Taught by events

By Casey Lartigue Jr.

One of my favorite classes as a student at Harvard University was "Black Political Thought," which was taught by James Jennings, an assistant professor of Afro American studies at the time. I remember asking: What had the most impact in changing racist attitudes in America ― eloquent speeches, Black political thought, or Americans watching on TV as Civil Rights Movement activists got beaten by government agents?

My point is: For better or for worse, people are more likely to do something because of events, not talk.

Intellectual James Baldwin coined the phrase, "Black lives matter," during the 1960s. Black Lives Matter as a movement didn't grab worldwide attention until George Floyd suffocated to death under a police officer's knee in a video that went viral.

Decades later, when I hear people praise Martin Luther King, Jr.'s wonderful "I Have a Dream" speech, I usually ask, "And, as a result, what have you done?" Dr. King's words have been lionized since his death, but his agitation was often denounced when he was alive. According to Gallup in 1966, Dr. King had a negative rating of 63 percent (his positive rating was 32 percent).

My argument about action is not a new one. Slave-turned-abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote in 1861: "[People] are taught less by theories than by facts and events."

When Abraham Lincoln won the U.S. presidential election in 1860, Douglass was openly agitating for the Union to "meet and slaughter" the Confederacy. "Action! Action! Words are now useful only as they stimulate to blows."

More than 160 years after Douglass' claim about events, there are amusing, informative, and inspiring TED Talks, books, articles and videos everywhere. How many people act beyond clicking on another TED Talk or sharing a link?

During my professional career in the U.S. and South Korea, I have been an author, policy analyst, book editor, public speaker, educator, professor, newspaper columnist, radio talk show host, YouTuber and NGO leader. No matter how many speeches I give, meetings I organize, or columns I write, I believe like I did as a college student that people are more likely to act because of events.

For the past decade I have worked directly with North Korean refugees. One reason I have been skeptical about change in North Korea is that there hasn't been an event stoking international outrage. There is plenty of theorizing, curiosity, reports, testimonials, analysis, talk, YouTube videos, documentaries, books and speeches, but there hasn't been an event to make action against North Korea go viral.

Where is the video footage by CNN documenting North Koreans being shot at along the border trying to escape or getting exploited in China? There is more interest in the North Korean dictator's weight, haircut or clothing style.

While many North Korean refugees eschew politics, I have met quite a few over the years using Douglass-type language seeking a decisive event in North Korea. I will never forget a North Korean refugee I met several years ago who strongly denounced then-President Obama for not assassinating Kim Jong-un.

Several years ago, I wrote about North Korean refugee Lee Ae-ran when she attempted to raise $1 million to have Kim Jong-un assassinated.

At a democracy simulation several years ago, the North Korean refugee participants ignored the rules ― and kept designing plans to bomb Kim Jong-un's palaces and to assassinate him.

In the book, "Greenlight to Freedom," my co-author, Songmi Han, wrote that when she was in North Korea, some North Koreans around her would ask, "Could someone please start a war with North Korea?"

Songmi, then a teenager, said it had become a running joke among adults to wish for war when they were out collecting wood or engaging in other hard labor. Some of the adults hoped the country (i.e., the dictator and his family) would be destroyed.

They weren't talking theory. They wanted an event that would lead to real change in North Korea.

It may not surprise readers that it was an event that moved me from being a casual observer to working directly with North Korean refugees. In early 2012, about 30 North Korean refugees were captured in China and faced repatriation to North Korea where they could be executed or tortured.

I joined protests in front of Chinese embassies in Seoul and Washington, D.C., engaged in provocative actions such as helping to send air balloons to North Korea, worked with the first North Korean refugee to give a TED Talk, and co-founded a non-profit focused on educating and empowering North Korean refugees.

From 2017-19, I was a judge of English speech contests for North Korean refugees. The winner of the last contest gave a speech titled, "I Have a Dream." I resisted the temptation to ask her, "What have you done?" She has since joined my non-profit as a student and one day may explain theories and facts about events that have changed North Korea.

Casey Lartigue Jr. is co-author, along with Songmi Han, of the book, "Greenlight to Freedom," and co-founder, along with Eunkoo Lee, of Freedom Speakers International (FSI). He gave the keynote speech at the 2003 Annual meeting of the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association and served on the organization's board of trustees from 2004 to 2015.