America is at a very contentious crossroads. American society seems to have deteriorated backward as race relations are at their worst in decades.
America is divided, and people are scared. When America has been at these stages in the past, we have turned to strong, moral leaders to unify a divided nation. Former presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt have all been idealized for saving our country in some shape or form, but no leader is mentioned more today when discussing race than Martin Luther King Jr.
King represents an angel for America. He is, in the eyes of many, the purest and safest form of resistance imaginable, and therefore, all resistance movements are compared to his. Whenever any protests are held, every single member of the protest group is compared to MLK and his fight for justice, love and compassion. Whenever anything is done or said to ruffle the feathers of white America, they are immediately discredited by saying “MLK would not have approved.” This is done intentionally. By comparing everyone to perfection, no one is perfect, and therefore, is illegitimate. There is one problem with this logic: this King they speak of is not the real King.
King’s legacy has been washed clean of all of his controversies, blemishes and any rough edges in order to project a “perfect black man.” The idea is that if you cannot be like King, then you should try to be better before any change can take place.
As an example of this phenomenon, Barbara Reynolds of the Washington Post wrote she “wants to get behind Black Lives Matter, but the group’s confrontational and divisive tactics make it difficult.” Reynolds, a civil rights activists during the 1960s, claims the movement is “ignoring what our history has taught,” and should move toward a more living and peaceful approach. While she is entitled to her opinion, and I want to thank her for her work and sacrifice during the 1960s, Reynolds is trying to discredit BLM by comparing them to a false idea of King.
King was not this loving and understanding angel many people wish to portray. He was a man who was hated at his time, and if he was alive today, would likely be hated by many of the same people who claim to admire him.
In 1966, Gallup found two thirds of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of King, and a third had a positive opinion, according to Beatrice Dupuy of Newsweek. This is largely due to his civil rights efforts losing momentum and his anti-Vietnam stance stating, “the U.S. had no honorable intentions in Vietnam.”
You probably never have heard of King’s Vietnam quote, but it is far from the only controversial quote from King buried by history. The same King who many claim was the ultimate symbol of peace and love also defended the Black Panthers and the riots that broke out during the civil rights movement.
When Reynolds and many others claims BLM leaders are wrong for not condemning violence, she is ignoring when King famously said, “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 (African Americans)… I think that we’ve got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard,” as reported by Lily Rothman of Time.
When Mike Pence tries to evoke the spirit of King to push for Trump’s border wall, he is ignoring when King said African Americans’ “greatest stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice.”
The real King would not support Pence or President Donald Trump, and they would likely both hate the real King.
King’s legacy has been changed by those who wish to use his power and aura to defame those who wish to use King’s methods of resistance. As we move forward trying to heal a divided nation, we must stop trying to invoke the perfect King. The perfect King is a false King. King was a great man. A man who loved, a man who fought for justice and a man who was a true hero in every sense of the word. King was also a man who was anti-war, a man who defended riots and extremists and a man who was angry.
King would not want those he views as oppressors to use his words and legacy to continue their hateful leadership, and we should not tolerate it either. We should remember the real King because America needs a true representation of him to help heal this nation, not a false prophet. As I end this article, I would like to place the complete white moderate quote I cited earlier in the text, as reported by DeNeen Brown of The Washington Post. I believe it is King’s most important and relevant lesson today. Thank you, King.
“(African Americans’) great stumbling block towards freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the [African Americans] to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”