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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2021)
January 13, 2021 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 11 Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. MLK’s Vision of Love as a Moral Imperative Still Matters Joshua F.J. Inwood, Penn State M ore than 50 years after the assas- sination of Mar- tin Luther King Jr., the United States remains divided by is- sues of race and racism, economic inequality as well as unequal access to justice. These issues are stopping the coun- try from developing into the kind of society that Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for during his years as a civil rights ac- tivist. As a result King’s words and work are still relevant. I study the civ- il rights movement and the field of peace geog- raphies. Peace geogra- phies thinks about how different groups of peo- ple approach and work “ So, what can the past tell us about healing the nation? toward building the kind of peaceful society King worked to create. Ameri- cans faced similar crises related to the broader civil rights struggles in the 1960s. So, what can the past tell us about healing the nation? Specifically, how can we address divisions along race, class and po- litical lines? Martin Luther King Jr.‘s understanding of the role of love in engaging individuals and commu- nities in conflict is cru- cial today. For King, love was not sentimental. It demanded that individu- als tell their oppressors what they were doing was wrong. King’s vision King spent his public career working toward ending segregation and fighting racial discrimi- nation. For many people the pinnacle of this work occurred in Washington, D.C., when he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Less well-known and often ignored is his later work on behalf of poor people. In fact, when King was assassinated in Memphis he was in the midst of building to- ward a national march on Washington, D.C., that would have brought to- gether tens of thousands of economically disen- franchised people to ad- vocate for policies that would reduce poverty. This effort – known as the “Poor People’s Cam- paign” – aimed to dra- matically shift national priorities to address the health and welfare of working people. Scholars such as Derek Alderman, Paul Kings- bury and Owen Dwyer how King’s work can be applied in today’s con- text. They argue that calling attention to the civil rights movement, can “change the way stu- dents understand them- selves in relation to the larger project of civil rights.” And in under- standing the civil rights movement, students and the broader public can see its contemporary sig- nificance. Idea of love King focused on the role of love as key to building healthy com- munities and the ways in which love can and should be at the center of our social interactions. King’s final book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Commu- nity?” published in the year before his assassi- nation, provides his most expansive vision of an in- clusive, diverse and eco- nomically equitable U.S. nation. For King, love is a key part of creating com- munities that work for everyone and not just the few at the expense of the many. Love was not a mushy or easily dismissed emo- tion, but was central to the kind of communi- ty he envisioned. King made distinctions be- tween three forms of love which are key to the human experience: “eros,” “philia” and most importantly “agape.” For King, eros is a form of love that is most closely associated with desire, while philia is often the love that is ex- perienced between very good friends or family. These visions are differ- ent from agape. Agape, which was at the center of the move- ment he was building, was the moral impera- tive to engage with one’s oppressor in a way that showed the oppressor the ways their actions dehumanize and detract from society. He said, “In speaking of love we are not referring to some sentimental emo- tion. It would be non- sense to urge men to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense[…] When we speak of lov- ing those who oppose us […] we speak of a love which is expressed in the Greek word Agape. Agape means nothing sentimental or basically affectionate; it means un- derstanding, redeeming goodwill for all men, an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return.” King further defined agape when he argued at the University of Califor- nia at Berkeley that the concept of agape “stands at the center of the move- See LOVE on page 17 King’s vision can help bring communities together. Noah Berger/Reuters
