Dr. MLK Jr.: Struggling Not To Lose Him

Too often, we are treated to a view of a romanticized version of Dr. King in order to fit the man and his struggle neatly within the prevailing political and economic power structures in a largely uncritical and non-threatening manner. Dr. King has been mass marketed as an accommodationist figure and this portrayal is now so pervasive in our schools, media, etc. that it threatens to neutralize and placate the most ambitious, daring and challenging of King's critique along with his struggle to confront and organize against not only racism, but economic exploitation and militarism-imperialism as well.

SleptOn.com offers "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Struggling Not To Lose Him" as a direct challenge (as he would have it) to the thoroughly pacified legacy of a man who likely would not even be invited to his own birthday celebrations had he been alive today.

Given what he stood, fought and died for during his last years, it's reasonable to assume that he wouldn't eagerly embrace opportunities to share a stage with the very folks he would have vigorously opposed.

King said the following:

[quote]With Selma and the voting rights bill one era of our struggle came to a close and a new era came into being. Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know that it isnt enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesnt earn enough money to buy a hamburger and cup of coffee?[endquote]

Full 1967 speech (audio and text) at Riverside Church - http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speec...

Thanks to:
Glen Ford
Brian Jones
Robert Jensen
Jared Ball
Kymone Freeman
Adria Crutchfield
Gillian Moise

• Category

  Education

[Skopji]

In high school I did learn a little bit about how Dr. King started to speak out against the government. I did not learn about the government's turn against him though.

Amazing clip though, but I feel that the opening line about how there was a different king we don't learn about existed, is a little off. I still feel that his movement shown in this video fits perfectly with the person I see as Dr. King. A human willing to stand up for whats right, even when all around him says to sit down. :)

[colibri1]

The worst misappropriation of King is when white right-wingers claim that he would have opposed attempts to redress wrongs. The second worst is when right-wing religious types invoke his name to oppose gay rights, thinking that because he was a preacher he'd be on the right-wing bandwagon with them.

[biggerthomazz]

This video is symbolic of what we teach at our foundation. MLK Parades and recitations of "I Have a Dream" while symbolic as well as iconic, does little to inform generations of the greatness of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[MrElixir101]

So go ahead you great conformers of popular thinking, insult me, label me as a racist, and makes threats that is the only argument most of you folks can ever come up with anyway. To the P.H.D.s go ahead and form your long winded sentences, where you do little more than bash the other person's point of views.

[MrElixir101]

Can anyone explain to me why M.L.K is thought to be a leader of equality when what he was preaching was actually only going to help one group of people? M.L.K said things should be equal, but how is equal if only one side receives the benefits, and the other side must hand over what they have earned? M.L.K has done more to divide this country then many of you will ever understand. If someone responds to this calling me a racist, get your attention from someone else, I don't argue with people.

[MSAIBANY]

Thank you for enlightening others about the incomparable Dr. King. Yes, people want to water things down and make him more palatable. My one request from anyone who reads this is to show respect and remember that he was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a man who helped end Jim Crow. He won the Noble Peace Prize. For this great man, please show your respect by using his title. If you can say Dr. Phil, Dr. Scholls, Dr. Oz, Dr. Seuss, and Dr. Pepper (a thing), then you can say Dr. King.

[drannie786]

He, like Mandela, was a genuine World Leader.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.

Hat cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that"

He lived his message, and his message is needed now in America and in the world more than ever.

Dr Annie Coxon . London