My wife sent me an article from Leah Donnella at NPR called “MLK is not your wingman.” It’s the introduction to the Code Switch podcast episode for January 10, 2024, Everyone Wants a Piece of Martin Luther King’s Legacy. You should listen to it.
But the Donnella intro hit me right between the eyes because it’s SO true.
“For decades, everyone and their mother has tried to get a piece of that sweet, sweet MLK Pie, from car companies… to politicians (no matter what their actual politics are). And don’t forget about the deals! A recent article in Forbes probably put it best: ‘MLK Day is unequivocally about celebrating the life and legacy of civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,’ they wrote (emphasis mine). But also, the article went on, ‘Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and even Martin Luther King Jr. Day typically bring about some great discounts.’ (Cue the swelling applause.)”
Yes, and this makes me… exasperated and weary and sad. One of the things I’ve hated about the MLK Jr. legacy after his assassination is that his image became embedded in amber, as I railed against last year.
The Struggle for the People’s King
“Hajar Yazdiha, the author of a new book about the struggle over King’s memory, argues that it’s worse than that — that Dr. King’s legacy has been used quite intentionally as a ‘Trojan horse for anti-civil rights causes.’ For instance, at a news conference in 2021, numerous Republican lawmakers invoked King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech while arguing for bans on teaching Critical Race Theory in schools.”
You’d think he gave just one speech, heck, one part of one speech. When I excerpted that address last year, I intentionally omitted the most familiar section because it has been weaponized as a declaration that WE HAVE Overcome, which I’ve primarily heard since Obama was elected President in 2008.
“Those moves are from a very old playbook, Yazdiha told us… Take Ronald Reagan. As president, he publicly helped instate Martin Luther King Day as a federal holiday. But Yazdiha says that in private letters, Reagan assured his friends that he was ‘really going to drive home throughout his presidency the story that Dr. King’s dream of this colorblind nation has been realized, and so now racism is…over and we can move on.’ That play – of invoking a radical figure only to manipulate or defang their teachings – has proved incredibly enduring and incredibly effective.”
These conversations ignore continuing inequality in wealth, health, and many other aspects of life in America.
Disliked
“It’s worth remembering that despite his contemporaneous supporters, Dr. King was considered a huge threat during his lifetime and was incredibly unpopular among the mainstream. And that’s no coincidence. Part of the civil rights movement’s success was due to its disruptive nature: massive boycotts, marches, sit-ins, and other acts of civil disobedience that put powerful peoples’ time, money, and good names in jeopardy.”
I noted this back in 2015. “According to the Gallup poll: ‘In 1963, King had a 41% positive and a 37% negative rating; in 1964, it was 43% positive and 39% negative; in 1965, his rating was 45% positive and 45% negative; and in 1966 — the last Gallup measure of King using this scalometer procedure — it was 32% positive and 63% negative.'”
Donnella continues: “So while it’s all well and good to celebrate a hero from a bygone era now that he’s no longer able to disagree with any particular interpretation of his legacy, maybe it’s more important to be looking at the present. Because the real inheritors of King’s legacy today — and of the civil rights movement more broadly — are likely acting in ways that make a lot of people pretty uncomfortable.”
