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David Perlmutter's avatar

He is one of the figures I most admire in American history. In a country with a bleak history of perennial violence, his call for peace and anti-violent activity remains extremely relevant and articulate.

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belfryo's avatar

Lionization breeds oversimplification.

Even for many well-intentioned people on the left, Martin Luther King has become a bumper sticker shibboleth. The go-to guy for verifying one’s lefty bona fides to fellow travelers. It does him and the movement and the history of the movement a great disservice. The more I actually learn about the ACTUAL movement and the people involved, with all the messiness, and the uncertainty, and the fucking ‘on the fly battleground tactics’ and sheer chaos of it before it was polished up and presented as codified history, the more mad respect I have for it. While I understand that simpler messages reach greater numbers of people, and that one has to strike a balance between the simplicity of a message without neglecting the depth of the details that inform that message, I think the messiness and chaos of it make it a much more compelling story, but it’s one that you have to engage beyond a life affirming poster at a liberal arts college during the month of February.

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