This isn't MLK's dream


Aftermath of perversion of the civil rights movement
Today is Martin Luther King Day. Aside from the implications that this holiday has had in Arizona, I have special reasons to mark this day.

I believe that the assassinations of Dr. King and Malcolm X marked a radical shift in the American civil rights movement, a Jonbar hinge if you will.

Before the assassinations, the movement was about equal opportunity.

AFTERWARDS, civil rights was about preferential treatment for a particular group.

While this can seem attractive, over time it weakens. The perception is that "they" can't succeed without government help, even among the beneficiaries themselves.

I can think of no better way to destroy a movement and demoralize people.

Think about it. If the only way you can win is if the game is stacked in your favor, will you really even try to do anything except making sure that the rules favor you as much as possible?

Isn't that saying that you aren't fully human? That you can't be responsible no matter what advantages you are given?

I mourn this day. Not for Dr. King, who was human and very definitely not the saint he is portrayed as today. Not for Malcolm X, who for most of his time as an activist was every bit as racist as those he fought against.

No, I mourn the Dream. The Dream of What Could Have Been. The Dream before the movement was hijacked by small minded opportunists who could only profit by victimhood and guilt.

“Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other.”
— Sojourner Truth

I won't fight for civil rights as preferential treatment.

I will fight for human rights. That is the only fight that matters.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - January 21, 2008 at 03:01 PM  Tag


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