When it comes to civil rights, what kind of an activist are you?

Today we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. As I have already said elsewhere, the man and his speech, "Let Freedom Ring" have a very special place in my heart.

But there is another reason why I have been thinking about this speech : I have been pondering a lot about these things called the "liberal", the "progressive", the "feminist" netroots. I am starting to see the dichotomies and the reasons why it may or may not work within the current political infrastructure people in the so-called Left have at their disposal. Notice I am putting these words in quotations because, I think we need explain what we mean by liberal or progressive or feminist. I will come back to these definitions later.

For the moment, I ask you : When it comes to civil rights, what kind of an activist are you?

When you read this :

[via c u l t u r e k i t c h e n: forty years later : martin luther king's "let freedom ring" speech]:

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of colour are concerned. Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, America has given the negro people a bad cheque which has come back marked "insufficient funds". But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this cheque - a cheque that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquillising drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all God's children.

Do you read it as a call to social equality and freedom for social mobility?

Or

Do you read it as a call to social justice, reparations and a redistribution of capital and wealth?

I believe that by the way we interpret this snippet we can define what kind of a progressive, liberal or feminist we are.

So y'all have some lot of 'splainin' to do.

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