Wait—King & Kolvenbach

Kolvenbach and Dr. King both urge their audiences to not only educate themselves in injustices occurring everywhere, but to commit one's entire life to the promotion of justice. Both activists explain their opposition to people who only learn but do not act, “Fostering the virtue of justice in people was not enough. Only a substantive justice can bring about the kinds of structural and attitudinal changes that are needed to uproot those sinful oppressive injustices that are a scandal against humanity and God” ( Kolvenbach, 27).  Kolvenbach even admits he was ignorant once and sat on the sidelines when there was a call to act. “Many of us failed to see the relevance of his message to our situation” (Kolvenbach, 24). Justice is not something that waits for anyone, it is a bold demand.

Learning about injustices is great but it is not enough to be well-meaning and leave it at that. Dr. King wrote this enrapturing letter with it's shrewd messages because "well-meaning men" told him and his revolution wait! The police were attacking children with fire hoses and police dogs and "well-meaning" white religious leaders told him to wait! Even though these men may have meant no intentional harm to Dr. King and his movement, as Kolvenbach put it, “no point of view is ever neutral or value-free” (37). Meaning, anyone who did not take on the fight as their own as Dr. King and the other demonstrators in Birmingham had that day, those people were not neutral or playing it safe, they were perpetuating the white supremacist agenda. 

This essential aspect to Dr. King's advocacy is often glazed over because most Americans, including proclaimed social justice warriors are guilty of remaining neutral during a time of  oppression "For years now I have heard the word 'wait.' It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This 'wait' has almost always meant 'never.' It has been a tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration. We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.' We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our God-given and constitutional rights" (King, 2). 



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