"I may not get there with you". Why MLK's Mountaintop speech is ringing in my ears this week

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be.

Martin Luther King, Jr., April 3, 1968

The words, "I may not get there with you" have been much on my mind recently as I've been trying to come to terms with Republicans’ unwillingness to do the right thing. Martin Luther King Jr uttered those words in his Mountaintop speech, on the night of April 3, 1968. If that date seems familiar, that might because the very next day, the thing that he knew was possible and which he said he did not fear, came to pass: he was shot dead for the crime of demanding that America be in its deeds, the America of its words.  

In his Mountaintop speech Martin Luther King Jr also talked about dangerous unselfishness, the kind of unselfishness that faces and embraces the possibility of harm to self to prevent harm to others.

In his speech, King also offered this, “We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”

I went in search of the Mountaintop speech because it seemed to me that Republicans were facing a difficult choice in the impeachment, but that a not insignificant number of them simply were not capable of the dangerous unselfishness of which MLK spoke and which would be so necessary here.  Rather, they all had a surfeit of a dangerous selfishness that would bring us all to grief.

I acknowledge that Republicans are scared spitless of their base. They should be. The violence that ultimately came for Dr. King, Medgar Evers and EmmettTill, still roams the land and seems to have found a happy home in the Republican Party. January 6 certainly proved that all too true. So Republican legislators’ fears are entirely reasonable, but as people who claim the mantle of faith, shouldn't their faith be a source of courage? Or is their faith just a weapon to be used to judge and limit the rights of the rest of us? 

I’m not suggesting that anyone should have to die for doing the right thing, but for a group that tends all too often to use extremist language about rights for which they would die, it has become clear that these folks are all hat, no cattle. They have demonstrated clearly that when the threat of violence is real, they will either cower in fear, hiding behind meritless arguments or behind the nearest Black body (see EugeneGoodman). Anything really, to avoid doing the brave thing.

Reasonable fear or not, much more is required of our representatives than cowardice. Much more. Why, even PeggyNoonan says so! 

As for fear, sometimes doing the right thing means either ignoring fear or moving forward in spite of it. People like Denmark Vesey, HarrietTubman acted despite the possibility of real consequences for their actions. Perhaps it’s unfair to use Vesey and Tubman given the era in which they lived but tell me, when did fearlessness stop being required of those in power?  How is fearlessness not a requirement for public service in this moment? In every moment?

No battle can be won without the facing of fear; or without action in spite of fear. And to be clear, there are battles afoot here; there’s the battle to save democracy and there’s the battle to save the Republican Party. Unfortunately for us, the resolution of both of those battles is dependent on White men and women (and Tim Scott *eyeroll*) figuring out that Whiteness will not save them; figuring out that the White supremacy that has brought them thus far will not carry them much further.

Republicans need to understand a some critical things about America’s sordid history. (Perhaps they could re-read the 1619 Project and sit with the discomfort it evokes a moment?) The truth is that White power structures have long been entirely comfortable with violence and brutality as a means to an end (any number of essays in the1619 Project refer). If these senators knew this, they might have approached this vote differently. One hopes. But they hate the truth, are terrified by it, and would instead continue to three little monkeys their way through life. And so here we are today, waiting for terrified, spineless, ignorant of history White men and women to find backbones they have never had to have because all they've ever needed was whiteness itself. Therein lies the great challenge of this moment.

White supremacy’s power has long been earned through bloodshed. On January 6th this was once again demonstrated in a clear and powerful way. What has paralyzed Senate Republicans and rendered them impotent is not simply their fear of their base, but also the uncomfortable realization that the blood that vampiric White supremacy demands might be their own. When you have long sat in the seat of power, you become inured to the tactics in use to achieve and retain that power. On January 6, the curtain was pulled back and the ugly truth of power in these Untied (not a typo) States was revealed. The 1/6 reminder terrified the Republicans just as it was meant to do.  

White power has always had a cavalier attitude to bloodshed. I don’t think that’s about to change, not even in the shadow of the riot at the capitol. Even when the target is itself, the Performance of American Whiteness is going to proceed as if there’s nothing to fear largely because the victim usually not me, it’s usually you over there. On 1/6 “You, over there’ became “Me, right here”.

Until now, toxic White supremacy has mostly consumed BIPOC and poor White folk. On 1/6, when the Empire (of Whiteness) Struck Back against its perceived victimhood, it was fully prepared to consume the crème de la crème of White power to achieve its ends. The Republicans' problem is that they never expected to be consumed by that which they have long stoked. Despite the fact that they're on the menu, these people are still sitting at the table asking the waiter "What's good here?". That is how toxic White supremacy is.

The irresolvable conflict Republicans now face is this: choose dangerous unselfishness (per MLK) or spineless self-preservation. On Saturday 13 February 2021, 43 senators chose the latter.

And so MLK’s words, “I may not get there with you” are ringing in my ears. Why? Because all too few of these senators, upon whose judgements we depend, have the courage of that young man: the courage to believe what you believe, know it to be right and righteous, and to stand tall in that belief, no matter the threat.

Courage. We know it when we see it. And when we don’t.