Today the United States, and its citizenry, will celebrate the first (and only) national holiday honoring a black man or, in today's parlance "a person of color.” Once again, as it replays itself annually, we find ourselves paying superficial homage to the life and times of Martin Luther King, Jr.
I admire Dr. King tremendously, but have come to realize his tactics were, as you say, not totally beneficial. If one allows oneself to be beaten, one will continue to be beaten.
It's almost as if, even the founding bigots of this country knew that the racist engineering of a system of oppression would lead to its demise. I'm still astonished that it took a long as it did to have its inevitable first reaping. Having built no real protections from that racist core after this reaping, this nation has always been in a course of racist destruction. This country may give him a holiday, but the racist core is only celebrating that he's no longer to able to galvanize a movement any more. Killing the more militant leaders was always an easier to sell to Amerikkkans, but allowing his assassination was the real notch for the ongoing repression of those this nation's founders' assured would only have dreams.
Though you typically leave intelligent and thoughtful comments (as does most of the LNW community), methinks you have outdone yourself on this one.
Be mindful that a mere five weeks from now, will mark 59 years since Malcolm X was brutally assassinated by the same actors and elements that assassinated Dr. King (and perhaps the Kennedy's).
The message the European-American has always sent is brutally simple: Help a nigger, get the trigger.
Nonetheless, 'tis far better to die on one's feet, than to live on one's knees.
Thank you for such a cogent comment and observation.
:: Though I do not agree with either the tactics or strategy of the so-called "Civil Rights Movement" (particularly Dr. King's), I do have a deep and abiding admiration for his intellect.::
Is it his "passive resistance" you object to, or his willingness to compromise with the White power structure?
I've said, on more than a few occasions when people tell me I'm too "angry" and "violent" (never mind that I'm a physical coward, and couldn't fight to save my life!) to those I find politically odious, and that I should "turn the other cheek" (which they wrongly thought Dr. King was doing!), that nonviolent resistance was a philosophy preached by both MLK and Gandhi—and they both met with violent ends. I feel as if there's a lesson there—not the simplistic "Violence Uber Alles!" one White Racists are so in love with, but one that is calmly aware that violence is a tool that should be in your kit, rarely used but always there if all else fails.
I mean, how far would passive resistance have gotten the Democrats in Congress on January 6, 2021? They needed people willing to fight back against Trump's Personal Lynch Mob, which the Capitol Police, once they realized what was really happening, started doing.
Affirmative to both of your queries. You see, the European has never, ever accomplished anything through "peace" with the world's majority (especially the Black Person in the United States). Contraire, contraire! In fact, the European's way is quite the opposite of non-violence: the European's mantra is "I'll kick your ass and take your stuff." I am eternally, and perpetually, stunned when I hear Europeans (aka "white" people) talk about "non-violence." Instances when people have fought back has sent the European a-packin'. Vietnam, Afghanistan, Angola, Mali and a plethora of other examples.
As Malcolm X stated (whom DID NOT, by the way, espouse violence, per se):" you treat that man like he treats you." No one ever asks the question" what might have been the condition of the Black Person in the United States if they made their hateful oppressors pay a price? The European goes so far as to attempt to intimidate those of us that even ponder the question.
That dog don't hunt; not here ad I am a firm believer in Talion Law (which your system is predicated upon).
Thanks for your supportive comment and astute observation.
"Talion Law" (yes, I looked it up)—I LIKE that! I need to remember that for future use....
I'm just remembering that the NRA was all FOR "gun control"—when Blacks started arming themselves in the Sixties against police shootings. Could they have been any MORE transparent? Whenever somebody folds their lips and tells me "Violence never solved anything", I'm like "History would like a word with you on that one." 🤦♂️
I seem to remember reading MLK himself started to question in the last couple years of his life just how far he could get with passive resistance. Unlike the British Empire in India, White America wasn't already close to packing up its ball and going home—probably because who else would have us? Somehow, WILL BE ILL-BRED AND INORDINATELY PROUD OF IT FOR A HOMELAND doesn't sound like much an enticement.
Don't know if you watch Foreign Movies, but if you want to take a flyer on an Indian one I recommend RANG DE BASANTI (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rang_De_Basanti - "Paint it Saffron"). It's a student protest picture about a modern-day Englishwoman trying to get a movie made about her grandfather's admiration for the Indian Independence fighters he was the jailer and eventually executioner of—but she can't get funding for it because they were FIGHTERS, not pacifists like Gandhi (who she could easily get funding for!). So she goes to India and hires students to play the revolutionaries, and art and real life start to merge as a corruption scandal involving faulty jet fighter parts which kills one of their number (a pilot in the Indian Air Force going to college to advance himself). It's on Netflix at https://www.netflix.com/title/70047320 if it sounds like your kind of thing.
"I seem to remember reading MLK himself started to question in the last couple years of his life just how far he could get with passive resistance."
That, Sir, is quite correct. In fact, he had started to think more like Malcolm as is evidenced in Beyond Vietnam.
That is why he woke up dead; as do all Black People in the United States that demand liberation. I don't suspect you would be surprised at the threats even my humble soul receives. And the fools that do it don't realize, by doing it, they are validating my positions.
I admire Dr. King tremendously, but have come to realize his tactics were, as you say, not totally beneficial. If one allows oneself to be beaten, one will continue to be beaten.
"If one allows oneself to be beaten, one will continue to be beaten."
And I shall let that tub stand on its own.
It's almost as if, even the founding bigots of this country knew that the racist engineering of a system of oppression would lead to its demise. I'm still astonished that it took a long as it did to have its inevitable first reaping. Having built no real protections from that racist core after this reaping, this nation has always been in a course of racist destruction. This country may give him a holiday, but the racist core is only celebrating that he's no longer to able to galvanize a movement any more. Killing the more militant leaders was always an easier to sell to Amerikkkans, but allowing his assassination was the real notch for the ongoing repression of those this nation's founders' assured would only have dreams.
Great piece as always!
Though you typically leave intelligent and thoughtful comments (as does most of the LNW community), methinks you have outdone yourself on this one.
Be mindful that a mere five weeks from now, will mark 59 years since Malcolm X was brutally assassinated by the same actors and elements that assassinated Dr. King (and perhaps the Kennedy's).
The message the European-American has always sent is brutally simple: Help a nigger, get the trigger.
Nonetheless, 'tis far better to die on one's feet, than to live on one's knees.
Thank you for such a cogent comment and observation.
Thank you! 60 years on.... and what a fight still needed.
:: Though I do not agree with either the tactics or strategy of the so-called "Civil Rights Movement" (particularly Dr. King's), I do have a deep and abiding admiration for his intellect.::
Is it his "passive resistance" you object to, or his willingness to compromise with the White power structure?
I've said, on more than a few occasions when people tell me I'm too "angry" and "violent" (never mind that I'm a physical coward, and couldn't fight to save my life!) to those I find politically odious, and that I should "turn the other cheek" (which they wrongly thought Dr. King was doing!), that nonviolent resistance was a philosophy preached by both MLK and Gandhi—and they both met with violent ends. I feel as if there's a lesson there—not the simplistic "Violence Uber Alles!" one White Racists are so in love with, but one that is calmly aware that violence is a tool that should be in your kit, rarely used but always there if all else fails.
I mean, how far would passive resistance have gotten the Democrats in Congress on January 6, 2021? They needed people willing to fight back against Trump's Personal Lynch Mob, which the Capitol Police, once they realized what was really happening, started doing.
Affirmative to both of your queries. You see, the European has never, ever accomplished anything through "peace" with the world's majority (especially the Black Person in the United States). Contraire, contraire! In fact, the European's way is quite the opposite of non-violence: the European's mantra is "I'll kick your ass and take your stuff." I am eternally, and perpetually, stunned when I hear Europeans (aka "white" people) talk about "non-violence." Instances when people have fought back has sent the European a-packin'. Vietnam, Afghanistan, Angola, Mali and a plethora of other examples.
As Malcolm X stated (whom DID NOT, by the way, espouse violence, per se):" you treat that man like he treats you." No one ever asks the question" what might have been the condition of the Black Person in the United States if they made their hateful oppressors pay a price? The European goes so far as to attempt to intimidate those of us that even ponder the question.
That dog don't hunt; not here ad I am a firm believer in Talion Law (which your system is predicated upon).
Thanks for your supportive comment and astute observation.
"Talion Law" (yes, I looked it up)—I LIKE that! I need to remember that for future use....
I'm just remembering that the NRA was all FOR "gun control"—when Blacks started arming themselves in the Sixties against police shootings. Could they have been any MORE transparent? Whenever somebody folds their lips and tells me "Violence never solved anything", I'm like "History would like a word with you on that one." 🤦♂️
I seem to remember reading MLK himself started to question in the last couple years of his life just how far he could get with passive resistance. Unlike the British Empire in India, White America wasn't already close to packing up its ball and going home—probably because who else would have us? Somehow, WILL BE ILL-BRED AND INORDINATELY PROUD OF IT FOR A HOMELAND doesn't sound like much an enticement.
Don't know if you watch Foreign Movies, but if you want to take a flyer on an Indian one I recommend RANG DE BASANTI (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rang_De_Basanti - "Paint it Saffron"). It's a student protest picture about a modern-day Englishwoman trying to get a movie made about her grandfather's admiration for the Indian Independence fighters he was the jailer and eventually executioner of—but she can't get funding for it because they were FIGHTERS, not pacifists like Gandhi (who she could easily get funding for!). So she goes to India and hires students to play the revolutionaries, and art and real life start to merge as a corruption scandal involving faulty jet fighter parts which kills one of their number (a pilot in the Indian Air Force going to college to advance himself). It's on Netflix at https://www.netflix.com/title/70047320 if it sounds like your kind of thing.
"I seem to remember reading MLK himself started to question in the last couple years of his life just how far he could get with passive resistance."
That, Sir, is quite correct. In fact, he had started to think more like Malcolm as is evidenced in Beyond Vietnam.
That is why he woke up dead; as do all Black People in the United States that demand liberation. I don't suspect you would be surprised at the threats even my humble soul receives. And the fools that do it don't realize, by doing it, they are validating my positions.
Yes, I'm not surprised, and yes, absolutely they are.
Just the same, better to say "Told Ya So!" when you're alive.
Touche' Brut and a most macabre LOL to you as well.
"U.S" is a loaded term because 'tis quite evident "we" ain't "us."
We ain't never been "us" and your own statistics bear that stark fact out.
Understood; thank you for the clarification and your support.