“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
-MLK, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?
In high school and college, I participated in many a service activity, but they left me dissatisfied. I was interested in sustainable, positive change. “Service” didn’t seem to be accomplishing much other than metaphorically (or literally) feeding some for a day while pacifying others’ guilt and powerlessness. For me, it pacified nothing. From those experiences, I formed the opinion that, in general, service is a band-aid to an infected wound. While not shunning it completely, I’ve since been seeking a more impactful way.
MLK Day is now typically billed as a day of service. The new catchphrase is, “It’s a day on, not a day off.” I love that sentiment, and believe the day should be a time for both reflection and action. But what kind of action? In remembrance of Dr. King, many emphasize charitable community service over Love, economic justice, sociopolitical action, and speaking truth to power.
That does a disservice to King’s legacy.
For a long time I felt alone and unjustified in my annoyance at our culture’s emphasis on service at the expense of authentic civic and political engagement. Not anymore, and I partly have Dr. King to thank for that. Many of us have been successfully socialized to “give back” in place of participating. The cycle consists of unaware adults presenting limited community engagement options to young people. We’ve got the emphasis on volunteerism and formal political training down pat, but the former is often unsatisfying and uninspiring while the latter appeals only to a select few. Informal politics? Public participation? Youth political voice? Real-life civic engagement? Not so much.
Many of us rationalize gross income inequality with philanthropy and service. But unless that philanthropy and service result in greater equity and social power, there’s not much justification to be found. So rather than imploring people to participate in a day of service, we would better honor King’s memory and sacrifice by working to develop social power (people power) and to fight inequity and injustice in our communities – and by doing so for more than a day.
PREACH!