Holding the views he held (rather than the views they would like him to hold), would Martin Luther King, Jr. have been cancelled by today’s progressives? Even if they could get past the view expressed in his most famous quote which to my ear appears at odds with what is proclaimed as “anti-racism”, I don’t think they could get past his views on homosexuality which appear to have been tolerant but not supportive.
Yes. The social progressive democrat agenda violates much of what MLK said in his “I Have a Dream†speech, as the new left’s values are propelled by divisive identity polices and politics. Without dividing the populace by race, ethnicity, gender, and class the cancel culture has little to say or run on.
Dave Schuler: Even if they could get past the view expressed in his most famous quote which to my ear appears at odds with what is proclaimed as “anti-racism†. . .
“For the good of America, it is necessary to refute the idea that the dominant ideology in our country even today is freedom and equality while racism is just an occasional departure from the norm on the part of a few bigoted extremists.†— Martin Luther King Jr.
Jan: The social progressive democrat agenda violates much of what MLK said in his “I Have a Dream†speech, as the new left’s values are propelled by divisive identity polices and politics.
“Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a … mass effort to re-educate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn.†— Martin Luther King Jr.
Your first quote is from his “Three Evils” speech in (I think) August 1967. The other two were materialism and militarism.
Racial ignorance was a fair assessment of the racial strive experienced during the Jim Crow era, promoted, ironically, by Democrats. And, so was MLK’s hopeful look into the future where no one would be judged by the color of their skin (meaning black, white, brown etc.), only by the content of their character. Now, ironically, the Democrats are once again scapegoating, alienating, and treating as second class citizens another color – people who are white.
Jan: And, so was MLK’s hopeful look into the future where no one would be judged by the color of their skin (meaning black, white, brown etc.), only by the content of their character.
But King also knew that color blindness was just an excuse to perpetuate racial disparities.
”Whenever this issue of compensatory or preferential treatment for the Negro is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree; but he should ask nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic. For it is obvious that if a man is entered at the starting line in a race 300 years after another man, the first would have to perform some impossible feat in order to catch up with his fellow runner.”
I didn’t see an inference in that MLK quote to being a “color blindness†perpetuating racial inequities. Rather, he was referring to the lag time Blacks experienced, in fully developing their potential, due to obstructive social policies promoted by the democrats following the civil war. Basically, I think MLK would have given full support to affirmative action policies – for how long, I don’t know.
Jan: I think MLK would have given full support to affirmative action policies
He did give full support for affirmative action—that’s what the quote means—but also wanted to include other people left behind.
The other quote above, “Whites . . . re-educate themselves out of their racial ignorance . . .” clearly would fit with modern critical race theory, that there are systemic aspects to racism that have yet to be addressed.
I don’t agree with you about syncing CRT as a tool used to re-educate people out of their racial ignorance.
Median household income for black families is about $41,000 and for whites $70,000. Life expectancy for black about 74.9 years, whites about 78.5 years. Adjust for education and those largely remain. Blacks are arrested, prosecuted and jailed and for longer jail sentences for the same drug crimes. Where is this huge disadvantage in being white? Have some data, literature or is this, as usual, all about feelings?
Steve