MLK: “You deplore the demonstrations” but lack concern for the conditions that brought them about Martin Luther King was not a god. He was an imperfect human being like the rest of us. And like all of us can and should be scrutinized for the good and not-so-good he did in life. What I hope is that we stop celebrating the myth of King and get to better understand the complex man, and the complex time in which he lived. While most people quickly praise him today, when he was alive and pushing the envelope and demanding equality and leading marches and giving politicians hell and calling out not only overt racism, but the passive, meek kind he thought was in the hearts of two many moderates and was leading to ugly things, he was reviled. The longer he lived and demanded justice, the more reviled he became. By the time he died, almost all white Americans disapproved of him - and roughly half of black Americans. He was called an extremist and race baiter and dangerous, and people complained he wasnt patient enough and was asking for too much and made people too uncomfortable. By 1966, his Gallup approval rating was 32 percent - and disapproval hit 63 percent. On days like today, we like to forget that and pretend King was just a meek, non-confrontational man with a dream and never upset anyone. He upset a lot of people, enemies, friends and allies alike - if thats what he believed needed to happen to effect real change. Lets not forget that while discussing things such as Ferguson and the Travyon Martin shooting and policing and racial disparities in the criminal justice and education systems.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:17:03 +0000
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