Conversation Starter- Should We March on to a New Idea?
March 28, 2008
Should This be a thing of the past?
I was listening to the Michael Baisden today (like I do every afternoon) and he is really geeked up about a march taking place next Friday in Memphis to commemorate the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Last year’s Jena 6 controversies culminated with a “ginormous” march and rally in the tiny Louisiana town. Many people are speculating that this may be the dawn of a new civil rights movement. A writer in the latest issue of Essence stated that she’s done with marches because they lack the spontaneity that really made it “civil disobedience”. Marches are now well organized but they’re slightly formulaic, complete with tight security, standardized chants, songs and street barricades. During the civil rights era a march was a new and unconventional form of peaceful protest, now it just seems like something colored folks do when we get angry. Are marches becoming too traditional? Are they getting anything done in the black community? (Or any community, remember the immigration rallies and marches of last year? And Ron Paul is holding a “Freedom march on Washington” :-/ ) what should we be doing instead on marching?
What say you??
Shannon the Tampa Diva
mrkeyz
I know that we have march enough in the last fifty years and only accomplished a few windows dressing as far as setting thing straight. The people who was at the forefront of the marches got good political muscle and sold us out. Also the white man know that if he gave us a few trinket than we will say “ah boy, look at us we so powerful” and still donot run nothing.
Nice post. I read the same article in essence and didn’t know whether to shake my head in agreeance or not. There can no longer be spontaneous marches down the streets of America, so we can forget about that concept. The Jena 6 march was a beautiful thing, but what happened after? Tons of people marched and the momentum gradually died down; there was no follow thru to the next”injustice”. Black folk want a whole lot yet we FAIL ourselves with no follow thru. We have NO “leaders”, what Jesse and Sharpton were seen as in yesteryear has little to no affect presently. They are photo-op leaders, if anything, they can hinder situations with their loud mouth rhetoric. There’s nothing wrong with marching but its all about what we do inconjunction with the march. I guess we’ll see just have to watch and see.