June 8, 2020
Nick Bates, Assistant Director, Thurman Center Networks, was quoted in BU Today’s article “SPH Conversation on Race and Policing Draws Nearly 1,000 from BU Community.” Nick provided important context for Martin Luther King’s legacy and his commitment to nonviolent protest:
While King (GRS’55, Hon.’59) is known for his commitment to nonviolent protest, Bates said, he “also understood that critiquing oppressed black people for their reactions to a system that has violently attacked their humanity over centuries can be misplaced and inequitable.
“The question I believe King is asking is, why are we spending so much time critiquing the supposed violent, singular instances of individuals, instead of the empirical and systemic violence of a system on black people?”
Read the full article here.