I spent the earlier part of today honouring his memory by attending a math conference. One might ask "how is attending a math conference in any way honouring this man's memory?!". To this I reply: "By taking full advantage of the opportunities granted to me by his message and his sacrifice."
It's not lost on me that I never would have had this opportunity if it wasn't for the hard work of Rev Dr. King and his peers. Even as a "one-fourteenth-ish" Blackman, I would be subject to "one drop" rules and would thus be segregated from a lot of the academic opportunities I am currently taking advantage (read: FULL advantage) of.
(Note: I put one-fourteenth in quotes because it's an average from the 2 DNA tests I took with different results.....see the FAQ's post a few posts previous to this one for more on that subject.)
I'd also like to take a moment to drive home a point: in our modern age, segregation and separation are no longer possible options. In a near-completely connected world, we have no option but to integrate** fully and co-operate fully. Every day, every week, every month, every year...we connect more and more completely as a global community. The conference I attended today was actually in Berlin*, with participants from all over the world connecting via Zoom. One of the maybe unheralded blessings of COVID is that the usage of remote conferencing and remote socializing (etc) is sort of coaxing us into making a quantum leap in integration; we're almost forced to connect with people from different cultures (both in terms of physical borders and in terms of more abstract concepts like race, gender, sexuality, etc) on a regular basis. I see this as only a good thing. And I see it as a necessity. I feel, with this leap, that sooner rather than later those who subscribe to a separatist/segregationist philosophy will be left behind. I, for one, refuse to be a fossil from some outdated model. I embrace full integration, and in doing so I feel like I'm helping to fully manifest the dream of Rev. Dr. King even if it's only in a small way. Will attending a math conference in Berlin via Zoom end racism and other forms of hate/separation (e.g.; sexism, homophobia, religious/philosophical intolerance)? Not in and of itself. But all processes are the sum of their parts, no matter how big or small those parts are.
I hope we all take a moment today to think about our place in the march towards a more unified world. Be well, be good to one another, and take the time today (and hopefully every day) to do something, no matter how big or small, to help create a better, more inclusive world.
(Belated) Happy Birthday, Rev. Dr. King.
*Actually, the conference wasn't in Berlin, it was in Zurich. Zoomlag is real.
**To be clear, I do NOT consider "integration" to be a euphemism for "dominance of one or two cultures over all others". Integration means....well, exactly what it means. Taking all of the elements and adding them up. It's important to have different points of view.
To mix my mathematical metaphors (and, apparently, alliterate), you can't just approach every problem, say, geometrically. You can try, but there are some problems that can't be solved, or even formulated, in geometric terms. You need various view points to approach different problems if you want to solve all types of problems. You need completely different fields like combinatorics and topology and number theory and such. View points that pick up where geometry fails in even the most fundamental way to solve or formulate certain types of problems. I think the same applies to culture/society.
A mutualistic whole made up of diverse parts means we have more view points from which we can approach, and hopefully solve, the variety of problems humans face now, as well as the ones well inevitably face in the future. I just think it's wrong to imply integration means something like "Integration means we're all going to be Socialists!" or "Integration means we're all going to be Capitalists!" or whatever other "monocultural" interpretations of the concept of integration can be thought up.