Obama, Martin Luther King, and warnings
This Wednesday Obama plans a twofer, donning the mantle of two previous American giants:
President Barack Obama will make remarks on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28 as part of a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the demonstration best remembered for Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
The White House announced that Obama ”“ the first African-American president of the United States — will speak at the “Let Freedom Ring” event, which will be held to recall the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
That civil rights movement demonstration drew some 250,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his unforgettable remarks.
I would ordinarily consider it to be completely fitting for the first African-American president to make such a speech on such an occasion. But at this point in Obama’s presidency it seems to me to be the height of the exploitative manipulative hypocrisy in which he specializes—associating himself by pageantry with real American heroes such as Lincoln and King while working hard to counter some of what they stood for.
Let’s take a look at the words of King’s 50-year-old speech. It is very famous—and rightly so—for its inspirational “I have a dream” passage, although many people have since pointed out the irony of King saying “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” in light of the growth of race hucksterism in America.
But when I looked back at the entire speech, other words caught my attention, too:
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
I also noticed that, in quite a few of the somewhat condensed versions of King’s speech that appear online, that warning does not appear (for example, this site omits it). In fact, it was so often omitted in online versions that I began to wonder whether it only appeared in the published text and King had actually omitted it in his delivered remarks.
But no; you can hear it here, beginning at minute 7:37. The “bitterness” remark was also omitted from this shortened transcript, although the following similar passage is included:
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
And the marvelous new militarism which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers have evidenced by their presence here today that they have come to realize that their destiny is part of our destiny.
In his speech Martin Luther King expressed a dream of a colorblind society, not a society obsessed with color. I assume that he would have been very happy to see that a black man could be elected president, but he correctly foresaw the dangers of the bitterness and rage that has been the legacy of racial discrimination and the movement to redress it.
And, even better, Al Sharpton’s gonna be there too!
Today’s Black leaders do not want equal opportunity. They want equal results.
Check this out (via PJ Tatler:
http://lisafritsch.com/2013/08/black-men-gone-wild-and-the-trifecta-of-black-on-black-crime/
A black, Muslim, Muslim brotherhood loving, communist, radical, America hating, anti white faux president desecrating the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and it is called the “Let Freedom Ring” event……… ludicrous, disgusting photo op sham for the evil leader of an evil regime.
Holy run on sentence, Batman but I am hopping mad!
MLK: “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
I had not remembered this part of his speech and it seems that there are many who don’t want people to remember it. This passage and the later quote that neo cited shows that MLK knew what could come of the quest for equal rights. Had he lived, maybe things would have gone a better direction.
Too many blacks don’t seem to grasp that equal opportunity doesn’t mean equal outcomes. The assertive actions taken to help blacks, such a quotas, affirmative action, and welfare projects have had unintended consequences. It takes a person of integrity and understanding to overcome the temptation to take the easy way of welfare, affirmative action, or crime rather than the much harder route of hard work, responsibility, risk, and self-reliance. The race hustlers and the left have done the black community no favors. But few in the black community see it. If they did, little or none of this senseless violence might have happened.
King’s activism had 2 stages.
You’re citing 1st stage civil rights King. Look up 2nd stage economic rights King.
Eric: I actually know that in his later years King became more leftist in many ways.
But I am talking about his 1963 speech here, which is the subject matter of the post. King was a giant and a hero in the civil rights movement, and his later politics doesn’t negate that historical fact (nor do his personal failings, such as his many sexual affairs).
Neo,
Not just leftist. MLK drank from the “cup of bitterness and hatred” in his racial views, too.
Eric:
I wasn’t aware of that. Do you have links?
Although back then, his “bitterness and hatred” would have certainly been more understandable.
And of course, he ended up being killed by those who were filled with hatred.
Neo,
Not off hand, but I wrote a paper on MLK in college. If I can find it, I’ll either cut and paste the relevant excerpt into a comment here or I’ll post the whole thing on my blog and link it here.
FYI, MLK is a historical hero of mine. As a liberal and one-time activist, I can identify with the idiosyncrasies of his activism. The complexity of his history just adds to my appreciation of his activism.
Popular history is mostly myth, anyway.
Mr’Frank says:
Today’s Black leaders do not want equal opportunity. They want equal results.
No, they don’t want equal results, no they want superior results without effort or consequence .
Neo,
Let’s try this again …
Martin Luther King: Integrationist and Black Separatist
Take 3:
“Martin Luther King: Integrationist and Black Separatist” @
http://learning-curve.blogspot.com/2013/08/martin-luther-king-integrationist-and.html
Eric, thanks for the link. Interesting insights. King’s campaign was happening while I was a engaged in the Vietnam War and was more or less background noise for me.
In 1965 two young black officers reported to our squadron. We had a number of southerners who looked askance. At that point the Navy was pretty much lily white. I did not envy these two because they were definitely under a microscope. A Navy squadron is a meritocracy and those who don’t measure up are not suffered lightly. Six months after their arrival, both officers had proven they had the “right stuff.” Six months later, they were no longer under the microscope – they were part of the fabric of the outfit. I was happy that the “integration” proceeded so smoothly and expected that fifty years later skin color would not mean much. How wrong I was.
But I have not given up hope. I have a neighbor that is a retired bank executive who happens to be black. Fine fellow who fits in the community nicely. I have used a personal trainer at my gym. A better man I could not hope to find. Oh yeah, he’s black too. These two men are mortified by what is happening. They keep their heads down because they don’t want trouble from either side of the racial divide.
King talked about a war on poverty. LBJ gave us the War on Poverty. And it has done nothing for the black community – made things worse, if anything. And now President Obama discourages businesses in a War On the 1%. Joblessness increases. The Federal government is not the answer – more investment and more incentives to build and grow businesses is. But we all know that.
JJ,
Thanks.
As a former soldier, I know the military can give us a skewed view due to the military’s entry standards, norms, and other social-cultural conditions that are not like broader society. Those black officers you served with? Just like the white officers you served with, they were exceptional, not your average Joes, and working in an exceptional environment. For that matter, the vast majority of enlisted sailors and soldiers are better than your average Joes. In its own way, being a military man is like being an Ivy Leaguer and extrapolating one’s view of the whole society based on the specialized body of students and faculty, and distinct norms on campus.
MLK was a great American. But great men who refuse to be less than great can make great mistakes. As well suited as he was for political civil rights activism, MLK was poorly suited for his 2nd stage economic activism. He wasn’t an entrepreneur, businessman, nor an economist by education or real-world experience. He simply also lacked the temperament of mind for a rational economic perspective. But he didn’t let that stop him. Go big or go home, right? Well, MLK wasn’t about to go home, not with the Nobel Prize and 2 historic laws validating his mission in life. Even though he had wandered completely outside his lane.
Anyone noticed that Back-to-school student commercial (Sprint?) where they refer to Lincoln as a “Progressive” leader?
Ephing slimeballs.
Makes me want to go down to each of the local stores and bitch-slap the managers just for the hell of it.
ERic, you had the right format the “3rd” time, kinda, to do what you want.
The format of a link is as follows:
{a href=”(insert link here between quotes)”}Insert description here between a and /a segments{/a}
Replace the {} with left and right carets (< >) respectively…
That makes it work like this:
Martin Luther King: Integrationist and Black Separatist
Ah. k, this is more clear, perhaps…
<a href=”http://learning-curve.blogspot.com/2013/08/martin-luther-king-integrationist-and.html”>Martin Luther King: Integrationist and Black Separatist</a>That’s adding extra unneeded spaces in there but you can see the format, now.
}}} They keep their heads down because they don’t want trouble from either side of the racial divide.
That, unfortunately, is a large part of the problem.
As with “Islamic Moderates”, it allows the quacks and charlatans (or race fascists, if you prefer) to dominate the landscape for that social problem.
It’s a form of moral cowardice that imposes fixing the problem on all the rest of us, who are not part (or not much of) the issue.
IGotBupkis,
Thanks. That’s what I wanted to do. I thought I used the correct a href format on my 2nd take, but it turned into an empty link. Maybe I left out a ” or something.
I used to live in Africa. I’ve seen how Africans treat each other. American blacks should thank God every day they live here. Obama should know how Africans treat each other since his Muslim ancestors were in Africa to kill and enslave Africans for the Arab slave market. I have read that he has relatives who are still involved in intertribal struggle in Kenya.
Obama’s behavior, in exploiting racial divisions for his own power is typical. That is how the Arab Muslim invaders managed to live in Africa, surrounded by millions of blacks, where they had nothing positive to bring to the blacks but death, destruction and slavery. By pitting one tribe against another, they managed to live and thrive in Africa.
Like his Muslim ancestors, Obama has brought nothing good to the blacks. The black underclass is poorer and more ignorant than ever. By firing up their racial hatreds he has managed to divert their despair away from himself and to gain control over them.
well said, Dennis!
excellent comment
Re what Eric wrote: I was watching the segment on CBS SUNDAY MORNING about the volunteer at the March on Washington who got the actual copy of the “I Have a Dream Speech,” and I notice that in the photos of the march there were a lot of signs “A March for Jobs and Freedom.” Apparently a lot of the marchers were under the impression if you could change Massa’s mind, he’d just wave some kind of economic magic-wand and provide jobs for all. It’s this kind of magical, low-information (particularly about economics) thinking that led to the Obama Presidency.
Reading libertarian Jim Powell’s chapter on MLK in his great book THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY made me a bit more sympathetic to King, because Powell shows how statist old-style Dixie segregation was (it had to be forced not just on Blacks, but in many cases on Whites). But hearing all the paeans to King and his legacy in the past week, and how he changed the USA, I had to ask myself: “But all things considered, is the result, on the whole, (a) a freer USA, or (b) a more statist one?”
one?”
Dennis: “I used to live in Africa. I’ve seen how Africans treat each other.”
Just so. Some years ago I read a book by a mountain climber who was seriously injured while climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. He spent two months in hospital in Nairobi. His descriptions of the way the Kikuyu nurses purposely mistreated or even tortured patients who were from other tribes was eye opening. I’ve often thought of that whenever people speak of tribalism. No clearer example of intolerance of the “other” can I think of. Compared with many places on Earth we are quite well evolved. But we still have miles to go.
IGotBupkis, “Faeces Evenio”, Mr. Holder? Says:
“It’s a form of moral cowardice that imposes fixing the problem on all the rest of us, who are not part (or not much of) the issue.”
Yes, it’s too bad that many don’t have the courage to take the fire. However, the blacks that I know recognize that, if they speak up about the conditions that are dragging the blacks down, they will be attacked by both their fellow blacks and the left, which they see as the majority. (Yes, we conservatives are still seen by many to be a crazy minority.) We can talk about being courageous and taking the hate, but most people just want to live their lives and be left alone. They represent a large part of the population, both black and white.
It’s a form of moral cowardice that imposes fixing the problem on all the rest of us, who are not part (or not much of) the issue.
I don’t particularly see any reason for them to declare their rebellion. From their point of view, the majority of Americans will just let them hang if they rebelled openly.
Like Americans did with the Vietnamese. Like Americans did with Shia Iraqis in Desert Storm 1. Like Americans did with Obama in Iraq 2003.
From the point of view of those living under the totalitarian heel, when a bunch of Americans talk about ‘you need to fight against your oppressors and rise up’, the conclusion is obvious.
One of the reasons people dislike or hate Americans isn’t due merely to anti American propaganda. They have a lot of historical and justified reasons to think of Americans as cowardly, weak, hypocrites who speak about justice and being the world’s police/leader, but then throw everyone under the bus. It may surprise people that what they feel towards Obama, is merely a shadow of what many in the world feel about America itself. We’re a democracy. Obviously we 99% support our leaders, from the pov of foreigners.
Ymarsakar,
Yep. The US for once, under Bush, actually made good on our word with Iraq, while following one of the most well-established law, policy, and precedent trails in our history . . . yet doing the right thing with Iraq was political poison.
In a recent interview, Bill Clinton said it was important to be SEEN to be doing something, but also not doing anything “improvident”, ie, actually acting to achieve an end was less important than the political calculation of the action. Leadership of want over leadership of need. Yet Obama doesn’t have even Clinton’s skill at faking a paper-tiger foreign policy.
When I served in Korea, I asked the KATUSAs in the unit what they wanted from us American GIs. They admitted they wanted us out of their country – the instant the north Korea problem was solved. But what concerned them the most was that if/when nK attacked, the US would abandon the ROK like we abandoned RVN.
Korean soldiers citing America’s shameful abandonment of South Vietnam is especially poignant because remember, the ROKs manned up and fought with us in Vietnam. Not just rear-area support, either, but full-on combat missions. When the US abandoned Vietnam, we dishonored not only ourselves, but also the Korean KIAs in and commitment to Vietnam, too.
Bilwick,
A and B are both true.
While MLK bundled them together in his mind, MLK’s political rights activism is distinct from his economic rights activism.
My field of research doesn’t cover MLKj’s movement. If I had access to the FBI’s classified and unclassified surveillance of MLKj under various hardhat ruthless FBI directors, that might be different. But neither the NSA nor the leaking public has yet to release that into the internet mainstream. If they have, it hasn’t gotten to me yet.
I do suspect that MLKj and Malcom X were killed by Democrats, specifically Nation of Islam adherents, who wanted those figures out of the way for the Leftist alliance (communist, muslim, whatever) to take Black Power to where it is right now.
And it is… where it is right now.
Both Malcom X and MLKj were reported from surface/rumour analysis results, to be beginning to consider rebelling against their fellow civil rights activists. MLKj perhaps saw that Democrat, Johnson type, welfare was killing his black people in more ways than one. Malcom X had already started to break away from the Islamic Nation of Islam critters, before he conveniently died like Andrew Breitbart.
MLKj was eliminated in 1968. “War on Poverty” and healthcare reform was reported by wikipedia to be in 1964 for the Johnson regime. That’s around 4 years for him to jump on the Democrat economic bandwagon, to support his political connections in DC, but also 4 years to realize what it was actually doing. Which is just enough in economic terms for things to be changed, one way or another. As we have seen under Obama and Reagan. 4 years is enough to sink or recover an economy of jobs for Americans.
Many people bought into Leftist economic theories but regretted it once they saw the results. Many of them are Republicans or independents now. Some were even active Leftist black ops or covert ops members, doing the things not even the regular Leftist leadership knew about.
Islam wasn’t infiltrating the US starting before World Trade Center Bomb 1. It was far earlier than that. The Leftist alliance also has their fingers in things going back farther than people can imagine.
Bilwick: “how statist old-style Dixie segregation was (it had to be forced not just on Blacks, but in many cases on Whites).”
This is a good point that’s not made enough and is worth exploring as a study of government and legal cures beyond the lens of discrimination.
Most people will never understand what the people who once trusted America, felt or thought.
They will not understand until someone kills their own families in front of their eyes, show them the severed head and taunt them while broadcasting the sounds to the world.
People will never understand until brutality, ruthlessness, and violence is shoved in their faces, the boot is stomped on the back of their heads and the head sof their children.
Such is the nature of humanity, and why humans both love and hate various things.
Ymarsakar,
The willingness, even eagerness, by many Americans – and not just fringe types – to abandon the Iraqi people to the terrorists was disappointing, to pick the mildest sentiment.
Then double that for the demonization of Bush for his unwillingness to abandon the Iraqi people to the terrorists.
The Left is already unleashing the dogs of war inside america. I can hear the screams even now from nameless, faceless, women, men, and children. Fodder for the Left’s Religious conversion by fire.
All that remains is to make people realize who the real source of their problems are: who they should hate. Once that is done, all the rest will proceed naturally.