WWMLKD (What Would MLK Do) About Refugees Today?
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a legendary social rights activist. He spent his entire adult life speaking out and educating people about discrimination.
Significantly, the type of discrimination that King fought against in the 1950s and 1960s in America is similar to the type of discrimination that refugees in Europe are facing today. The mindset is the same fear, these situations of discrimination are both rooted by fear and ignorance.
I believe that if King was alive right now he would be doing something about this. Refugees going to America might face many problems. Here’s what I believe King might have done if he was here today.
No room for refugees
One of the most laughable excuses for the U.S. government not to let in refugees is that America doesn’t have enough room. The U.S. is a huge country; it is bigger than most countries on the planet. For example, Texas alone is bigger than 13 small countries in Europe combined.
The population of the United States is 324 million and according to the United Nations, there are 21.3 million refugees worldwide and 65.3 million “forcibly displaced” people. You might think that with a population of 324 million that the U.S. is packed, and it can’t take any more people. That is incorrect. States with a population ranking above 30 have barely 3 million people, and these states are huge compared to New York. Wyoming has the lowest population ranking among the states, therefore it could welcome many refugees, considering its size and population.
If King were alive, he would welcome as many refugees as possible to help Europe with its refugee crisis. And he would create jobs for refugees so that they could have a comfortable life until the wars in their countries end.
Dealing with division
Of course, if King were to allow refugees to come to the U.S. then one huge problem he would face is Islamophobia, specifically, the fear of refugees who are Muslim. I believe he would reach out to those who fear Muslims the most, and would try to make to change their mindsets and what they believe Islam is.
If King were alive, he would understand why some of the people would be afraid to let in some refugees. It’s not the religion itself, it is the toxic hatred for what these people think this religion and region are; they think Islam glorifies extremism and terrorism but they aren’t willing to consider that they might be wrong. Ignorance is the unwillingness to see the world around you for what it truly is and not what you may have been taught to see.
I think that King would understand that terrorism is a problem, but it’s not caused by Islam. The true causes are ignorance and arrogance from both sides. Whether it was the few ignorant Americans blaming innocent, peaceful Muslims for the actions of extremists, or extremist who resort to violence, driven by anger and arrogance, both sides are wrong.
If King were alive, he wouldn’t want his fellow Americans to exclude refugees out of fear. In fact, I believe that he would see this as an opportunity for the U.S. to become more open minded about letting in other cultures, or as he would put it, to see people by the “by the content of their character.” He would use the most famous line in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
And if he were alive today King would give it a new meaning: That line would mean all humans, not the white man, or the black man, but all of mankind, even those who don’t believe in the same things that he does, because King was a Christian but more than that he believed in freedom of speech.
A man dies, but the dream lives on
King died in 1963 but his words are still alive. I believe he would have accepted refugees with open arms, rather than keeping them out because people are afraid of them. I think he would urge education and tolerance in places where Islamophobia rings the loudest. And he would make sure that refugees have stable jobs by day and shelter at night.
Best of all, when that happened he would say, as he said before, the words of his dream: “This will be the day this will be the day when all of the children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing … let freedom ring!”
—Photo: Martin Luther King, Jr./Public domain photo
