This year’s commemoration of the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may be one of the most important since his assassination on April 4, 1968. DEI is now a curse word in some circles, and many of the people who once claimed to stand for equity and social justice have gone strangely silent.
Websites have been scrubbed as white as snow to delete any reference to diversity, equity and inclusion. Same for lofty programs thousands of corporations, colleges and universities once touted to help create more equitable fields for education and hiring. Scrubbed clean. Some even want to scrub history books to erase the dark stain of the enslavement of Black people, and any reference to the brutality of racism and Jim Crow.
Justice may be delayed, King taught, but the long arc of the universe inevitably bends in its direction.
That’s why this year’s celebration of King’s leadership in the fight against racism is so important. This year, only people who really believe in King’s legacy will show up to volunteer on the Central Pennsylvania MLK Day of Service slated for Jan. 19, or at the myriad of events being held throughout our region…