Historicity is the study of history as it continues through time and to be conscious about things we are not aware of, or thought about it. I wanted to build on this term due to a conversation I had with Dr. Merci earlier today. We were in a discourse about non-violent resistance and protest, specifically the example we analyzed was the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King was seen as a Religious and Ethnic Deviant (Dr. Stiler, 2009). I would also categorize Dr. King as one who practiced "resistance". He challenged the dominant and/or hegemonic white culture of American Society. Specifically he focused on oppressive races, class, and authoritarianism. Discussing Dr. King's practices allowed me to connect his efforts to our efforts today. Our Goals for social and educational justice focus on transforming the culture of schools as well as the culture of our society. Other theorists that support such change are Arnowitz and Giroux. They state that not all oppositional behaviors have radical intentions (1985). What may be viewed as resisitance, may actually be only a deviant act. Regardless, the intention is to transform society and cultural norms.
The lesson learned for me was that earlier in my studies within this program I viewed Dr. King's acts as criminal in nature, regardless of intent. I analyzed his behavior strictly from a dominant culture point of view, based on the law and nothing else. Without question, I understood the intent of his actions. However, I did not agree with breaking the law. But if he didn't break the written law, new laws would not have been inacted. Change towards equality may have been delayed for many more years to come. His intellectual courage gave him the strength and willingness to sacrifice his own saftey and subsequently his life to transform the dominant culture of this society, to a society that actually started to see all men and women as equals. Of course this journey continues to take place, even today, the struggles continue in our cities and in our classrooms.
The day after President Obama's inauguration, I read an article on MSN.com that described Obama as being a transformational leader. It is evident that he intends on transforming the cultural beliefs of this country, as Dr. King did as well. However, this is the beginning of his journey. Over time, we will see if he is truly a tranformational leader. We will see if he chooses to resist the norms of our society and the norms of our government. Will he possess the same intellectual courage that Dr. King possessed? We will soon see. I pray that he does and I look forward to fighting the battle that he is about to enter, and to assist him with doing my part towards transforming our country to a country that truly promotes democracy and freedom for all men and women based on one reason, because they are Americans, and human beings, nothing else.
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Scott,
ReplyDeleteYou raise some very interesting and paradoxical issues here. While MLK and Ghandi assumed leadership roles they were also demonized by the dominant society at the time as criminals. Currently this perspective has evolved to the point where if they were alive today, society would designate both as 'terrorists'. If this had been the case, would we have seen MLK locked up for most of his life as Mandela was in South Africa. If this status had been available to the Brits would Ghandi have been relegated to a camp on a par with Guantanamo? Would he have been tortured? At any rate, where does the distinction between activist and terrorist lie?