Growing up in Mississippi, I have always had a complex and emotional relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
On one hand, I cherish the chance to celebrate the accomplishments of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s; they did so much to improve the lives of Black men and women like me. On the other hand, it seems wrong to celebrate as if the struggle against racism is over and Dr. King’s work is finished. After all, Mississippi is one of only two states where the day is officially recognized as the birthdays of both King and Robert E. Lee, who led the Confederacy in its fight to preserve Black slavery.
Racial equity is far from a reality in Mississippi or the nation. That’s why we need to look beyond racial equity to a different kind of conversation. We need to talk about racial healing.
Racial healing is vital—not as a replacement for racial equity, but as a critical component of it. A court or lawmakers imposing racial equity will never work unless we also heal the deep wounds of racism. There is hard work to be done for all of us here, especially in the South.
To engage in racial healing is to engage in genuine connection across divides of race. It means all of us—Black, Indigenous, Latino, Asian and White—working to acknowledge and grapple with the trauma caused by centuries of systemic racism in this country. That takes courageous effort, a lot of truth telling and time spent investing in relationships so that our communities can develop trust and work together to create a more equitable future where all of our children can thrive.
A Confirmation of a Hard Truth
It’s clear in the research that we’re still far from reaching this kind of understanding. While the Pew Research Center found that most people agree that the country has made advances in racial equity, only 46% of White Americans said that was a good thing. Meanwhile, 75% of Black Americans, 64% of Asian Americans and 59% of Latinos said they thought that increased attention