A fitting economic metaphor for our times, from the famous 1963 speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the great moral teacher of the American 20th century.
Black Power icons such as Assata Shakur, so hallowed by today’s politicized hip-hop artists and others, have worked hard to discredit King’s vision as a course of meekness, of do-nothing, of turn-the-other-cheek. It’s a lie. Watch the speech, which CNN just rebroadcast and I’m sure will do so again. It’s a landmark of militancy, an explicit rejection of “gradualism” and business as usual.
The difference between King and the Panthers was never about the urgency of challenging white supremacy. On that they agreed. No, it was about envisioning a society in which a person of any color, in his or her right mind, would want to live. The Panthers thought Mao’s China would be worth replicating. The Nation of Islam thought pseudoscience, religious dogma and antisemitism would point the way forward. They were wrong; King was right. The argument was settled long ago, even if King’s work will continue well after tomorrow, when President Obama takes the oath of office.
[Photo: Bob Adelman]
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