Letra de Legacy
J.R.
Legacy
J.R.
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J.R.
(0 votos)
Every year, the third Monday of January is set aside to honor the memory of the great Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to celebrate this unforgettable man and his legacy…but which legacy? Are we to celebrate the image of a loved-by-all preacher whose struggle for human dignity was limited to one year of his life—1963—when he gave his I Have A Dream speech, penned Letter from Birmingham Jail, and showed his dedication to nonviolence through protests and boycotts throughout the South? Or are we to celebrate the real Martin Luther King Jr.: an anti-war, anti-capitalist activist who called for direct action as much as nonviolence, democratic socialism as much as equality, and black identity as much as integration?
The first Martin Luther King is a fairy tale, a convenient story which avoids the hard truth of Martin’s harsh but lucid critiques of American society. The second MLK is too easily forgotten, as is the case with all true visionaries, and to ignore his analysis is to deny Martin Luther King himself a voice and place a shoddy mannequin in his stead.
We cannot tell ourselves this day is set aside for King when there is a systematic refusal to acknowledge his core beliefs. There is scant mention of his critiques of American imperialism in Vietnam, his take on institutional racism, or his decrying of a fundamental disconnect between reality and rhetoric—between America’s deeply entrenched inequality but its frequent promises of equality. If we take the time to look at the real King, we will find an even more powerful message than what we see today, one that is even more relevant to us in these pressing times.
One of King’s lesser known (and greatest) speeches best serves to encapsulate his perspective, given on April 4th, 1967—exactly one year before his death—before 3,000 people at Riverside Church, New York City. King delivered his seminal speech “Beyond Vietnam,” a comprehensive statement that made it painfully clear he was against the Vietnam War. In it, he goes over some of the reasons he is against the Vietnam War and explains that one is:
The first Martin Luther King is a fairy tale, a convenient story which avoids the hard truth of Martin’s harsh but lucid critiques of American society. The second MLK is too easily forgotten, as is the case with all true visionaries, and to ignore his analysis is to deny Martin Luther King himself a voice and place a shoddy mannequin in his stead.
We cannot tell ourselves this day is set aside for King when there is a systematic refusal to acknowledge his core beliefs. There is scant mention of his critiques of American imperialism in Vietnam, his take on institutional racism, or his decrying of a fundamental disconnect between reality and rhetoric—between America’s deeply entrenched inequality but its frequent promises of equality. If we take the time to look at the real King, we will find an even more powerful message than what we see today, one that is even more relevant to us in these pressing times.
One of King’s lesser known (and greatest) speeches best serves to encapsulate his perspective, given on April 4th, 1967—exactly one year before his death—before 3,000 people at Riverside Church, New York City. King delivered his seminal speech “Beyond Vietnam,” a comprehensive statement that made it painfully clear he was against the Vietnam War. In it, he goes over some of the reasons he is against the Vietnam War and explains that one is:
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