Stop The Misuse of Dr. King’s Words and Legacy
Let's keep the Dreamer in context
On the day the nation celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is entirely appropriate to remind certain people of what he did and didn’t stand for.
Dr. King’s legacy is much more complex that typically credited. It is easy to forget that he was often reviled, at first for asserting the rights and privileges of Black people.
But in his later years, he was hated for his anti-war and anti-poverty advocacy. It wasn’t enough that he had the temerity to seek equality for People of Color.
He also protested and spoke out on behalf of poor people and sought to end America’s participation in a war that had unobtainable objectives and one that wasted lives and valuable material resources.
In his day, he was controversial. He shunned taking positions that would bring him popularity or comfort, which is the hard path that all revolutionaries must take.
Today, if you listen to the insipid rhetoric of some people, he was either safe and tame, or he would have condoned violent uprisings.
He would have been an anti-vaxxer.
He would oppose affirmative action and voting rights.
Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers quarterback who lied about whether he had taken the COVID-19 vaccine said
"I would add this to the mix as an aside, but the great MLK said you have a moral obligation to object to unjust rules and rules that make no sense.”
It is highly unlikely that Dr. King would consider vaccine mandates to keep the populace safe and healthy “an unjust rule” or a “rule that makes no sense.”
There have been those who used his quotes about rioting, that “rioting is the language of the unheard” to justify nonpeaceful protests.
But Dr. King’s quotes on rioting merely contextualize why people riot, it did not give assent or permission, tacit or explicit, to rioting. For the record, here is example quotes in context:
“I contend that the cry of “Black Power” is, at bottom, a reaction to the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make justice a reality for the Negro. I think that we’ve got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years.”
And
“But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear?… It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.”
But even these misuses and misquotes are not as egregious as those of certain political stripes who use his words and even his likeness to perpetuate prejudice and bigotry.
When President Ronald Reagan attempted to dismantle affirmative action programs, he quoted King to defend his actions:
“ We are committed to a society in which all men and women have equal opportunities to succeed, and so we oppose the use of quotas. We want a color-blind society. A society, that in the words of Dr. King, judges people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
William Bradford Reynolds, an assistant Attorney General under Reagan said:
“(the) struggle continues for a national heritage blind to skin color or ethnic background." Reynolds argued that Brown v. Board of Education set forth the judicial insistence on colorblindness in public school systems and contended that the "true essence [of the colorblind principle] was best captured, in my judgment, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he dreamed aloud in the summer of 1963 of a nation in which his children would 'not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
A more recent example of King abuse/misuse was committed by the right-wing political action group Moms for Liberty.
On the one hand, they used King’s image in a digital invitation for their “American Dream Conference.”
On the other hand, they have protested schools using books discussing Dr. King’s life and work, and other texts that discuss race and the Civil Rights Movement as promoting Critical Race Theory.
The fact that reactionary politicians and activists use King as cover for their prejudiced conduct is abominable and inexcusable. These are the same people who scorned/would have scorned him when he was alive. They are the same people who favored segregation and supported Jim Crow.
They are the same people that are trying to strip our public education of any semblance of truth or reality concerning slavery, racial discrimination, and systemic injustice.
Dr. King was a dreamer, but he was also a realist.
The Beloved Community Dr. King spoke of was not a colorblind society. He knew that one, it would be impossible to achieve, and two, it was unnecessary. Our differences are to be embraced and celebrated.
He wanted his children “to be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” not because he wanted an unrealistic world where everyone looks and thinks the same.
He wanted a world where color was merely one aspect of one’s life. What he wanted was a world where People of Color didn’t have to struggle to receive the same rights and privileges as their White brothers and sisters.
We don’t live at that world. And we are father from it than ever.
If you want to honor Dr. King, if you truly take his words to heart,
If you value his legacy and the ultimate sacrifice he made,
Don’t ignore history,
Don’t sugarcoat the truth,
Don’t try to hide the facts,
And don’t try to use him as cover to perpetuate the very evil that he fought so hard to eradicate.