Regarding Index Cards

[ShazzieB]

9. Noviolence was a "white liberal doctrine"?

And all this time, I thought King got the idea from a brown Indian man named Mohandas K. Gandhi!

Oh wait, King did get his ideas from Gandhi (and Jesus Christ). Fancy that!

I remember reading a book about King's philosophy of noviolence in high school and being blown away by the idea of a Baptist preacher like him finding so much inspiration and instruction in the life and teachings of a "heathen" like Gandhi.

Being raised Baptist, I had been thoroughly indoctrinated in the idea that everything we could ever need is in the Bible and there is no reason to look elsewhere. I had already begun to (timidly) question that in my own mind, but learning how much of King's philosophy of nonviolence was drawn from Gandhi was a real epiphany for me, and reading this post brought it all back. I will always be grateful to both King and Gandhi for prying open the cramped little box I was raised in and letting in just enough light to start me on a path of thinking independently that has continued to this day.

Reading the rest of the post made me realize that J. Edgar Hoover was an even more "paranoid and diseased human being" than I had ever fully realized. I knew he had kept files on a large number of people he regarded as being highly dangerous, but seeing it all laid out like this made it really hit home fir ne. It especially made me realize how much he got terribly, profoundly wrong. The idea that King might ever embrace black nationalism is just one example.

I'm sure Trump and his henchmen have already started to assemble similar files (albeit probably in a computer database rather than index cards) and are adding to it as we speak. May God have mercy on us all.