Rev. Barber discusses the necessity of a Third Reconstruction for advancement of minority rights

Moral language is an important means of re-framing policy,Reverend William Barber, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP of the NAACP Legislative Political Action Committee, argued in a lecture on Wednesday.

He denounced the use of political terminology such as “left” and “right” or “Democrat” and “Republican” because the fascination with labels and classification detracts from the bigger problems at hand, such as poverty, injustice and violence.

“Language is either a tool of liberation or a tool of domination, and if you allow your opponent to dictate the language you use, you have already given them a certain level of victory,” Barber said.

Instead, Barber stressed the importance of moral language.

“Moral language gives you new metaphors,” he explained.“You can say, ‘I’m against this policy — not because it’s a conservative policy or a liberal policy — I’m against this policy because it’s constitutionally inconsistent, it’s morally indefensible and it’s economically insane.’”

He stressed a broad coalition of people from all faiths and walks of life to achieve a moral agenda of anti-poverty, economic sustainability, a green economy, affordable housing, strong safety nets for the poor, cessation of extreme militarism, educational equality, universal healthcare, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, equal protection under the law and the protection and expansion of voting rights.

“If you stay together, you can change the consciousness of the state, and if you change the consciousness of the state, you can change the public policy,” he said.

To understand the present social, racial and political situation in the United States, it is essential to study the first two reconstruction periods in America, the post-Civil War Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement Reconstruction, Barber said.

“We are in the embryonic stages, the birthing stages, of a Third Reconstruction of America, and if we can fully grasp the power of moral fusion, intersectional movement building, we can birth it into existence,” he said.“You cannot expect to elevate the conversation and the actions of your politics if you keep dumbing down people’s understanding of history."

He stressed the foundation for the First Reconstruction as an agenda of national moral redemption on all fronts — social, racial and political.From voting rights to public education to equal protection under law to criminal justice improvements, the First Reconstructionists worked together in moral fusion, Barber said.

By 1883, however, the Deconstructionists had taken control in the courts, rolled back voting rights and unraveled these efforts, he added.

“They said, we have come to redeem America," he said. "They used moral messages for immoral activity.”

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Barber charted the path of the Second Reconstruction with a similar focus on the broad-reaching agenda of a moral movement.In 1954, he said, blacks, whites, Latinos and young people came together, willing to march, suffer and build the fusion movement with deep moral underpinnings.

“The language of the streets and the pulpits matched, and from the jail cell they changed the language of the halls of power — presidents and senators and congresspersons and newspapers and poets began to write and talk about moral urgency and the need for reconstruction,” Barber added.

The Second Reconstruction was not just a civil rights movement, Barber said. This era marked a moral movement socially and politically as the War on Poverty took form in education through Headstart, K-12 programs and Pell grants, expansion of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and opportunities for educational job training and a general moral commitment to lift the poor, Barber noted.

Even these advances, however, cannot last forever. Politicians and extremists alike have subverted the moral movement to decrease funding to these initiatives and divert attention away from pressing societal problems, Barber said.

“That’s the contradictory nature of racism and the kind of social gymnastics or contortions that you have to go through to exist in this society,” he noted.

Barber called for a Third Reconstruction, based on the successes of the past reconstructions and adjusting for their failures. He said he wanted to suggesthow Americans can learn from history to make progress.

“First, we must start recognizing the need for indigenously led, state-based, state government-focused, deeply constitutional, anti-racist, anti-poverty, pro-justice, pro-labor, transformative movement-building,” he explained."There’s no shortcut for it. We must build the movement from the bottom-up."

He stressed the importance of building relationships at the state level to counter the extremism and deconstructionism it has notoriously bred in the past and present.

With the tactics of civil disobedience, non-violence and togetherness, Americans can build the Third Reconstruction, Barber argued.

“We have to have a grown-up conversation from our deepest moral perspective, about class, about race and about how the reincarnation of the white Southern strategy is still haunting our politics,” he said.