MLK Day: Dreams and nightmares

From ZNet, the text of a speech by University of Texas journalism professor Robert Jensen about Martin Luther King Jr.'s true legacy:

So, we find ourselves today in an odd place: In a country in which we routinely repeat the phrase “God bless America” with no sense of shame; in which conventional politicians all clamor to be “tough” on national security and support bloated military budgets; in which the shopping mall is the real temple where people go to worship -- in that country, King is a hero. That means the King who condemned not only racism but nationalism, militarism, and materialism has to be pushed aside, forgotten -- “whitewashed,” if you’ll allow the term. King’s radical political analysis and vision have to be rendered invisible if we are to name a holiday after him. After years of calling him a traitor and a troublemaker, white America is willing to allow King is to serve as the icon for a national quest for racial justice, but only so long as we don’t actually listen to what he had to say or take it seriously.

None of this is surprising; it’s the nature of power: When faced with demands for justice by a movement of oppressed people, dominant groups tend to concede only as much as necessary to relieve the pressure. When enough time has passed and the threat to the system has been contained, then the importance of the movement and some of its leaders can be acknowledged, but only if their legacy can be constructed in a way that doesn’t undermine the existing distribution of power.

Click here for the rest.

Make no mistake about it, King wasn't simply a great speaker who said nice things about black children and white children holding hands: rather, he was, by the end of his life and career, a total radical who understood that you cannot truly have racial justice if it is not accompanied by social justice in general. That's why conservatives in the 60s branded him as a communist. That's why the FBI illegally tapped his phone (which is a damned good reason why we have to nail Bush on this NSA thing; it's just too tempting for Presidents to use such power against political opponents). Many believe that's why he was murdered.

I think that a lot of white people think of King as being a great man, but also kind of believe that revering him is more of a black thing. Not true. King was, is, a hero to all people, especially to the oppressed and downtrodden. You'll probably hear on radio and television tomorrow King speak that well known phrase "I have a dream" at least a couple of times. Don't forget that his dream also included ending the ravages of war, the savage inequities of modern capitalism, and the spiritual vacancy of American materialism.


Arrested at a sit-in, Montgomery, Alabama, 1958.

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