They’ll never escape white rage: The world embraced Obama and MLK — their countrymen would not

[MrScorpio]

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/18/theyll_never_escape_white_rage_the_world_embraced_obama_and_mlk_their_countrymen_would_not/

Barack Obama’s speeches are littered with quotations from Martin Luther King, Jr., so it was no surprise to hear the president weave one of King’s phrases into his State of the Union address. Obama said that he gained inspiration from those everyday Americans who showed that the nation could be a place of fairness and inclusion. These were “voices Dr. King believed would have the final word,” Obama declared, “voices of unarmed truth and unconditional love.” King uttered these words in December of 1964, when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. He told the Oslo audience: “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”

It is significant that Obama chose to quote from King’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, and a reminder of the many links between the two men. They are two African Americans who have influenced American history in extraordinary ways, and two giants in the black struggle for freedom. They also became grand figures on the global stage. Their Nobel Peace Prizes were reflections of their glowing international reputations. Yet even as the world embraced these two men, they attracted intense hatred from white Americans.

When King received the Nobel Peace Prize, many African Americans and civil rights supporters swelled with pride. But white southerners were incredulous. J. Edgar Hoover was enraged. New Yorkers welcomed King home to a celebration at the Waldorf-Astoria, but white leaders in Atlanta were divided about whether to honor their native son. Ralph McGill, publisher of the Atlanta Constitution, realized that Europeans embraced King more fully than Americans did. “These Europeans have a view of Dr. King that is clearer than ours,” McGill wrote, “which has become befogged by emotions and prejudices.” Though Atlanta did finally hold a tribute to King, whites’ hatred toward him only increased over the last three years of his life. By the time of his death, King was reviled by a significant number of Americans.

It is a kind of revulsion that Barack Obama knows well. In this way, Obama’s experiences in office bears some striking resemblances to King’s final years.

To watch Republican rallies is to see white crowds fuming with a hatred of their black president – and to see leaders fan that hatred. Ted Cruz’s favored line of attack is to call Obama “lawless.” “Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency,” Cruz declared, “none is more dangerous than the president’s persistent pattern of lawlessness.” Trump took to Twitter to announce: “Sadly, because President Obama has done such a poor job as president, you won’t see another black president for generations!” Martin Luther King confronted a deep-seated racism. And he was called “lawless” more times than he could count.

[cheapdate]

1. True story.

[tblue37]

2. KnR. nt

[lamp_shade]

3. Excellent.