PhilosopherCrip

I’ve been kind of vague with most of my teachers and colleagues about how I am spending next week. I’m never exactly sure how folks will react to the idea of non-violent direct action civil disobedience. Sometimes, I get an amused chuckle when I explain to someone what ADAPT does. Other times, I get a reaction of disbelief, people thinking that oppression and the non-violent resistance that opposes it are historic relics. Another common response is condescending advice like “You can’t expect to get anywhere if you’re so angry like that. Why don’t you just ask them nicely for what you want?” Some of the people that are closest to me understand my motivations, but worry that my history of direct action activities may harm me or my career later down the line. The best explanation I know of what non-violent direct action is, how it works, and why marginalized groups use it is MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

Of course our situations are not exactly analogous, but there are many similarities in the systems of our oppression and how they are sustained by privaleged classes. One similarity is that we are often - condescendingly - told that we should tolerate our marginalization with a pleasant disposition and not rock the boat. The fact is, ADAPT is trying to address the fact that thousands upon thousands of people with disabilities are incarcerated in nursing homes against there will across the US because of the way benefit programs are set up. This situation is sustained by the deep pockets of the nursing home lobby, combined with the cultural bigotry and social ignorance of our country that says people with disabilities are not capable of integration and are better off segregated out of view. This combination means that negotiation with the power structure controlling this issue is an impossibility.

Martin Luther King's Mug Shot

The full text of MLK’s illuminating letter can be found at: http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

In the meantime, this will get you started with an understanding of the reasoning behind why non-violent direct action is an essential tool: “You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.”