As we near Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, we reflect on the legacy he left and his values to create a unified America.  MLKDay was created to celebrate the life of a man who served his community and neighbors. The day is a call to action to have Americans from all walks of life come together to find solutions to our nation’s most pressing problems. Today’s guest post was written by a member of our staff and highlights present day issues – and raises a question for discussion about what Martin Luther King Jr. would have done…

The other night, I was driving in downtown Atlanta with my husband around 7:30 p.m. As we approached a red traffic light, we pulled up next to a large party bus. For those of you not familiar with this concept, it is essentially a painted school bus with a “party” inside that allows people to celebrate as someone drives them around town to get drunk and yell at sober people who wonder what the heck goes on in the bus.

As we waited at the red light, a young female who was surely older than 21, looked out the rectangle-shaped school bus window and yelled, “Asians!” to her friends. She then stuck her camera out the window and took a picture of my husband and me. Clearly, we were so different that she had to take a picture of us so she would never forget us. The light turned green and the bus began to drive off. She inaccurately yelled goodbye by saying, “konnichiwa,” which means “hello” in Japanese. The party bus proceeded on its way and my husband and I went on our way without providing a reaction or making a scene.

All of this leads me to ask, what would Martin Luther King, Jr. recommend we do in this situation if he were still alive/ In my opinion, we had a couple of options:

1. We could have rolled our window down, shouted back with equally offensive terms and stuck out our middle finger.
2. We could have countered their misused attempt at a foreign language and racial slurs by saying something witty, grandiose and impressing them with our large vocabulary gained from a strong educational background that taught us diversity and tolerance.
3. Do nothing and feel sorry for their ignorance and watch out the next time we roll up to a party bus.

I am still amazed that something like this would happen in a city as diverse as Atlanta, where civil rights leaders led the way alongside Dr. King to fight for equal rights for all. As a country, we have made incredible progress in working toward the dream by electing our first African-American president. But with this progress comes incidents like the one I experienced and other stories making the news today where there is a lack of civility and, to me, a perceived feeling of more visible hate.

I am fired up to think about this MLK Day and how we should all be reaching across the table, having the tough conversations and confronting the tough issues and negative perceptions that many people still believe. Instead of just hosting or attending a Sunday Supper, what if we did one everyday to address the hate and racism that still exists in our country? It’s going to take a lot to get through this.

If Martin Luther King, Jr., were alive, what would he have done in this situation?