Exonians Learn About King’s “Nightmare”
Ibram X. Kendi’s powerful keynote speech in Love Gym kicked off the annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day. Kendi impressed the unknown sides of Martin Luther King Jr. and the differentiation between non-racists and antiracists on the Exeter community. The day, which celebrated Dr. King’s legacy in a series of workshops, built on the MLK Committee’s theme of “Changing the Narrative.”
This year’s theme centered around the idea of remembering King’s true legacy and exposing students to the often obscured parts of his identity—particularly his radicalism later in life. “He did a lot more than ‘I Have A Dream.’ It’s my hope that students learn more about him,” English Instructor and co-chair of MLK Committee Courtney Marshall said. “The students can learn about the many facets of his life. That’s the narrative that I see changing that we get a more complex narrative surrounding King.”
During his keynote, Kendi spoke about King’s “nightmare” of inaction and compliance to a racist society. “Dr. Kendi was able to present to the entire school the way in which the narratives around MLK, the evolution of slavery, and the role of an antiracist must be changed,” upper and MLK Committee member Noah James said.
Marshall especially hopes that students will learn more about the speeches unheard of from King. “One of the cool things about MLK day is getting to hear about some of the speeches that we might not have heard about,” she said. “We can hear about his fights against over-militarization and fighting for economic justice.”
The theme, changing narratives, originated from the committee’s belief that “every person has some kind of narrative,” according to MLK Committee member and senior Sam Weil. Weil noted that during the Preview Assembly, the committee members attempted to emphasize this theme by highlighting different narratives, such as beauty standards, representation and mass incarceration.
James elaborated on this idea. “This year’s theme of ‘Changing the Narrative’ was meant to make students consider the narrative they’ve heard about Martin Luther King Jr. and who has narrated that story,” he said. “In a wider sense, the theme encouraged workshops about taking action, about pursuing truth and dedicating oneself to a movement.”
MLK committee members felt Kendi addressed such ideas in his keynote well. “Ibram X. Kendi is a prime example of someone who is changing the very large narrative around the way we treat racism in America,” Weil said. “He has done this by writing the book ‘How To Be an Antiracist’ that so many people have read and vocalizing his beliefs at speaking engagements like our MLK Day.”
Many workshops attempted to provide a more varied view of King’s life. In the workshop Asian American and Black Coalitions, speaker Maddie Schumacher had everyone read King’s speech titled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. In this speech, the ideas King presents are far more radical than the ones that he is most famous for; he openly attacks the government’s involvement in the Vietnam War, and contemplates how he could possibly promote non-violence when his own government primarily used violence to solve problems abroad.
“We should not cleanse what we think MLK’s legacy is … he began to call out the government, imperialist structures and incarceration structures that were at play,” Schumacher said. “He called for us to band together, to reject the idea that borders are supposed to separate us and that we should unify as an oppressed people across the world—not even of just the US!”
Schumacher expanded upon the idea of unification, claiming that coming together is necessary to affect change. “I think that there is a natural reaction to build groups within people who are like you—that’s what I do in my workplace,” Schumacher said. “However, the fight that APIs are doing in immigration, for example, is not different at all from the fights that Latinx organizations are doing. We’re talking about the same thing … DACA, immigrants in schools and them having rights.”
Senior David Gonzalez attended the workshop “Building Houses Upon Sand: Coming to Terms with the Scientific Field’s Role in the Justification of Slavery.” He and many others found they left with a broadened viewpoint of the history of Social Darwinism. “It gave me a more advanced and knowledgeable perspective on the role of science and racism, and in that I got a bit more of an appreciation for what we know and the importance of keeping mind of exactly the ramifications that your scientific process and hypothesis could have,” David said.
Weil attended the workshop “Raising our Voices: Women in Pursuit of Resilience, Resistance, and Persistence.” “The group talked about the ways in which we wanted to change narratives in our community,” she said. “I think Janine Fondon did a really good job of getting people active, staying accountable, discussing, and having a passionate conversation.”
Weil also said that mandatory workshop “Half and Half Workshop: Food and Liberation” had a true impact on the student body. “Exonians can get desensitized about issues that they may hear about on campus, and a prime example is mass-incarceration and direct correlation to race. So when Kurt Evans said, ‘I grew up in a culture that made me feel like since I am a black man I’m gonna go to jail at some point, that is something that will definitely happen,’ I felt that his words really impacted students, and made them step out of ignoring the speaker to hear what he had to say,” she said.
Chef Kurt Evans, one of the two panelists on the Half and Half Workshop, described his workshop as a conversation on his desire to help those who were previously incarcerated, knowing it could have easily been himself. “My ‘End Mass Incarceration’ dinners are used to bring awareness to the prison system, through food,” said Evans. “...through these dinners, we’ve been able to raise one hundred thousand dollars for various organizations dealing with mass incarceration…,” he said.
Kendi’s keynote surmised the greatest task for students now as being active in the face of injustice and oppression. “It’s critical to ensure that every person is expressing antiracist ideas instead of racist ideas,” Kendi concluded. “When they see racial inequity, I want them to figure out ‘what can I do, each day, to support the struggle against those equities’ whether that’s joining an organization, speaking against racism, funding an organization, or volunteering.”