The White Moderate
• Written by Jonahh
///verse 1
king wrote from birmingham in sixty three
the white moderate, the degree
of the obstacle, the debris
of the ally who agrees in theory
but objects to the timing, to the method
to the disruption of the deadhead
calm of the comfortable, the widespread
preference for the negative peace, widespread
order over the positive peace of justice
the thermometer not the thermostat, the fuss
about the temperature without the impetus
to adjust it, the sycophantous
sympathy without the solidarity
the dinner party conversations clarity
on the issue without the irregularity
of the actual commitment, the familiarity
with the problem as an intellectual
exercise, the conceptual
acknowledgment, the ineffectual
agreement, the perpetual
position of the moderate who sees the fire
and discusses the fire from a little higher
ground, unwilling to become the prior
condition for the change, the wire
cutter standing at the fence
describing the fence eloquently, intense
analysis of the fence, the immense
literature on the fence, the fence
still standing, the moderate still writing
kings most eloquent indicting
of the obstacle, the inviting
of the enemy by the delighting
in the comfort of the intellectual
position without the effectual
work beneath it, the contextual
ally is the theoretical
///hook
the white moderate, the greatest obstacle
not the hood, the reasonable
the dinner party seasonable
agreement, the unseasonable
action theyll get to eventually
eventually arrived, evidentially
too late, the consequentially
comfortable, the penitentially
guilty moderate, repentance
without the change, the sentence
commuted by the benevolence
of their own self assessment
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About the Artist
Jonahh
Member since May 1 2026