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.
I'm white, so I can acknowledge that my understanding is tainted by that alone, but I feel like the answer is somewhere between Malcolm X and Martin, I love both of their takes and wise words. That being said it seems quite clear we have not found the answer, and progress is still slow AF, or often digression even. The problem seems the powers that be definitely want their power to construct progress, so the answers have been out there, and so has the unfortunately powerful obstruction.
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.
It breaks my heart to go to lefty protests and see, sometimes, the lack of the nonviolent voice.
I'm not naive. I know that not everyone on the left believes in non-violence, but we who do still need strong voices advocating it. And the more dangerous the times, the more we need those voices. I'm sure it feels satisfying for the Black Bloc to break windows or overturn garbage cans. And I am more concerned about the humans hurting enough to break windows than I am about the windows themselves. But whatever short term boost such vandalism does provide is still no contribution to creating lasting change.
We need more, and we need better. And reading Dr. King's past words about the contexts and crises of days past can only take us so far.
It’s Important to understand non-violence as a STRATEGY and not as some pie in the sky explicit call for non-violence for non-violence sake. It’s a subtle AF distinction but an important one. You do ‘non-violence’ because it works (after much heated discussion and debate during the time) not necessarily because of a moral imperative. Again, a subtle but important distinction. Don’t get me wrong, Non violence IS a right and proper moral position TO take, but it can be an effect and not necessarily an objective in and of itself…
This is such a good essay, worth rereading every now and again. Thank you for keeping Dr. King's message fresh in our minds. ❤
Thanks!
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.
One of the greatest human beings ever to walk the Earth.
I wrote about him on my Substack...mostly about his enemies, to show how cruel, evil, amoral, and hypocritical they were.
I'm white, so I can acknowledge that my understanding is tainted by that alone, but I feel like the answer is somewhere between Malcolm X and Martin, I love both of their takes and wise words. That being said it seems quite clear we have not found the answer, and progress is still slow AF, or often digression even. The problem seems the powers that be definitely want their power to construct progress, so the answers have been out there, and so has the unfortunately powerful obstruction.
*obstruct
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.
It breaks my heart to go to lefty protests and see, sometimes, the lack of the nonviolent voice.
I'm not naive. I know that not everyone on the left believes in non-violence, but we who do still need strong voices advocating it. And the more dangerous the times, the more we need those voices. I'm sure it feels satisfying for the Black Bloc to break windows or overturn garbage cans. And I am more concerned about the humans hurting enough to break windows than I am about the windows themselves. But whatever short term boost such vandalism does provide is still no contribution to creating lasting change.
We need more, and we need better. And reading Dr. King's past words about the contexts and crises of days past can only take us so far.
It’s Important to understand non-violence as a STRATEGY and not as some pie in the sky explicit call for non-violence for non-violence sake. It’s a subtle AF distinction but an important one. You do ‘non-violence’ because it works (after much heated discussion and debate during the time) not necessarily because of a moral imperative. Again, a subtle but important distinction. Don’t get me wrong, Non violence IS a right and proper moral position TO take, but it can be an effect and not necessarily an objective in and of itself…
When I think about how MLK died at age 39, my head explodes.