On February 24th, at the
#IamMemphis event, Angela Rye hijacked the event to deliver a message to the
nation, and basically call out the leaders of Memphis for not upholding their
promises to the population of Memphis, and it really brings up the issue of the
seen/unseen controversy that we have dedicated so much time to.
To provide some background, the
event was originally intended to honor the Sanitation strike on 1968, however
Rye, having briefly met with Civil Rights activists and advocates (including
our own Dr McKinney), took it upon herself to inform the leadership of Memphis
that they have failed to resolve many citywide issues that concern race
including employment, economics, and education. It seems almost unbelievable
that the issues which Rye mentions still exist 50 years after King was killed
in Memphis, and yet, 50 years on, Memphis still faces the same issues as it did
then. A good example of this is the unchanged poverty rates between the 1960s,
and today in the 21st century.
Responding to this outcry, Mayor
Strickland seemed, in a way, ignorant to the comments that she had quite
rightly made and instead questioned her authority to make those judgements considering
she did not know what it was like to live in Memphis. This links in to the seen/unseen
notion, as I feel like maybe Mayor Strickland simply doesn’t see all the inequalities
that still exist in this city because he lives here, and perhaps it does take
an outsider to see the injustices and inequalities that those seemingly in
charge should see.
You would have hoped that these
comments would have opened Strickland’s eyes to the wrong ships currently occurring
in Memphis and perhaps instead of calling out Rye and trying to prove her wrong,
Strickland should be taking her comments on board and, as Rye argues, should be
upholding the promise that this city made to Martin Luther King Jr.
Rye’s outcry, although slightly
stealing the stage from the commemoration of the sanitation workers, emphasises
the ideal of what is seen and what is unseen, as it seems that the only people
who are seeing the issues in Memphis are the ones either experiencing it, or
the ones fighting against it; and truly, the people who the Memphis population
really need to see these issues, are the ones who seemingly ignore its existence
altogether and focus on other things.
https://mlk50.com/only-way-to-honor-mlk-be-true-to-what-you-said-on-paper-98015782ca8d
https://mlk50.com/arye-a1a64e545c7e
I love the conversation that's beginning to emerge around Rye's commentary. Last night at the Black History Month in Review panel, we talked about what would've happened if Strickland had taken Rye's comments in stride and accepted criticism with grace. I feel as though acknowledging the accuracy of her concerns while committing to changing the course of the city may have restored some of my personal confidence in his administration. Instead, he showed his incredible level of ignorance. And not just the ignorance of a hopelessly misled individual, but the ignorance of a white man in power who sees his role exclusively as defender of white neighborhoods and business.
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