North by Northwestern

A feeling of enlightenment and empowerment swept through Ryan Auditorium on Thursday night when Charles M. Blow concluded his speech and received a standing ovation.

Blow, a New York Times opinion columnist, spoke of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, Northern racism and the Black Lives Matter movement as the keynote speaker in Northwestern’s Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration.

Weinberg junior Kathleen Nganga opened the night by reminding us of some of King’s most relevant words. The Northwestern University Jazz Small Ensemble provided music throughout the evening, including accompaniment to the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which the audience sang along to before Blow’s speech.

ASG President Nehaarike Mulukutla introduced Blow with the preface that she would say some things that were impolite and improper topics of conversation, but “only because they are the words of our own president.” Mulukutla concludes that we need the words of those like Blow to give us sense and clarity in this time of chaos.

Blow opened by explaining that MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech was a “great American speech, but it is also slightly naive.” It was optimistic and not indicative of King’s later beliefs.

Drawing from King’s “Other America” speech that was written after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, Blow said that by this point, King had realized that just desegregation by law wasn’t enough.

“We demand genuine equality,” Blow said.

Even those who aren’t outwardly hateful can still be white supremacists, Blow said. Even Abraham Lincoln admitted that he never planned on full equality between the races.

“Pity does not dismantle privilege but supports it,” Blow said.

After describing the Civil Rights Era of working to obtain legal freedom, Blow transitioned into discussing the unequal world we live in today in which black Americans have legal freedom in theory, but are still unequally policed and incarcerated.

“Very few things that happen in America are accidental,” Blow said.

Today’s police brutality incidents are mostly in Northern liberal cities - what were originally seen as safe havens for blacks in the Civil Rights Era. Blow makes it clear that just because some white Americans aren’t the ones lynching in the south, they aren’t any more innocent in regards to white supremacy and racial injustice.

“Hate is not a requirement of white supremacy,” Blow said.

Blow ended by echoing MLK’s plea: “All we say to America is to be true to what you said on paper” – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.