“most whites in America, including many of goodwill, proceed from the premise that equality is a loose expression for improvement. White America is not even psychologically organized to close the gap...it seeks only to make it less painful" https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/01/17/martin-luther-king-polite-racism-white-liberals/

King "called out the hypocrisy of liberal allies who praised the struggle in the South while decrying disruptive black activism at home; the King who highlighted the ways police brutality was ignored or excused by many who considered themselves friends of the movement..."

...the King who insisted that disruption & direct action were necessary to highlight the urgency of injustice, challenging his allies to act accordingly."

"King increasingly pointed to the “comfortable vanity” of Americans who saw themselves as friends of racial progress"

"After an officer killed 15-year-old James Powell in the Harlem neighborhood of New York, sparking days of uprising in 1964, Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. invited King to New York to help ease tensions between residents & city leaders."

"But those leaders roundly rejected King when he dared suggest the city would benefit from a civilian review board to investigate community complaints against police officers."

("Reform" the police has a long, long, history & "reform" or "review" the police was once too radical)

“Our white liberal friends cried out in horror and dismay: ‘You are creating hatred and hostility in the white communities in which you are marching. You are only developing a white backlash,’” he wrote.

“We do not need allies who are more devoted to order than to justice,” he wrote...“I hear a lot of talk these days about our direct action program alienating former friends. I would rather feel that they are bringing to the surface many latent prejudices which were always there.”

“As long as the struggle was down in Alabama & Mississippi, they could look afar & think about it & say how terrible people are. When they discovered brotherhood had to be a reality in Chicago & that brotherhood extended to next door, then those latent hostilities came out.”

"Similar hand-wringing has erupted in recent years over activists who disrupt meetings, stop traffic & confront politicians. Calls for “civility” have followed, even from those who profess to support the activists’ causes."

"King called out the systemic cruelty...of allies who supported civil rights while criticizing its tactics, who denounced discrimination elsewhere but explained away prejudices at home....police misconduct in the North was rationalized, tolerated, and usually denied,” he wrote.

Leaders in Northern and Western states “welcomed me to their cities, and showered praise on the heroism of Southern Negroes. Yet when the issues were joined concerning local conditions, only the language was polite; the rejection was firm and unequivocal.”