Rabbi Danya RuttenbergJan 15, 2023
Reminder: despite white people loving to quote the line from “I Have a Dream” abt individualistic things (judging people), most of the speech was abt systemic racism, incl things that continue to harm now—police violence, housing injustice,voter suppression, insufficient change.
Show threadRabbi Danya RuttenbergJan 15, 2023

And reminder: Rev. Dr. King spoke about American imperialism, capitalist exploitation, and more. He understood that all systems were interconnected.

Quotes in next tweets

Show threadRabbi Danya RuttenbergJan 15, 2023

When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

—  Rev Dr. Martin Luther King “Revolution of values,” 1967

Durran DurrandonJan 16, 2023
Show threadRabbi Danya Ruttenberg
“We’ve deluded ourselves into believing the myth that Capitalism grew from the Protestant ethic of hard work & sacrifice.Capitalism was built on the exploitation & suffering of Black slaves & continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – Black & white, here & abroad.” MLK
Jan 15, 2023 at 5:48pmWeb
Show threadRabbi Danya RuttenbergJan 15, 2023

. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

—Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Beyond Vietnam,” 1967

Show threadRabbi Danya RuttenbergJan 15, 2023

“The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.”

— Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr “The three evils of society,” 1967

Show threadRabbi Danya RuttenbergJan 15, 2023

. “The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.”

— Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Southern Christian Leadership Conference speech, 1967

Show threadRabbi Danya RuttenbergJan 15, 2023

Here’s Dr. King in 1967 on the “I Have a Dream” speech: “some of the old optimism was a little superficial, & now it needs to be tempered with realism.” Also notes that the first gains—lunch counter integration, the VRA—were free. Next gains cost $$$$$$

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNz8j5NOyew

Martin Luther King Jr: 'My dream has turned into a nightmare'

YouTube
Show threadJosephine of the SpiritsJan 15, 2023
@TheRaDR 3 names for the same thing
Show threadBluedotmoJan 15, 2023
@TheRaDR Can argue it was this part of his message that really shook up Washington, and not so much the one about racial equality. But the two cannot exist on their own without the other.
Show threadAviva GaryJan 15, 2023
@TheRaDR truth
Show threadKLBJan 16, 2023
@TheRaDR the barrier I see is that people don’t know what the alternatives to capitalism are, in day to day terms that would make sense for their lives and how it would be different. They haven’t thought about the “capital” part. Just the “marketplace”.
Show threadGreenDotGuyJan 15, 2023
@TheRaDR I never understood why we didn't factor some of the defense spending into a thing that supported 'uplift' with spare peacetime capacity, but still had capacity & capability to switch to war mode when needed. Seems like we could have a 2-for-1 deal instead of having to tariff steel & computer chips, etc.
Show threadmichelle.catJan 16, 2023
@TheRaDR This may be true but we live in a dangerous world too , would you leave your house without locking your door
Show threadMasto.poetryJan 16, 2023
@TheRaDR
I can only think or four countries this applies to and unfortunately I live in one of them
Show threadAndrewJan 17, 2023
@TheRaDR Is capitalism per se bad? Or is it just the hyper capitalism that we are all currently subjected to, that is bad? Re military spending: all that money that could be going to healthcare and education! We could better our entire lives in a few generations if we did things differently, and it feels hopeless for one individual to make a change to a system that big. But then I think of Greta Thunberg, and I’m reminded that it doesn’t take a great person to make change.
Show threadDanetteb2Jan 15, 2023
@TheRaDR love that quote so much!
Show threadDan Berky "דן" ℞ MS 🇺🇲 🇩🇪 🇮🇱Jan 15, 2023

@TheRaDR BINGO! Can I also simplify a bit further and call it greed?
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

-John Kenneth Galbraith
Wealth and Poverty speech, 1963