Since the Black Lives Matter uprisings of 2020, we have seen a myriad of local officials and leaders in the community reference and defend a “silent majority” of Northampton residents who support policing, most recently in a letter by Sue Stubbs (“The silent majority’s view on police funding in Northampton,” June 17)
This enigmatic “silent majority” is a term popularized in the Nixon era while trying to garner political support in the wake of the Vietnam War, which begs the question: at what point in history has a “silent majority” been a reliable narrator and legislator on racism in this country?
The “silent majority” in Northampton by default has a hefty population of white folks who have moderate stances on the issue of policing. And if we take any lessons from history — white moderates typically do not have the best moral compass when it comes to issues of racism.
MLK writes about the white moderate in “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: “I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”
When I think of this quote, many faces of local officials and leaders come to mind. It is clear that like the millions of white moderates during slavery, and similar to the millions of white moderates during the civil rights era, history will frown upon contemporary white moderates who stand so ambivalently in the face of the racial injustices caused by policing in Northampton and beyond.
So the questions for readers become: is the silent majority really where you would like to be when grappling with racism and policing in our city? And if so, which side of history do you think you will be on?
Emily “Lemy” Coffin
Northampton