McMillan's criticism of gradualism

McMillan's Criticism Of Gradualism

In McMillan's article, he is discussing the challenges associated with gradualism. This is from the country seeing radical shifts occurring in the South during the 1960s. What was happening is the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. The Board of Education that racial segregation is unconstitutional. However, many in Southern society continued to embrace these practices. Their belief is that any kind of changes must occur gradually. This was to ensure that the customs and traditions remain in place. While at the same time, there is a focus on not upsetting the natural balance which exists. In the article, McMillan travels the South with various civil rights activists and discusses the failures of gradualism. To fully understand what is taking place requires focusing on: why these changes have failed, evidence to support them and remedies for addressing these imbalances. These areas will show how gradualism is not working and offer insights about how transformations need to occur immediately. (McMillan)

McMillan believes that slow and evolutionary change had failed in the South by allowing the status quo to continue to exist in some form. This is because any kind of radical shifts would lead to increasing violence between the various members of different racial groups. To preserve stability and order meant, that these transformations must take place slowly. This will allow various segments of society to accept what was happening and be more open to racial segregation. McMillan believes that these shifts were supposed to sustain the existing power structure and ensure that a form of democracy existed throughout the South. That was catered specifically to one racial group over the other. (McMillan)

This resulted in a system of racial equality remaining, with many whites being unwilling to accept what was happening or openly embrace them. The evolutionary changes in the South never occurred because gradualism did not force the different groups to accept one another as equals. Instead, it created an environment where whites could continue to persecute African-Americans at any cost. This contributed to a direct failure of evolutionary changes by keeping the existing system alive through gradualism. When this happened, the ideas of democracy were subverted through allowing for a system of persecution against blacks to remain. (McMillan)

Evidence that is used to support this can be seen in restaurants, beaches and within the school system. In these areas, he shows that a system of discrimination is in place to prevent African-Americans from having access to the same kind of opportunities and services as other segments of society. This is causing many of them to never receive the assistance they need in order to be more economically independent. Instead, it is systematically keeping them down through making these areas unavailable to them. This is proving that change is not occurring. Instead, it is a system which is designed to benefit whites exclusively. (McMillan)