We speak with scholars Lasana Hotep and Dr. Michael Benitez about the confluence of white and neoliberal, and neo-colonialist influences on contemporary ideologies and practices of social policy. We look at the history of ‘the white moderate’ described by Dr. Martin Luther King in his famous ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail.’
In the letter, King pens the following:
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. 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 ack people to have equal footing Counciler 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 man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.”
Lasana Hotep dives deep into King’s words and notes how much of what King said back in 1963 applies today. He goes even further back to the Abolition Movement of the 1800s and details how there was a paternalistic tone adopted by many who wanted an end to slavery but did not necessarily want Black people to have equal footing with whites.
Dr. Michael Benitez added additional context to Lasana’s analysis. He then explained the concept of Neo-Colonialism and how it works. Dr. Benetiz noted that there are many Black people and People of Color who have gotten into ‘high places,’ but instead of helping to radically change the power dynamics in play and level the playing field, they sadly have embraced critical aspects of white supremacy and have become proverbial stumbling blocks for Black liberation and progress.
Dr. Benitez details how White liberalism and Neo-colonialism has manifested in academic spaces and diluted the radical traditions that gave birth to Black studies and ethnic studies.
Both Lasana Hotep and Dr Benitez layout necessary steps folks can and should take to move things into another direction
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