Monday, January 16, 2023
On MLK Day
I've written a lot about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and learned much more. To me, he has always been a religious figure-- and the Civil Rights Movement a cause of morality more than politics.
It's painful to see some of the things that have been done with his legacy: gross simplifications of his beliefs, a consistent disregarding of the Poor People's Campaign that dominated the last part of his life, a bleaching out of his Blackness into something that allows his work to support nearly any ideology. I'm pretty tired of hearing people talk about what MLK would be upset about today-- usually, it is something about aggrieved White people-- and pundits viewing his work devoid of its Christian context, which is like talking about Babe Ruth but not baseball.
Like Jesus, Dr. King unsettled people. I fear that power has been lost as his legacy has been institutionalized.
