions Ev Mecham sponsored, and even Arizona natives can only take so much. But to this day, I am branded. "Might Be Racist," it now says on my passport.

But then things took a turn for the worse. The matter was put before the Arizona voters who, in the 1990 elections, refused to reinstate the holiday in honor of Dr. King. This stated a whole new round of suspicion and recrimination. Everyone wants to see my passport again.

Actually, in defense of the land of my birth, I would just ask that we take note of the fact that there are four main streams in Arizona's body politic, which fed into the torrent of controversy about the MLK holiday. There are of course racists in Arizona, as there are pretty much everywhere else, who would not vote for a holiday in honor of a black man, because he is black. A second large block of naysayers wouldn't vote for a holiday in honor of Dr. King because they noticed him standing on the portside of the boat. These Arizonans voted against an MLK holiday for precisely the same reason they would vote against a Teddy Kennedy holiday. There are lots of these folks in conservative Arizona. The third stream is generalized anti-government sentiment, which is widespread in Arizona. Many Arizonans are adamantly opposed to any holidays for state workers--they see it as the undeserved for the undeserving. These Arizonans would vote against a state holiday honoring Barry Goldwater, and that's saying something! And finally, the fourth stream is simple resentment of ideas "out of Washington," like Daylight Savings Time and Medicaid and the like. These folks, too, voted against the MLK holiday, for reasons having nothing to do with race.

I mention all this on the off chance that I can someday turn in my old passport and get a new one, one which has "Might Be Racist" only stamped on every other page.

I might also report, just for the record, that since moving East I have been surprised to learn that racial tensions, separation and antagonism is much greater in the East than anything I ever witnessed in the Western U.S. Going in both directions too, from blacks to whites as well as whites toward blacks. So those in the progressive East who are tempted to look down their long noses at Arizona's abundant folly, might do well do avoid hefting too many throwable stones.

Race is a real "hot button" for this society. Lots of weird things.

My friend RVG is a white Italian from New York who married a black African woman from Ghana. Their three children are, necessarily, of "mixed race." Which causes lots of confusion for them. Their lovely daughter Kaberia told them her white friends look as her as black while her black friends think of her as white. What a strange thing, not to know what color one is, and what a strange thing that it should matter so much.

The other day a "light-skinned" black woman made American legal history by suing her former employer alleging racial discrimination. Her supervisor, who is a "darker" black, is accused of prejudice based on hue.

It's an odd thing about skin color. Many genetic traits are either/or. If one of your parents has blue eyes and one brown, you will either have blue eyes or brown eyes--not aquamarine. But skin color blends. A black parent and a white parent produce a child whose skin color is part way between the two. This makes it easier to practice fine shadings of prejudice. I have always thought this was God's way of rubbing our faces in this issue.

Also, the other day a black congressman from Illinois named Gus Savage announced to an astonished world that there are no black racists. Only whites are capable of racism according to Congressman Savage. I suppose he must have a different dictionary than I do.

In fact, to tell the hard truth about it, every out-and-out racist I have met in the last, oh, say 20 years or so, have all been black. Or at least, the only people who I have heard openly express automatic negative judgments about other people based on their race, have all been black.

White people in America no longer openly express racist sentiments (except for the obligatory lunatic fringe). Black people probably suspect we do so covertly. I'm sure blacks suspect that when white folks get together we talk about black folks in a derogatory fashion, as long as no black folks are around to hear. But I can report to black America: This just ain't so.

Now I don't think this is because white people have ascended to glory. What has happened is that it is no longer acceptable in polite company (and everyone likes to think of themselves as polite company) to give expression to racist sentiments. Or even sentiments which could possibly be construed as racist. In truth, we white Americans are walking on egg-shells most of the time, afraid we might inadvertently say something which will cause "Might Be Racist" to be stamped on our passport.

Black Americans, on the other hand, can give voice to blatantly racial remarks. Gus Savage can say things about whites, as a group, that no white would dare say about blacks as a group. In fact, it's even dangerous for us to comment on the fact that blacks do this. Even suggesting that a black might be prejudiced against whites, can be construed as racism.

All of which, is precisely how it should be. There is a natural progression, like the stages of grief when a loved one dies, which must be worked through step-by-step.

When the old order begins to break up, white people become: fearful, resentful, distrustful, resigned to change, ashamed of old attitudes, walking on eggshells, accepting. Sanity comes when we get to the place where race is no longer a salient matter, when race becomes like hair color, an interesting distinction adding to the spice of life, but nothing heavy hangs in the balance. We aren't there yet, but we're walking on eggshells--which is real progress.

When the old order begins to break up, black people become: fearful, resentful, distrustful, demanding change, angry about old attitudes, skeptical, and finally, accepting. Black Americans are very skeptical about the change in attitudes and behavior of white Americans. Like I said, real progress.

In any event, the 5th annual celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr'.s national holiday has come and gone. Once again, Dr. King's life-force has continued to exert its influence. I wonder how many more MLK Days it will take before we get to acceptance.