I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past 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 his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler 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; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
An inactive majority will always be a bigger obstacle than a counter-radical minority when it comes to change. Any given social movement is usually supported by like 10% of the population fighting heavily from both extremes to shave even a little bit of the ambivalent 80% towards their cause
So did MLK. See: Letter From a Birmingham Jail
I seriously want to clap every time I read it
An inactive majority will always be a bigger obstacle than a counter-radical minority when it comes to change. Any given social movement is usually supported by like 10% of the population fighting heavily from both extremes to shave even a little bit of the ambivalent 80% towards their cause