When Can We Speak Honestly About Racial Issues?

I attended a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration twelve months ago that I continue to think about, especially today as we acknowledge his birthday once again.

I continue to think about that particular event because of how others in attendance responded to the speaker after the event. The audience was racially mixed. This is relevant because it is the foundation for the responses I saw, heard, and read via e-mail.

The event I attended last year had, in my opinion, a great speaker offering truths and insights that were very relevant to the occasion. He said things that made me and others clap in agreement and even stand on our feet a time or two. His speech was just the right length, contained humor, passion, and wisdom.

During the speaker's presentation, Blacks were admonished for believing that we have arrived because some can now live in nice neighborhoods, drive fancy cars, and earn fat paychecks. He reminded us of the struggle that began so many years ago and that still continues and that we have to help our own selves out of these troubles.

He reminded us that we cannot be satisfied with the current conditions in our urban neighborhoods and schools. He chided Blacks for spending and not saving and for not creating significant wealth. He made it clear that he believes Whites are not without fault for the current conditions in Black America and that they therefore should be doing more to help.

After the event was over, hardly anyone came up to speak to the speaker and his family, I know because I did. Immediately after the program, I heard a version of this statement multiple times "Right message, wrong audience, wrong event."

For days after the event, attendees were circulating e-mails, about how embarrassed they were and that the speaker should have been vetted better, and someone even suggested that the speech text of future speakers should be reviewed before they can speak at the event.

To this day, I do not understand those responses to the speech. I kept being told that the message was inappropriate for a racially mixed audience. Whites don't want to come to an event and "hear that kind of speech."

I have several White friends that I consider our relationships to be fairly close. I would like to think that while they may have been uncomfortable with a comment or two from the speaker, they would have been inspired to do better, just as I, an African-American, was inspired to do better.

Is it OK for an African American to admonish his own, but not Whites? If so, how can we truly achieve racial unity and reconciliation? Shouldn't we be able to speak honestly, during events such as one designed to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King?