Black Actress: White People Can't Criticize Ugly New MLK Statue

Have you seen the new memorial sculpture honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King that was installed on the Boston Common? The sculpture, called “The Embrace,” was unveiled for this year’s observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and has received, to be kind, mixed reviews.

The work, inspired by the famous photo of the Kings embracing after MLK won the Nobel Peace Prize, looks like a pair of hands holding either a giant mass of fecal matter or a phallus, depending on whom you ask. I think the former, PJM’s Athena Thorne thinks the latter, Stephen Kruiser can see both, and I’m afraid to ask Kevin Downey Jr.

Either way, I’m sure there is a psychologist somewhere ready to pounce on this 20-foot bronze Rorschach test.

But it turns out that, if you’re white, you’re not allowed to have a negative opinion of the sculpture, because… wait for it… racism.

Actress Leslie Jones made some graphic sexual jokes about the statue during her debut as guest host of The Daily Show. “I know Dr. King went down in history, but this is not how you show it,” she quipped.

But while Jones, who is black, believes it was appropriate for her to tell jokes about the statue, she had a stern warning for white people: Don’t even go there.

“Even though I’m about to go straight hard on this statue, I got to talk to the white people for a second,” she said. “White people, you don’t need to be saying sh*t about this statue. You understand?”

According to Jones, “only black people” can joke about the grotesque sculpture, while white people can just “sit yourself in the back of the bus for this one.”

Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Martin Luther King Jr. doesn’t belong exclusively to the black community. Black and white Americans marched for civil rights. Thousands of white Americans fought and died in a war to end slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that we might live in a world where people are judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Jones disgraces that dream by using the statue as a vehicle to divide our nation by color rather than something we can all unite behind — saying it’s grotesque and that Martin Luther King Jr. deserves better.

Besides, I’ve already told my joke: