Some white folk like MLK for how he makes them feel: hopeful and absolved. Most Black folk like MLK for what he did for us: Voting Rights Act, shone light on injustices done to Black people.
If MLK joined Mastodon, some folks would tell him to CW his own mistreatment, then kick him off of his server, then subject him to targeted threats of violence, then when he left Mastodon to avoid abuse, would say it's because he craves followers and clout. 🤷🏿♂️
It's 2023 and Black people in the USA still don't have equal voting access. Like I said, the civil rights era didn't end. You are still in it.
People just pretended that the civil rights era ended once they had assassinated enough of the major civil rights leaders. But the objectives of the civil rights era have not yet been achieved.
Now we have to listen to racists that misquote MLK, and then disrespect modern day civil rights leaders like Kaepernick and Stacey Abrams the very next breathe.
Most US folk don't know about COINTELPRO, the FBI program that targeted Black civil rights leaders for false arrest, and yes, assassination. US folks don't know this, because it's not taught in schools. But Black kids know about COINTELPRO.
Most US folk don't know what a "Black Identity Extremist" is. Again, not taught in schools. If you joined a George Floyd BLM protest, there's a good chance you were investigated as a Black Identity Extremist. Again by the FBI. Black kids know this.
Instead of putting more resources towards preventing the people plotting to kidnap governors or stage coups, the FBI was surveilling Black teenagers to find out what they really meant by "Hands up, don't shoot!" and "Defund the police!" 🤡
"We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security."
William Sullivan, head of the Domestic Intelligence Division, FBI
Same same.
Why would the FBI mark MLK as "the most dangerous negro?"
Because he had the ability to move others to peaceful protest with his words. Words. Peaceable assembly. In other words, textbook 1st amendment rights.
The US is so racist, that a Black man exercising his first amendment rights, is considered dangerous. But sure, "let the Nazis talk"🤡
The 1st amendment isn't real if it only applies to white people. Saying "Stop killing us and let us vote" should not trigger FBI attempts to destroy you.
Anyway, enjoy your day off for those whose jobs celebrate.
You hear someone reference the "I had a dream" speech, take a drink.
You hear a white person 'splain to a Black person (incorrectly of course) "What MLK's true message is all about," take a drink.
You hear someone use MLK to disrespect modern civil rights leaders, take a drink.
(Feel free to use non-alcoholic beverages).
Put Bailey's in your ☕️
@JanArz @mekkaokereke because "superior" people need to let you know just how "superior" they are to you, explaining things your tiny mind couldn't possibly comprehend
(Also see: Dunning-Kruger effect)
@JanArz @mekkaokereke Something something grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man :)
It’s really amazing how absolutely secure these people are that everyone HAS to accept their spin on things, right?
@mekkaokereke "You hear someone use MLK to disrespect modern civil rights leaders, take a drink."
Not fair; that one is *way* too easy today.
@BuffaloRude @mekkaokereke What? Am I misinformed here or didn’t he lean towards democratic socialist at the end?
Happy to be corrected about MLK btw. Didn’t grow up in the states.
> (Feel free to use non-alcoholic beverages).
Saved some people from alcohol poisoning this day!
@kagan 🤣
No... because it would be a waste of hand crafted deliciousness!
I've learned that when a person in SF says that they can make cocktails, this is usually a massive understatement. 👍🏿 Prepare for beverage excellence!
Just tell them what you like in life, like "The first rain in fall!" and watch them giddily sprint out of their apartment with a small basket, and come back with freshly picked citrus, sprigs of herbs, a small cask of some mystery liquor, and spherical ice cubes.
I wish I could say that I'm surprised.
Seeing the protests by wyte people on college campuses, few things they do to POC surprises me.
This is horribly wrong, and it needs to change.
Law enforcement agencies from the local level up need to clean house.
OH THANK GOODNESS you aren't enforcing actual alcohol rules for this drinking game. I can't count how many sheets to the wind I'd be.
In the decade after World War II, Tallahassee was a segregated town. This segregation included the seating arrangements of passengers on city buses: white people sat in the front, and Black people had to sit in the back. The Civil Rights Movement protesting such laws in Southern states began in 1954, and in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus. Five months later, two women took similar action in Tallahassee.
@sri Yeah, it always surprises me when folks say that "boycotts are largely ineffective." The Montgomery and Tallahassee bus boycotts and other proposed ones were extremely effective at getting the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act passed.
US folk love to pretend that the VRA and CRA happened just because MLK gave some speeches, got beat up a few times, and then Lyndon B Johnson, being so moved with emotion, decided to push those laws and pass them from the goodness of his Christian heart👼🏼
@mekkaokereke Hence why the establishment is scared anytime there is any kind of organization that is based on non-cooperation since it is effectively an economic sanction against your own govt if it grows large enough and hence it's monitored.
The black community earned it that through self action and organization.
@mekkaokereke "Just hear them out unless they make white people uncomfortable by their mere presence."
I mean, the Nazis even got their own TV show with Hogan's Heroes (Oh, those wacky bumbling imperious oafs that coincidentally murdered millions in an industrial clockwork genocide. A total laugh riot!).
Was there ever a plantation sitcom sympathetic to the slaves?
@arclight @mekkaokereke The story behind Hogan’s Heroes is much cooler, tho. It’s a bunch of Jews and and concentration camp survivors mocking the shit out of their former captors and oppressors.
It’s like Revenge of the Catskills.
@mekkaokereke I was really struck by something alexusrhone69 said as part of a post on MLK on TikTok:
“How is it that my government was able to get so close to Dr. King to record his improprieties and make them part of the public record and still couldn’t protect his life.”
We are still fighting to get the John Lewis Voting Rights Act through the Senate. Every American should be thinking about this bill today.
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