Obama Doesn’t Fulfill Martin Luther King’s Dream
As we approached the 2008 presidential election, mention was made again and again of how Obama’s election would be “the fulfillment of Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech.” Representative John Lewis (D-GA) said just that on FoxNews on August 28, 2008, the 45th anniversary of King’s famous speech. And Obama did his part to bolster this theory by accepting the Democratic nomination on August 28 — the very day on which King gave his speech. He then provided news outlets with photo-op after photo-op on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial just days before his inauguration — the very steps on which King gave his speech. However, Obama’s election doesn’t fulfill King’s speech because it doesn’t fulfill King’s dream.
When King gave that famous speech in 1963 he said: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” King looked forward to a day when the first question asked wouldn’t be “What color are you?” but rather “What qualifications do you have?” Yet today, even with the election of Obama, it is obvious that the Democratic Party — the very party that purports to be King’s standard-bearer — has traded this colorblind standard for one rooted in race over substance. And the mainstream media is right there with them. As Bernard Goldberg said in his latest book on the love affair between Obama and the media, “Mainstream journalists always root for the Democrat,” but Obama was especially attractive to them because of “his personal charisma, his liberalism, and of course, the fact that he is black.” Goldberg even summed up the mainstream media’s pre-election position on Obama this way: “We need the black guy to win because he’s black.”
Thus, once Obama was elected, mainstream media outlets of almost every shape and size gleefully reported that we’d elected our “first African-American President.” And while there’s nothing wrong with noticing that Obama is black, there is certainly something wrong with emphasizing his skin color over his qualifications, or at least Martin Luther King Jr. would have thought so. For example, as early as December 7, 2007, Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine anticipated Obama’s victory and noted that “it would be great to have a black president. It would be great for kids to see. It would be a nice mind shift.”
Am I the only person who asks “why” when they read this? Why would a president of a particular color necessarily be great for kids to see, whether that color is black, yellow, red, or white? And how does electing a black president represent “a nice mind shift” if the shift is from a president who believed in personal liberty (George W. Bush) to one who believes in government control over so many facets of life (Barack Obama)?
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” King looked forward to a day when the first question asked wouldn’t be “What color are you?” but rather “What qualifications do you have?”
Utter rubbish. Right Wingers Looooooove that one quotation, but it doesn’t at all typify King, who was for affirmative action, and a strong believer in racial apportioning of city and state jobs to reflect the “Negro population” at all levels. King believed in black power, slavery reparations, that the white man had no place in Africa and should leave so black men could show how a truly great civilization can arise without white colonialism, interference.
Black leftist Michael Eric Dyson: Dyson shows that King supported black power, reparations, affirmative action, and socialism
Almost guaranteed that a black person will almost cock his eyes, ready to roll them, when a clueless Conservative tells his “good black friend” …”Well, golly you know that King was really more like my Idol, Goldwater or Ayn Rand, yuh know? Cause like he had it all out there in his “I have a dream speech” that race shouldn’t matter!’
Yeah, another ignorant Right Winger, clueless that his Saint ML King then went on past municipal jobs to say any private company should be forced to have strict minimum quotas for blacks: If a city has a 30% Negro population, then it is logical to assume that Negroes should have at least 30% of the jobs in any particular company, and jobs in all categories rather than only in menial areas.” King was more than just talk in this regard. Working through his Operation Breadbasket, King threatened boycotts of businesses that did not hire blacks in proportion to their population.
KIng also proposed that no one make a profit doing business with blacks, but that blacks themselves get billions from the Government and start a Democrat Socialism system in the inner cities and black rural areas.
You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry… Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong…with capitalism… There must be a better distribution of wealth and America must move toward a Democratic Socialism
Conservatives eager to tell various downtrodden black chaps that they too love him as almost a black Jesus for his “I have a dream.. quote” remain unaware that:
1. King was extremely foul-mouthed in private.When he saw the famous moment when Jacqueline Kennedy knelt with her children before her dead husband’s coffin, King reportedly sneered, “Look at her. Sucking him off one last time.”
2. He was later ratted out by Abernathy for woman-beating and for stealing SCLC funds for buying prostitutes services and booze. The day Saint Martin died, Abernathy reported he screwed one woman at her house, went to a hotel to do another, and then had a knock-down dragout fight with another married woman he had bedded before who was jealous he had found yet another rival to tap. “Martin clearly got the better of that fight”, barely an hour before he was shot, Abernathy said. “He knocked that woman clean over the bed”. MLK also liked to beat prostitutes during sex.
3. Saint Martin ripped off another black preacher for the “content of the character, color of skin” oppositional comparison. No surprise. Scholars believe about 1/3rd of the “I have a Dream” speech was plagarized straight from 2 other men’s sermons. One black, one white.
It’s unfortunate for the black community that the first black president is a man of such poor character. We can already see that the media is having a very difficult time running interference for him. Truth will win in the end, the question is ‘How much damage will be done before we get to that point?’.
“Right Wingers Looooooove that one quotation, but it doesn’t at all typify King, who was for affirmative action, and a strong believer in racial apportioning of city and state jobs to reflect the “Negro population” at all levels.”
I completely agree. Martin Luther King, Jr. caused enormous damage at the end of his life. He was becoming a marginal figure at the time of his murder. Many people were getting concerned about MLK’s radical economic policies and self-hating Americanism. I am utterly convinced that assassin James Earl Ray inadvertently did the leftist movement a great favor. King was worth far more to them as a dead martyr than a living man being gently pushed out of the picture. The odds are that he would have been considered ancient history has he remained alive for another five years.
Am I getting my information from extremist right-wing publications? Nope, not in the least. I strongly recommend that everyone reads MLK’s own words! One should immediately obtain a copy of The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson. It’s all in there.
“The day Saint Martin died, Abernathy reported he screwed one woman at her house, went to a hotel to do another…”
Ralph Abernathy wrote about these events in his, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography. Needless to add, the author was not a member of the radical right.
As crude as cedarford was in his comment, I’m in qualified agreement. Conservatives are largely too eager to reinvent MLK as ‘one of them’, when his politics are actually much closer to Mike Gavel’s. He saw the war in Vietnam much the same way as Muhammad Ali, and he believed every American should receive a guaranteed minimum income (which turned out not to be that radically left-wing, as Milton Friedman devised the earned income tax credit). He marched for unions and fought for pay-raises for labor.
We should be able to recognize good in MLK without reinventing him into a complete ideological brother. Besides, Republicans and Conservatives can legitimately claim another black civil rights hero as one of their own; Jackie Robinson.
Perhaps the Obama experience will may drive a stake through the heart of political correctness. There may be a silver lining is this. People may start asking ‘Where’s the beef?’ at some point. One can hope, but I’m not betting on it. Religious cults can have a powerful hold on some.
Obama won because he was black – in spite of the content of his character.
Look, about 97% of the Black race is summed up by their reaction, after OJ’s first trial. Celebrating in the streets, over a Black man being acquitted. It did not matter that two Whiteys were murdered, only that a Black walked. They take NO responsibility. Only looking for a handout. Obama reinforces this attitude.
King’s dying only added to the problem. Since then they have been led by “clowns to the left of me, and jokers to my right.”
We have a black President, a black Attorney General. Huge numbers of staff and appointees making government policy are black.
And still we have college applications that ask essay questions like, “How have you personally shown your commitment to diversity?”
The fact that the NAACP still exists should be a personal embarrassment to every black person, but for some reason, it’s not. Why?
While I don’t question cedarford’s knowledge of MLK – he has over thought this and created a false dichotomy between the “real” MLK and the so called “right wing” version presented by Hawkins. The crowds that flooded into DC for Obama’s nomination, and who show up to work in t-shirts that have pictures of King and Obama together don’t know that MLK opposed the Vietnam War, or pushed a hard Left (socialistic) agenda, or that he was “foul mouthed” among other things. They only know that MLK had a dream, a dream clearly summed up in King’s push for colorblindness in his August 1963 speech. This is what “the masses” think Obama fulfills and they are wrong. Obama’s (and the Left’s) use of race to accomplish their ends is repulsive for the simple reason that it is an appeal that runs 100% counter to the very image of MLK that Obama perpetuates.
Dittos Robert. The Martin Luther King in view here is the Martin Luther King whom leftist educators have fostered for the last 25 years. He is the embodiment of “colorblindness” and equality, used to stress the need to view all men as equals (regardless of skin color). Yet here we are, in 2009, and the very men who claim to fulfill Martin Luther King’s dream cannot keep from mentioning their skin color every chance they get.
It is unfortunate at how the media has popularized this thought. In reality, Obama has done nothing whatsoever except being black, which does not matter at all because skin color is insignificant.
AWR Hawkins has unintentionally written a piece on Martin Luther King, Jr., that is intellectually embarrassing. Please note that he is a history major about to receive a PhD later this year! The author is also a quintessential example of the extent of the cover-up regarding MLK within the halls of academe. By all rights, Hawkins should be enraged at his politically correct teachers. They failed to provide him with an overall good education.
The sad thing is that the information provided by cedarford and myself is extremely well documented. One does not need to be a member of a secret society or a CIA insider. The evidence is readily available in the writings of those who are favorably inclined towards the assassinated leader— like the left-wing David Garrow and leftist Michael Eric Dyson. As matter of fact, the latter gentleman openly ridicules naive whites that believe MLK was something of a political moderate. He thinks this is hysterically funny.
Obama doesn’t fulfill his own wet ‘dreams’. He’s an empty glass that everyone ‘HOPES’ is half-full. The suckers wearing egg on their faces [hello, MSM] are still covering for their UN-vetted moron and scrambling to keep the lid on the sickening SH*T stew that is the 0bama administration brewing, bubbling and troubling and toiling whilst lopping off heads as they roll under the Zero’s bus…thump, thwack, ker-splat.
Truth? There was NO need for hindsight regarding Mr. Zer0 because anyone with half a brain and 20/20 vision could see the FOOL for what he was. Now the train-wreck is full steam ahead and as eyes begin to open and brains begin to de-fog from the kool-aid there is a whole lot of idiocracy foaming at the mouth when the truth hits them like a sucker-punch.
See? That’s what drinking the kool-aid will get you… “SUCKER PUNCH”.
The amount of “white guilt” I feel diminishes in proportion to the amount of money Obama’s socialistic programs are taking from my wallet. The use of race as a basis to transfer wealth is itself a cause of racism.
Since the 1960′s America has not produced one black leader, whether political, religious, or civic, of any distinction. When I was growing up here in DC in the mid-1970′s, I was taught about the bight future ahead of us between the races. In 2009, DC is every bit as divided as before. And being a minority in a black city, I have neither witnessed one local or national black leader that has ever extended their hand to whites to join them in a better future. Instead I have heard countless times from Howard Univ. students and some local leaders engage in hate-mongering such as blaming whites for astronomical rates of AIDS of local blacks, etc. In addition, the ghetto, two blocks from where I live, is as dysfunctional as it was 40 years ago. In all this time, I have not ever heard of any black organization outraged by the actions of their leadership. Instead, they re-elected them. I am now to the point where I no longer believe in the Dream – nobody wants it.
Personally, I think that it’s quite obvious that we are nowhere close to being so racially equal that we could possibly rise to the level you suggest. Race is more than mere “distraction.” The outpouring of emotions over the election of the first black man was authentic.
I am curious about those who were motivated through white guilt. That usually arises from having been “tone-deaf” to racial inequalities and challenges. I wonder, now that the culture has shifted, if the noticeable increase in remarks being made about white people will bother this group. For example, on liberal blogs, one of the favorite slams against Republicans is NOT the policy issues that divide the parties; it’s that they are old, WHITE men. That remark always is allowed through the censors. The reverse type of statement is not.
The aspect of the primary use of the race card that offended me wasn’t that the card was played or even that it was sucessfully played. What bothered me the most was that it was played against people who had actually championed civil rights. That kind of disdain for the real accomplishments of people in life was, I felt, highly irresponsible. If we cannot be proud of our achievements and can be portrayed as not having earned respect, then that message rings out clearly: Don’t even try.
That struck me and still does as one of the most irresponsible political behaviors I’ve seen in years.
“Since the 1960’s America has not produced one black leader”
The legacy media and our other cultural institutions are mostly responsible for this sad state of affairs. Only a leftist whack job can presumably represent the black community.
Those unwilling to conform to this stereotype are ignored.
This lightweight’s name should not be used in the same breath as Lincoln or King except to point out that he has virtually nothing in common with them
Does anyone want to know more about Martin Luther King,Jr.? If so, here are a few more books you might find of interest:
1.) Plagiarism And The Culture War, by Theodore Pappas
2.) Bearing The Cross, by David Garrow
3.) I May Not Get There/ The True Martin Luther King, Jr., by Michael Eric Dyson
4.) I Shared The Dream, by Georgia Davis Powers
By the way, have you ever heard of Stanley Levinson? He was probably MLK’s number one advisor and ghost writer. Levinson was also a committed Communist! This man may very well be ultimately responsible for the GOP’s difficulty of attracting black voters since the late 1950s. He had every intention of damaging this relationship because the Republicans were deemed reactionary capitalists and cold warriors. And yet, most well educated Americans have never heard of him. I think we can also take for granted that history Ph.D. candidate AWR Hawkins is among those who are unaware of Levinson. Once again, I do not possess top secret information. Garrow’s book, for instance, won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for history. Can’t get much more establishment than that, can you?
I have yet to get over my anger over the way the race card was played during hurricane Katrina. This race-based appeal to power is sickening. Only Sharpton and Jackson could be happy about it.
#15 “Since the 1960’s America has not produced one black leader, whether political, religious, or civic, of any distinction.” This is not true. What about Ward Connerly, leading the battle against government-enforced racial discrimination in public employment and education, with constitutional amendments in such states as California and Michigan? What about Michael Steele, now chairman of the Republican National Committee? What about the fine economist Thomas Sowell and the writer Shelby Steele?
Obama is a lightweight – period. Minorities will fare no better under him than they did under every previous Democratic president.
You see, Mr Hawkins, despite your forthcoming reception of a Ph.D., you’re clearly a f__king idiot, a dupe, and a tool of Communism.
Obama has to use race to cover up his lack of experience.
“You see, Mr Hawkins, despite your forthcoming reception of a Ph.D., you’re clearly a f__king idiot, a dupe, and a tool of Communism.”
AWR Hawkins is actually a good guy. He is probably one of the least politically correct historians you can find today. He is an example of just how bad things have deteriorated. The hagiography surrounding MLK has simply become ridiculous. The academic establishment is ignoring well documented evidence that shows him to be far less than perfect. Mr. Hawkins is something of a victim of his surroundings.
21. jw.
The problem is that no one can hear about them over the din of Jackson, Sharpton, and co.
When you do hear about them, the color of their skin is hardly ever brought up. I did not know until recently that Sowell was black. And, why should I care? I don’t.
The fact that he is black gives young black kids hope that they can actually be anything they want to be. You have to understand that it makes a huge difference in the minds of people to see themselves represented. Blacks have been held down for so long, they thought it impossible for something like this to ever happen. But God had different plans. God has placed Obama where he is. You’ve got to be pretty stupid not to see that. MLK would be extremely happy to see Obama in office. For far too many years blacks have been kept out of every area of American society. So they had to start their own organizations and groups. They would much preferred to be included in the mainstream, but since they were not, they had to go their own way. It’s a major accomplishment to break down those barriers, so each milestone is celebrated as being the “first”. And yes, this country should be ashamed of 400 years of oppression. It should be reminded everyday of the lives it took, the families it destroyed, the hearts it broke. These centuries old spirits cry out from the grave. We can’t let America forget about this horrible, tragic history of slavery and oppression that she created. There will never be real healing until white society understands that. This government still owes an apology to the families of the millions of black people that were killed, maimed, and raped. Not to mention the centuries of unpaid labor, while lazy southern whites raked in the dough. No crime goes unpunished in this universe. But officially apologizing and asking for forgiveness will start the healing, and ease the burden, covering much of the debt that she must surely pay. You can put all the spin you care to on this, and quote that fat ass limbaugh all you want. But it won’t change the fact that this country has blood on it’s hands. The Earth has a long memory. And as long as you have the Republican party controlled by racists then there will be little healing. There are still a lot of “firsts” to come, and there will more recognitions in the future. By 2035, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Indians well be the majority. So I think white people need to start shaping up fast. Our founding fathers will be proud to see this country in the hands of a multi-racial society, continuing to uphold the noble cause of freedom and equality, and protecting and defending these United States and her legacy. If we go into this new millennium with love and respect, we’ll be ok, if we go in kicking and screaming, it could be ugly. So let’s chose the higher path. We can remain the beacon to the world, or we could very well lose our dominance just as every great society before us has since the dawn of man.
JackT, thanks for taking the bullet and drinking the Kool-Aid reserved for 100 + people. Again, thanks buddy!
JackT, your conjectured, emotionally filled drivel is why we have the cult of personality as CiC. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi pulling his strings, and our country continuing its descent into mediocrity.
AWR,
The Democratic party had a long and difficult primary to decide whether Clinton or Obama was more qualified. Obama won. Not because he was black, or because he was mixed-race, but because he was more qualified. Obama’s racial heritage is not an issue for the left – but for some reason it is an obsession on the right.
I agree. You are part of this distraction.
Peace.
DS
JackT – And yes, this country should be ashamed of 400 years of oppression. It should be reminded everyday of the lives it took, the families it destroyed, the hearts it broke.
Yeah, there’s a guilt trip we can all get in back of and blubber about every day.
Or we can be like Mohammed Ali and say that if his ancestors knew how much better off Africans would be in a white civilization, no chains would be necessary – they’d jump on that slave boat.
JackT – There are still a lot of “firsts” to come, and there will more recognitions in the future. By 2035, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Indians well be the majority. So I think white people need to start shaping up fast.
Frankly, blacks should be scared to death that few people will still be willing to do the skilled work. Imagine blacks in a “what if white people and Asians did’t show up for work day”. “Wuffo they be no planes flying and my TV not be working? Weh de check? Damn phone don’t work, no tunes be playin’, mah crib is dark and it getting cold…”
Black criminality has won no fans of Hispanic or Asian immigrants, who now define their own “good” neighborhoods as meaning a neighborhood free of black thugs.
JackT – God has placed Obama where he is. You’ve got to be pretty stupid not to see that.
I must have missed the glowing Aura of Barry O, son of Jesus. I instead attribute his election to a dysfunctional Republican Party, liberal Jews and media slavering for the Messiah, and the pathetic John McCain.
This government still owes an apology to the families of the millions of black people that were killed, maimed, and raped
650,000 white people gave penance for the stupid mistake of bringing in blacks vs. top Asian stock from China, Japan, Korea..or going with Indian immigrants instead. As for apologies now, I suppose whites, Asians, hispanics should line up to say they don’t like the black thugs that now commit a majority or rapes and armed robberies each group suffers..and they are sorry about that.
And blacks can line up and apologize for their astronomical crime rate, low educational achievement, rates of parasitism so high that blacks consume more from Gov’t than they contribute. And apologize for all the thriving, once healthy cities in the NE and MIdwest they turned into 3rd World sh*tholes.
And for predating on immigrant Hispanics and Asians. A predation so bad when immigrants were initially a minority, that 25 years of payback is happening. So bad that the ethnic cleansing of inner city blacks is taken as a natural, necessary thing from LA, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami to “clean up neighborhoods” from old Watts and Koreatown out to Liberty City where blacks are being told by Salvadorans it is time to head up to Jacksonville – sometimes with subliminal messages like a black caught messing with a protected Honduran, Panamanian, Dominican girl delivered back to his neighborhood chopped and in 10 different supermarket bags..
**************
What difference does it make that MLK’s wonderful “I have a Dream” speech does not tell the same story as his life and his politics?
You all miss the point. As a white man who heard this speech, I still long for that day when character predominates over color in the choosing of our leaders, students for college etc. Many others do as well, including my wife, a beautiful woman of color. I rather see color as I do with her: as one of many shades of skin we can appreciate as lovely! But Obama becoming President DID NOT fulfill MLK’s lofty dream for sure. A better man or woman awaits that honor.
If you have to write why, you reveal appalling ignorance of the history of race relations in the US
#31, to my chagrin I agree with most of your points.
I notice that the blacks (full of anger/sadness that their ancestors were brought against their will to America) who travel to Africa also get back on the planes to return here.
…this crap has gotten sooooooo old…
We’re in the 21st Century now, let’s get off the black/slavery thing. We are past that now. Reality check is Obama is BI-RACIAL, he is black & white. Sorry to burst your defense bubble. It is to his convenience to play the racist card, but all non-blacks should remind him that we are now past that stage and he needs to get off that train before he self-destructs.
He never will fulfill Dr. Martin Luther King’s dreams – Dr. King had a pure honest heart and he carried the torch on behalf of Abraham Lincoln, who also was BI-RACIAL from a black dad and white mom. Obama will never walk in Dr. King’s shoes OR Abraham Lincoln’s. Obama’s heart is waxed with evil deeds and intentions. He will self-destruct. In the meantime, let the rest of us be kind and loving toward one another until the White House is cleaned up.
Jehovah God, the Almighty One, El Shaddai, not to be confused with Muhammid, Confuses, or other dead people, did not place Obama in the White House. He sold himself at a high price through Saudi Arabia and surrounding middle east countries, including the head honchoes of the biggest banks in America to bring in marxism to this nation. You people need to wake up! If you think you serve God and believe God placed Obama in the White House, your “god” is not El Shaddai but that of another. You aren’t hearing straight from the Throne. You’ve been deceived and walk in denial. Matter of fact if you knew what people are learning about Obama, you would not have pressed the Kool-Aid button.
I can’t help but arrive at this conclusion: those who demonized Bill Cosby are the loudest
to sign the praises of Barack Hussein Obama.
If they they no one would notice it, and let them off the hook, it didn’t work.
For they will not get away with it.
Seven degrees:
What difference does it make that MLK’s wonderful “I have a Dream” speech does not tell the same story as his life and his politics?
Because if you lift up a man as the Paragon of all virtue, fall all over yourself in annointing him the Greatest American Ever…you cannot just take a few lines he borrowed from others in one speech and then think the public will then divorce your worship over a few lines with who the rest of the guy was and what he stood for. You have to take the “aspire to be colorblind line(once blacks had gotten all they want, implication) along with the King that said in the interim that every government and private business must be forced to have a quota of blacks at every level consistent with their population.
With King enshrined as the only American worthy of a national holiday, with more words (98% worshipful) devoted to him in school texts than any other American, with more King scholarships and essays than exist for any other American, and with a 4-acre National Memorial costing 120 million with corporations falling over themselves to acknowledge his perfection…?????
Well, you set Americans up to also think ALL was good and holy about the man who alone brought Civil Rights To All. And anyone who says to the contrary is automatically apostate and not a real American. Sort of like the dilemma in Muslim countries where the Prophet must be praised endlessly, and nothing he did, including things that should be critized and discussed, are allowed.
Some incredibly bad dirt on King is locked up by a Federal judge’s order until 2027 and may not ever be opened if he is acknowledged in the meantime as the New Jesus..
The danger of everyone agreeing that two lines in a speech then define the man is sort of like a Jewish animal rights activist deciding that Hitler’s heartfelt speeches and advocacy of the best animal welfare laws anywhere in his time make him worthy of a big statue and 4 acres of parkland in DC devoted to his place in the animal rights movement. Now, obviously Hilter is no MLK, and obviously that is a stupid reducio ad Hitlerum argument…But if you had a giant tribute statue to Hitler and Blondie and multimillions spent in exhibits about his past laws and his hard stance on humane farming…well, then you have people who would naturally wonder if his other ideas actually weren’t so bad, given a saint-like treatment.
Saint Martin is already following such a progression, already seen in textbooks, that defend or excuse other “attributes” past “I Have A Dream” regarding the other 99.9% of his life and work.
*Plagarism isn’t so bad, really, look where it took MLK!
*When King said we should accept communist tyranny rather than risk any violent revolt anywhere against it…because war is unthinkable since it could escalate to nuclear Armageddeon…well, since King is so wise and good…then surely his exhortations to leave the Soviets and Ho Chi Minh alone MUST be praiseworthy, right???
*Slave reparations are right and just, because our Black Jesus demanded them. Case closed. Pay up!
*Any great man should be excused a little regular whore-beating and rampant adultery. In fact, all of us deserve the same, if it was good enough for MLK!
*The entire civil rights movement is due to one man who gave speeches and staged protests. Educating future generations should focus on the “One Great Man” theory of history and ignore the hundreds, thousands of others who had central roles in not just “Negro Rights” but also Catholic, Italian acceptance. The Woman’s suffregate and employment movement. Indian and farmworkers rights. The equality Irish and Japanese Americans gained through hard work and great battlefield sacrifice and valor.
And by implying change is best acomplished by emulating The Great MLK – speeches and protests – you end up with new generations ignoring that America has always had change led by legal, regular processes in legislatures and courts, and by thousands, hundreds of thousands of citizens (Not Just One Great Man) binding together to seek change as the Abolitionist Movement, the Farmers Grange, the coal miners union, the fraternity of Mississippi river captains, the countless movements that King was really just another manifestation of of concerned citizens serving or being elected locally to do certain things that then became national in nature. But the present version of King says that any real change in America happens when directionless masses are transformed by a Single Extraordinary Man with a microphone and a sweet tongue that mas media comes to love – Who Follow Him!
That is a bogus lesson of US history, and it shows with how far clowns like Jackson and Sharpton got – they got personally enriched by their personal movements – but unlike King, they did not have thousands of people from NYC Jewish communists right through every black parishoner in the South and the Northern unions founded by blacks and the NAACP behind KIng – who in most his days served as a frontman for behind the scenes work done by hundreds of others fully engaged in the black version of the civil rights struggle ( A struggle other non-black groups had fought and won, fought and lost, or were still fighting in King’s time)
The only MLK people know is the one teachers present – and the one teachers present does not smell of socialism because the socialist teachers do not want students to ascertain this quality about MLK. Thus, the MLK we know from “I have a Dream” seems to be the one Obama wants us to think about; the one he thinks he honors by being president. But it’s all just so much hogwash. Obama does not fulfill MLK’s dream any more than Clinton fulfills the role of husband for Hillary.
Adding to #21: Another Negro who is a man of distinction is Associate Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court. His book, MY GRANDFATHER’S SON, and Ward Connerly’s LESSONS FROM MY UNCLE JAMES are excellent.
#27 JackT:
“The fact that he is black gives young black kids hope that they can actually be anything they want to be. You have to understand that it makes a huge difference in the minds of people to see themselves represented.”
And yet, I give you the Americans who have Asian ancestry.
Despite not yet having an Asian-American president, they seem to have done pretty well for themselves,(and the rest of America, too).
Yeesh…Lord knows what they’ll be able to do when an Asian-American gets elected.
Build Buicks that can drive to Mars without using fossil fuels, I’ll wager.
Maybe if the Black community didn’t allow itself to be so focused on being…Black, a lot of them would get out of the rut they’ve assisted in placing themselves in.
Bill Cosby helped show the way. I don’t recall the characters on his show sitting around obsessing about their “Blackness”…you?
#27 Jack T:
“The fact that he is black gives young black kids hope that they can actually be anything they want to be” You have to understand that it makes a huge difference in the minds of people to see themselves represented”
Really, I have a lot of black, Hispanic, and native American males and females who testify to a different reality about this so-called “bitter middle-class white European male” who was constantly told be couldn’t possibly be a role model for them. Funny, how they are the ones that recognized me as the one teacher that inspired them to reach goals they never dreamed they could. It isn’t about skin color biology determined that for us, none of us had a choice in what color we were born. What mattered was that as a human I dedicated myself to helping them achieve the standards I set before them. I didn’t allow for excuses and negativity. I told them what the standards of success were and did everything I could to give them the skills to reach for the stars. One on the greatest successes I participated in was with a young black-Cherokee male who had the biggest I am a victim mentality fostered by people like you, Jack T. I was the only teacher and coach who wouldn’t give up on him even though he nearly ended up in jail during the latter part of his sophomore year in high school. He is now a college graduate and doing quite well thank you. By the way, the so called black role model teachers gave up on him. So you will have to forgive me when I say that you are full of hot air.
None of these ‘black leaders’ follow MLK’s vision, they just dig up his body and kick it around a bit when needed.
JackT said, “while lazy southern whites raked in the dough.”
JackT, as a white southerner I take offense to what you said. It is a racist remark and you should be ashamed! My ancestors did NOT own slaves, they were the sharecroppers who busted their butts and fought in the civil war for state’s rights. They were the Southern Whites who had land taken from them to be given to freed slaves. And for the past 200 years my family has had to watch more and more being taken from them and given to those who think they deserve something for nothing. Now you have a president that wants to take from us again! Where are my rights, sir? Or do you only see this from your point of view?
30. David S: Race is not an issue for the left??? You are joking, right? Black Americans who have never voted in their entire lives voted for Obama because he was black. During the election a large number of black voters couldn’t even state one of Obama’s points. The voted because he was black…nuff said!
I think this article is right. Obama claims to live out Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of colorblindness, but his race has been the main focus, and basically the reason he won. Race should be insignificant yet it is being used to accomplish an end. Definitely the opposite of what MLK had wanted.
You need to read Beau Toxx blog on this subject written two months age. Beau Toxx is way out in front of everyone on what’s going on. http://www.beautoxx.com
The Conservative movement has no right to take any credit whatsoever for any aspect of the civil rights movement in this country, unless you’d like to take credit for obstructing it.None of you drooling morons have even the slightest bit of credibility on this issue. Most of you are outright racists. The rest of you are just closet bigots who are just too spineless to share your true feelings, so instead you make some poor feeble argument about how President Obama bought the election, how he benefited from white guilt, or how he has not “fulfilled King’s dream”, as if you truly have an understanding of what King’s vision was. If any group is obstructing us from moving towards a “post-racial” society, it is obviously cretins like those on this board who seek judge President Obama’s election as illegitimate because of reasons associated with his race.
Ms. Attitude: “JackT, as a white southerner I take offense to what you said. It is a racist remark and you should be ashamed! My ancestors did NOT own slaves, they were the sharecroppers who busted their butts and fought in the civil war for state’s rights. They were the Southern Whites who had land taken from them to be given to freed slaves. And for the past 200 years my family has had to watch more and more being taken from them and given to those who think they deserve something for nothing. Now you have a president that wants to take from us again! Where are my rights, sir? Or do you only see this from your point of view?”
Somebody call the whhaaaaaaaambulance for the poor oppressed white woman! Your family benefited from a society that supported itself with slave labor. Even if they didn’t own slaves, your family was part of the disgusting system simply by living in a slave state. Where do you think the money came from to build your roads? Provide your social services? Make sure the trains ran on time? Money generated from slave labor. Please tell me why I should sympathize.
Steve P you are an idiot. You are a mis-informed idiot. Do you know what a sare-cropper is? Obviously not. Do you realize that here were white “slaves”? Most of the white Europeans came as indentured slaves, meaning they had their “fees” paid to travel to the US, and then needed to work off those fees, usually five years and then when the five years were up, they had to work off their room and board, which meant another five years, were then “freed” to be share-croppers, meaning they did the work, growing crops (not cotton, the cash crop for the plantation owner, which was the black slaves’ job) for food, wheat corn and such, but was split with the landowner, who generously allowed the share cropper the right to work the owner’s land…that is a half step above the black slave, but not much better. It’s a shame that Song of the South, a Disney film isn’t allowed in the USA any longer, it shows the whole Southern class system, which was a very sad thing indeed. Anyway the black slaves were kept because they tolerated the sun better than whites, and were good workers, and cheaper than the indentured slaves as the Europeans brought the slaves over in their empty ships, and condemned the practice when they could no longer earn enough money by selling slaves. ( Living in Europe really opens your eyes, when you know a bit about history…like the colonial )
Cedarford, I don’t really doubt you, but I also have a really hard time believing you, after all of your anti Jew, anti Catholic, anti lots of different rhetoric you have left in your wake all over Pajamas… You seem to be someone who reads a great deal, and knows alot of stuff, but what’s with the hate all the time? It really makes your stuff hard to decipher, what is venom and what is real, and needs to be heard?
I do agree though that the only good thing about Obama-black thing is that it may be the difference needed, JFK actually helped the Catholic Irish American cause ( although I DO NOT consider him a role model for Irish Americans, more of a ink blotch for us), just something to think about.
Finally, I also think that even though the author has missed some of the finer parts of MLK’s life etc, take a step back and look at the bigger picture folks, and there I think that the author makes his point.
King was an honorable man, a small-r republican. Obama is a small-r radical socialist. This is a difference similar to day and night. Obama the fascist versus a freedom- and liberty-loving republican.
I agree with Ms Attitude. Blacks only voted for Obama cause he is black (Half Black). And the main stream media and their obama orgasms make me want to puke. And now with this pork package that he signed yesterday will be stripping more money from our wallets. and dont you love the way the democrats dont want to take any of the blame for the financial collapse of our country. No, Obama in NO WAY is comparable to MLK.
I think everyone can see hear you have raised a good point. This could be true that he has used the colour of his skin to encourage the votes to him, but i would have voted him no matter what colour of his skin, but Politicians have done much worse, this is nothing on the crap Bush has produced over the last 4 years. McCain couldnt say speeches even close to the quality of Obama’s. No-one was unsure of the promises Obama was making, and as soon as he steped into the office he started at his promises. I cant believe everyone here believes Obama’s use of propaganda was a terrible thing after all america has been through over the past 100 years. He looked a strong president in the campaigns, probably one of the most honest and well headed we’ve seen in a long time. All for Obama.
Obama and King compared?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha …….oh, my side hurts…….ha ha ha ha ha