African American
In reply to the discussion: You guys have to see this thread. [View all]BumRushDaShow
(126,625 posts)and it sure as hell ain't about helping "us".
There were multiple threads posted in General: Primaries basically saying the same thing using MLK to somehow promote that agenda. They cherry-picked out one portion of his many commentaries to fit their narrative. They could have just as easily picked out his growing opposition to the Vietnam War and ignored everything else.
What they don't understand though, is that MLK was a controversial figure within the black community in the '60s. The relationship was as complex as the black community itself, where internally, we have our own "economic classicism" and more notably, "regional" differences, perspectives, and experiences with various manifestations of racism. He found out quick, fast, and in a hurry that what might have worked in Georgia did not go over well in many northern cities (despite his having gone to college in the north).
And today, now that legal segregation has been pretty much eliminated, de facto segregation is alive and well, and it rarely touches on income. All you need when searching for a house in a certain neighborhood, despite all the credentials and income, is to have a name like "LaQuisha", and you might as well hang it up. You' ain't gonna be shown the house (or will be told it's already "under contract" to someone else) in many areas of this country. It's as plain and simple as that.
And that has nothing to do with some lack of "economic justice". It's the reality of dealing with the racial component that overlays every damn thing that we try to do in this society - what we look like, what we name our children, where we went to school, what we eat, what music we listen to, what clothes we wear, how we like to party... They will pick it all apart in a very deliberate effort to exclude someone not like "them".