The MLK We Know Is White (7) Martin Luther King Jr

     The MLK we know is white. What does this mean? The way he is taught, the beliefs he had, and everything we know about him has been whitewashed so he could be a palatable civil rights leader. We grow up in an education system where slavery was bad, Jim crow was bad, then MLK came around and ended racism. This story is very wrong. There are a lot of misconceptions about Martin Luther King. These lies we are taught are disrespectful at best and dangerous at worst. To defang the ideas Martin fought for while he was alive is to strengthen white supremacist narratives in America, giving rise to people who misquote MLK. These people often say things like "that's not what MLK would've wanted" or "this is not what MLK fought for" in the face of blatant racism today. People want to use MLK as justification for passivism in the face of racism. Those people misquoting MLK have no idea of what he actually stood for and because they were never taught.

    What was not taught about MLK is that he was a socialist. He saw the economic struggles of people around the country and understood that the true root of racism and inequality is capitalism. He understood that poor white people and poor black people have more in common than rich and poor of any race. Racism was the symptom of capitalism he fought against, but he understood where the source of the problem was. He wanted to unite both poor white and poor black people.

    We brush over his life and only teach about his dream speech and act as if racism was ended after that. We're misled to believe he was loved back in his day the same way he is almost universally loved today. We're told that out of all of the civil rights leaders his are correct when the truth is that they're just "safe" for white audiences. Any other more direct approach where Black people weren't put themselves in harm's way at the mercy of white guilt is considered the incorrect way. Any civil rights leaders that broke away from MLK's beliefs are to this day pitted against him in a way to make them seem crazy in comparison. We limit our scope of what we believe because white society feels safe in the face of nonviolence. The whitewashing of MLK's beliefs makes it easy to say "MLK wouldn't have supported these protests" today when the only reason one can believe that is because they don't know what MLK supported.

    We're taught to believe he was a beloved thought leader. A fascinating fact few people know is that he had an astonishing 70% disapproval rating at the time of his assassination. 70% of America hated  MLK. A man who fought for the Black community and was peaceful all the while, who we now know was on the right side of history as a man fighting for his cause, was hated by White America for the mere fact he wanted to give black people a fair shot in life. With that knowledge, one can gain a new appreciation for modern-day race relations where people are so opposed to basic civil rights for black people that they are willing to create counter-protests, vote for racist presidents, and even deny that racism exists. They believe racism ended with Martin Luther King, but it didn't, those 70% person of people that hated MLK are still alive today. They had kids, they passed down their beliefs, and those kids today are adults holding positions of power in business and in politics.

    It is our duty to teach MLK better, he wasn't a passivist, he was a radical, though he wanted peace, he wanted equality more and fought tooth and nail for it. He wanted the destruction of capitalism and the unity of poor people regardless of race. Racism did not end with MLK. Saying this out loud sounds silly, but many have internalized the notion that racism no longer exists today, and the way we teach MLK reinforces that. He passed bill that ended legal discrimination and there has been a black president since then so how could there be racism today? To think that racism doesn't exist is a privilege. To have so much privilege that you cannot see racism is part of the problem. When we recognize the fact that wherever MLK went there were hateful white mobs that couldn't stand the sight of even the most peaceful of black men, you start to remember that those people are still alive today as your grandparents. They raised kids and those kids today hold positions of power in business and government. We need to remember that MLK was assassinated. You cannot say MLK "died", he did not die, he was murdered. To say he "died" is disrespectful and dangerously misleading. A racist America turned on another Black leader that was fighting for the liberation of Black people and took his life before he could realize his goals. MLK was murdered. Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4th, 1968. He was 39 years old. He could've done so much more with a longer life, but a racist society cut his life short. It's time we teach the real Martin Luther King Jr.

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How can you break down myths about MLK in your curriculum? (write it out)

What are the first steps in your plan? (take action)

Teachable Content:

Why American History Whitewashes Radical Figures (13 min) -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS29ppULSZE