Ed Johnson wrote this post about Martin Luther King Jr. I’ve republished with his permission.

Consider that W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993) encapsulated his wisdom and legacy in “A System of Profound Knowledge” that comprises the necessity of understanding something about systems, variation, knowledge, psychology, and the interrelatedness of these few matters without needing to be eminent in any of them and to be able to apply them.

Consider, too, that Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968) similarly encapsulated his wisdom and legacy in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, in these few profound words:

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

Ah, yes, the interrelated structure of reality, which could give a darn about the social construct called “race.”  One might sense King understood this with deep insight and foresight greatly ahead of even his followers who were at his side and immediately at hand.  Unfortunately, so did those for whom “race” was and remains the competitive pathology they fear losing.

Just as conquering fears of losing the “race” in 1968 for some people meant assassinating King, conquering such fears today now means for many people assassinating public education and public schools, as by making “School Choice the Civil Rights issue of our time.”

Ironically, many who would today give pause to remember and to give tribute to King actively participate in slowly but surely assassinating public education and public schools, so as to replace them with competitive charter schools and other kinds of privatized and corporatized education predicated on valuing consumerism and competition more so than valuing morals, ethics, and democracy.

However, Deming was on spot: “We are being ruined by competition.”  King knew this, too.

Thus, one might see “racism” is but an inherently wicked, vile, and abhorrent form of competition based on human differences (human variation).  Moreover, one might then also see that no one is naturally immune to learning and practicing “racism.”

The World as a Total System is a book by Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993).  Boulding can be read as strongly reinforcing and amplifying King’s and anyone else’s understanding of the interrelated structure of reality—for example (emphasis mine):

“One thing of which we become aware very early in the human learning process is that structures have parts, and that an important aspect of the systemic structure of things is that the relationship among its parts is an important element in the structure and behavior of any system.” (p. 11)

Without question, injustices anywhere most certainly arise from competitive and adversarial human relationship structures formed of the “race” social construct based mainly on variation in “color of skin,” when the variation means nothing.  Much better would be cooperative human relationship structures formed of human qualities based on “content of character.”

In writing about the Total World as an education system, Boulding intimates why we have yet to catch up with King and are unlikely to do so anytime soon:

“One would like to see developed all over the world a curriculum that would include a course on ‘The World as Seen from Where I Am.’ […] Such a curriculum in schools around the world perhaps could save us from the pathological forms of nationalism and ethnocentrism and release us to enjoy them in their healthy forms.” (p. 140)

Thus Martin Luther King Jr remains a profound Systems Thinker above all else attributed to him.

However, when top leaders of a public education system use the system’s interrelated structures of reality to force children to learn and adopt competitive and adversarial ways of thinking and behaving, as with charter schools and various other insidious contests and competitions and races to the top to be the first to do this-or-that, then it is very much a guarantee that the majority of the children will not grow up having had their inborn humanity and dignity preserved as Systems Thinkers à la Martin Luther King Jr, à la W. Edwards Deming.

Consequently, one might expect ever more “pathological forms of nationalism and ethnocentrism” and “racism” to make catching up with King an ever greater improbability, not to mention ever catching up with Deming.

Take one day out of a year to remember and give tribute to Martin Luther King Jr?  Certainly.

But that cannot substitute for applying, or at least continually striving to apply, each and every day King’s philosophy of love and justice in our “every kind of relationship with other people,” as Deming’s profound knowledge teaches.

W. Edwards Deming’s “A System of Profound Knowledge” makes Martin Luther King Jr’s philosophy of love and justice extraordinarily practical and practicable.

Sadly, however, once upon a time an Atlanta Board of Education intermediary put to me that “Deming is not relevant to Black culture” for no other contention than Deming is “White.”

Again, no one is naturally immune to learning and practicing “racism.”  No one. 
Ed Johnson
Advocate for Quality in Public Education
Atlanta GA | (404) 505-8176 | edwjohnson@aol.com