The Danger of Silence
Photo of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC. Photo cred: Raffaele Nicolussi.
When does our silence equal complicity?
When Dr. King delivered the eulogy for the four girls killed when a bomb planted by a white supremacist terrorist group blew up in the 16th Street Baptist Church, he said the guilt was not simply with the bombers, but “the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers.” King observed the silence of both white and black citizens at the time who did not want to be involved in the struggle for civil rights. He condemned those who tolerated segregation and violence in exchange for civil order. He called everyone to be involved in the work for change. He asked people then and us today to consider how the experience of the few was caused by the complicity of the many.
In effect, he was saying, the blood was on the hands of everyone who hated out loud, those who hated silently and those who could not find the courage to oppose hate.
Those of us who take the bible seriously know texts like Proverbs 31:8–9,
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
In America, we are called to speak. If you know of a crime, you are legally required to report it. If someone is abusing a child, you report it. If someone is stealing from a business, you have a duty to report it, or you are complicit. The law says you endorse the action with your silence.
If you hear someone tell a racist joke and do not kindly object, it means this is a safe place to say such things. Silence may imply something worse than complicity; it may imply participation. Silence feeds the “status quo,” and if the default outcome of silence is that “the powerful win,” then silence helps power. Silence is complicit in the misuse of power.
We are in a time like no other in the United States. There are nearly 3,000 federal agents deployed to the Minneapolis area at this time. The surge is described as the largest in U.S. history by DHS. When such a large number of agents is deployed to make arrests in a major city in our country, the results will include harm to our citizens. Today the Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, after President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to unrest there.
Americans, who have enjoyed their freedom and civil liberties for nearly 250 years, will chafe under the weight of what feels like a military occupation in some major cities. The conflict that will follow is predictable and therefore preventable. Last week lives were lost in Minnesota, and some have said they deserved it. Think about who we are becoming when people see the death of a citizen of the United States who was stopped by ICE agents as collateral damage and an acceptable loss for some greater good.
Today we might ask what Dr. King might say to us at this time. I believe Dr. King would have us consider the way human life is being devalued by enforcement priorities around immigration. I think he would object to a cultural climate that devalues human life through mass incarceration and arrests that sometimes include innocent people. Once a shining city on a hill, our democracy is dim and tarnished when we accept overt cruelty often found in these raids and a use of force that takes the lives of our citizens. Dr. King calls us to repent of passive complicity. We can contact our representatives and share the frustration and indignation at the extreme measures that are happening in our nation. Rather than share that with a few friends who agree with us, it is time we write repetitively to those who claim to lead us. We can show up at rallies or events that call these actions into question. Those who have the capacity to assemble peaceably must exercise that freedom at this time. Like those active decades ago who longed for justice and freedom for our citizens, we are called to do our bit today. We are called to move from observing to doing, to organize ourselves to speak to politicians and offer legal support to those impacted by situations we find unjust and unacceptable now.
You’re not just a person living a life. You’re also creating the environment in which all of us live. That is what Dr. King was saying in that eulogy for those girls. They are words that call to us today, as thousands of masked ICE agents flood into American cities like hammers looking for something or someone to pound. Congress and the courts sit largely on the sidelines. The people of our nation must not.
Dr. King’s words remembering those children in Birmingham call to us today:
They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. They have something to say to every Negro who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.