WWDKD? (What Would Dr. King Do?)

Tomorrow is inauguration day. This is a big deal, and it should be. For more than 200 years it is the peaceful process by which our civilized republic changes leadership. We don’t have a war, a coup, a revolution. We don’t have riots, killings, pogroms or anyone having to flee the country to avoid death in order to have a new president. I like that about our nation.

This inauguration is notable because, for the first time, the president being sworn in is not a white Anglo-Saxon guy person. Again, because we are a civilized republic, we can elect leaders who aren’t the same old , same old. I keep hearing people who say “I never thought I’d see this in my life-time.” Meaning a black man being elected president. And if that person saying it is African-American of a certain age, I can understand this sentiment. The experiences of their life are completely different from my experiences, and they’ve seen prejudice and ugliness that I have not.

I, being a white woman of a certain age, was at first puzzled by this comment. Over the last fifteen years there have been a number of African-Americans in prominent political situations who have been qualified to run for president, and for whom I would have voted with confidence. When I first heard this quote---“not in my life-time”---I thought it was weird.

But, I realize that I’m probably the weird one. I wasn’t raised to look at people as a skin color or a race. I grew up in a homogeneous community, where everyone was a relative (almost). But when I left there as an adult, and lived in a city where I had daily interactions with people of different races and languages, my upbringing served me well. I didn’t have to think about how I was going to treat people who looked different from me; I knew. I was going to treat them politely, respectfully and kindly---just like I had been taught to treat everyone! I didn’t see their color or their race. I saw them as a person. There were a number of times when I got rebuffed for this. I was treated as a “white person” by some—called names, ridiculed. I was surprised and upset. But, rude is rude, and I realized that rude comes in all colors. So, anyway, my naivete got me slapped down a few times.

But this is why I was puzzled by the “not in my life-time” comments. Why not in our life-time? If we’re truly trying to achieve the society we agree we need—the one dreamed of by Dr. King where character is more important than color---why not in our life-time? I’ve been completely put-off during this election cycle by the gag-inducing focus on skin color. It has been harped on by the media in an unseemly way. We will have the inauguration tomorrow and its historic momentousness will be lauded again by the press. But then, I hope that the new president can just be the president, and not have to be the Black President for his entire term. It seems insulting to him and to us and to Dr. King.