KENNEBUNK — Racial change does not come from feel-good sound bites, but requires  meaningful conversation that can be challenging and uncomfortable.

Writer Shay Stewart-Bouley spoke to a full sanctuary of people at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Kennebunk Monday morning. She said commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. was not just about having “a feel good moment.”

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is often a day to take a moment of pause and be of service to each other, she said. 

“It has also become a day of dishonest reflection at times, as too often what we’ve chosen to focus on this day has become distilled down to the sound bites that are easy to swallow,” said Stewart-Bouley.

 For example, when referring to King they focus on quotes like:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”

instead of 

“I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

Stewart-Bouley said in the years following King’s death, many people lost focus on civil rights when they should have been staying on track. 

“We stayed in our respective silos and patted ourselves on the back when we really needed to come back and complete the work of Dr. King and the many others who worked tirelessly for change,” she said. “We should have understood that the election of Barrack Obama was only one large road to cross on the journey to justice, instead of the destination.”

Stewart-Bouley said many people have tried to create an alternate reality based on half truths rather than grappling with what it means to live in a country with a foundation built with the blood and bodes of stolen, enslaved people

“If one group is given what amounts to a 400-year head start, equality is not the goal,” said Stewart-Bouley. “Equity is the goal.”

People must re-examine themelves and be honest as wthey can’t solve problems wthey can’t truthfully name, and people must move beyond the silos to keep change coming in incremental stages, Stewart-Bouley said. 

She encouraged people to get involved in groups working for racial justice. She said in Maine, as in other parts of the country, people of color are over-represented in the criminal justice system. The local ACLU chapter found that too often, schools in Maine are not welcoming places for people of color, she said. 

Though Maine may be the whitest state in the country, the absence of people of color does not absolve them from doing the work of dismantling racism, said Stewart-Bouley.

“We all have a role to play,” said Stewart-Bouley. She said though we can’t change the past, we have the current moment and the future and we can make a difference. 

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or [email protected].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHfJptyLwPo&list=PLmAabjmqOI2RpObiLkouWjI0E8OdY7uC6