Thoughts on Martin Luther King day ...

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Res Ipsa
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Re: Thoughts on Martin Luther King day ...

Post by Res Ipsa »

Chap wrote:
Mon Jan 17, 2022 7:30 pm
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:
Mon Jan 17, 2022 6:27 pm
What did you see in the article that compelled you to post it here?
I wanted to get a sample of US reactions, since it seemed to combine two interesting claims:

(a) King was by no means generally well regarded by the majority of white Americans during his lifetime.

(b) The image of King nowadays brought out for admiration once a year leaves out some of the less widely acceptable aspects of the political and social views he expressed during his lifetime, and which led to the majority of white opinion regarding him unfavorably at the time.

Do you think that one or both of those claims are substantially untrue, I wonder? I really am just asking for your view.
A is true. B is true, I think. History has created an image of King that is more accepted by white folks today than those in his day. But the difference isn’t just the parts that are downplayed today. Overt racism was much more prevalent in the US in his day, which substantially contributed to the feelings of white folks about him at the time.
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Re: Thoughts on Martin Luther King day ...

Post by K Graham »

We moved to Marietta in March 1987, but we had been driving around looking for houses every weekend since January. I was 16 in the backseat of our car driving through Forsyth County. As we stopped at a red light numerous people dressed in white robes and hoods were surrounding our car in some kind of protest. One of them came up to the car and handed me a pamphlet through the window. I remember it being racist propaganda trying to claim MLK was a communist and what not. We were told at the time that Forsyth was an all-white county and the town of Cumming had a population of only 2,000. My how times have changed, much for the better.

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/25/us/t ... -town.html
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Re: Thoughts on Martin Luther King day ...

Post by huckelberry »

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:
Mon Jan 17, 2022 5:48 pm
… where the entire country pretends to celebrate a man whose achievements and values they spent the previous 364 days ignoring, demonizing and trying to dismantle …
I think when you start your agitprop with a strawman fallacy I don’t care what you have to say.

- Doc
I also was put off by the serious exaggeration. But I still could not avoid noticing that it was an exaggeration creating a caricature which has something to say. Race relations are better now than in 1968. Some people want to use that to say the problem is all in the past. It is embarrassing to hear people use the words about judging people by their character as a reason to push laws limiting discussion in schools of racial history.
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Re: Thoughts on Martin Luther King day ...

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Has there been any bashing of MLK at the SeN blog this year?
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Re: Thoughts on Martin Luther King day ...

Post by Gunnar »

MeDotOrg wrote:
Mon Jan 17, 2022 10:00 pm
Today I felt frustrated because of Covid. Today we honor Dr. King, and remind people of the ongoing struggle.

When Barack Obama was elected, it felt like a milestone in our history. But his election seems to have ignited a peat fire of racism: Below the surface and hard to put out. Since 2008, paranoia seems to grip some conservatives: Birth Certificates, QAnon, Pizza Parlor Pedophile Rings, Bamboo ballots...

All countries have a mythos and a logos. Our mythos is the Declaration of Independence: All men are created equal. Our logos has never kept up. To honor Doctor King, unite statutory reality of our logos with the principles of our mythos. Work towards a more perfect union.
I was exhilarated when Obama was elected, partly because I had a favorable impression of him and the way he loved and treated his wife and family, among other good qualities I noticed about him, but mostly because I had high hopes this was a sign that my nation was finally turning the corner against racism and inequality. I was bitterly disappointed when it turned out to reawaken and reignite latent racism in too many of my fellow citizens and thereby created an opportunity for Trump and his supporters to exploit it to cause hateful and damaging divisions between Americans instead of uniting us in a good cause. Trumpism has done precisely the opposite of "making America great again." It has led and is still leading towards making America racist and bigoted again. :evil:
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Re: Thoughts on Martin Luther King day ...

Post by Physics Guy »

For me as a non-American, the election of Donald Trump was when the United States of America jumped the shark.
I was a teenager before it was cool.
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