Hajar Yazdiha at Talking Points Memo discusses the misuse of the life and works of MLK. Ever since a national holiday was established in his honor, reactionaries have chosen not to reject or deplore the memory of King, but to create a fictional version of him, taking some of his words out of context, ignoring much of what he really stood for. Although King had a vision of a society in which race would not matter, at least not invidiously, he knew that it did matter in the present and would continue to matter for a long time to come. Getting to his dream required seeing that it mattered and treating it as an essential problem.
He was an economic radical as well. Toward the end of his life, he expanded his focus beyond racial and ethnic equality to poverty and economic oppression. He vociferously opposed the Vietnam war, militarism and imperialism. He redefined his movement as a Poor People's Movement, and that was the declared cause of his final March on Washington.
Kevin Kruse points to the Bangor Daily News reprinting the "I have a dream" speech and omitting all references to poverty, police brutality, and any other issues they considered "divisive." Believe me, King was divisive. You may recall that the FBI tried to murder him, and ultimately someone succeeded.
1 comment:
Thank you for your important post. Tom Sullivan's discussion was short and to the point.
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