Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week 2023 is about teaching the community what the fight for civil rights has evolved into.

Tuesday, January 17 marked the beginning of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week this year, and with it come presentations from Dr. Paige Gardner and Dr. Robert Jensen on several current issues related to civil rights.

Dr. Paige Gardner, an assistant professor of Student Development Administration at Seattle University, started the week off with her opening keynote address on Tuesday. 

“I live by a code, which is to lift while I climb,” said Dr. Gardner during her presentation. 

She addressed topics like the interconnectedness of the civil rights movement, critical race theory, and emotional labor.

Civil rights isn’t just about race, it includes gender and sexuality, Dr. Gardner said.

All of these issues lead to something called emotional labor, which is what Dr. Paige Gardner has spent time studying and researching. 

Emotional labor is the effort required emotionally that leads to mental exhaustion and stress. Sources of emotional labor can include:

1. Constraining your personal feelings – holding back when you need to deal with your emotions.

2. Combating exploitation – not letting people take advantage of you.

3. Performing excellence – constantly giving your all for the sake of performance.

4. Emotional gymnastics – trying to rationalize situations to fit a narrative instead of just accepting them for what they are.

5. Constant exhaustion – not allowing yourself to take breaks as needed.

The emotional wear and tear of people with interconnected marginalized identities are often more severe due to the increase of emotional labor they face due to their identities, said Dr. Paige.

It is important to consider your actions and how they affect the emotional burden on yourself and others, she said.

There are ways to lessen the impact of emotional labor: create your system of support, protect your time, speak your truth, and set your boundaries.

Take time to understand how emotional labor shows up in your work life and start to implement some strategies to maximize your agency in the workplace, these are the key takeaways said Dr. Paige.

Dr. Robert Jensen, an emeritus professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, and an author of books on climate change, feminism, and more, started off day two of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week with a zoom presentation on climate change, racism, capitalism, and how they interconnect with one another.

“We face problems which, in some sense, have no solution,” said Dr. Jensen.

The issues Dr. King faced were grand, but they had answers. The challenges we face are on a different scale, he said.

Dr. King fought for equality, but the battles today have become multiple, and one of the biggest is the fight for sustainability.

Reduction of resource consumption will be essential for sustainability, he said. “The new goal should be: fewer and less,” stated Jensen. There’s also too many people, he added.

Population control has been considered in the past, but they often included racist motivations.

The problem of too many people should not be placed on the poor or the people in developing countries as there is an unequal and inequitable amount of wealth distribution in the world today, he said.

The people suffering the most are the poor, who are disproportionately composed of minorities as we face these multiple cascading crises, he said.

There are many things that have become essential to modern life, but people often choose comfort over doing the right thing, he added.

The issues focused on this week by Dr. Paige Gardner and Dr. Robert Jensen isn’t directly what Martin Luther King Jr. fought for, but all of these problems are intertwined with one another. 

However, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week hasn’t ended yet.

Thursday at 12:15 p.m. at Mt. Townsend in Building 8 at Highline, iBuildBridges will be holding a concert focused on multiculturalism and inclusivity.