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Showing Original Post only (View all)Don’t You Dare Conflate MLK and Obama [View all]
by Glen Ford
Back in 1964, under prodding from a BBC interviewer, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. predicted that a Black person might be elected president in 25 years or less. Four years later, shortly before his assassination, King confided to actor/activist Harry Belafonte that he had come to believe we're integrating into a burning house." We now see that the two notions are not at all contradictory. At least some African Americans have achieved deep penetration of the very pinnacles of white power structures integrating the White House, itself while conditions of life for masses of Black folks deteriorate and the society as a whole falls into deep decay...
One school of thought holds that corporate servants like Obama could not have taken root in Black America if Dr. King, Malcolm X and a whole cadre of slain and imprisoned leaders of the Sixties had not been replaced by opportunistic representatives of a grasping Black acquisitive class. In any event, had King survived, his break with Obama would have come early. Surely, the Dr. King who, in his 1967 Where Do We Go from Here speech called for a guaranteed annual income would never have abided Obamas targeting of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the weeks before his 2009 inauguration. Forty-five years ago, Kings position was clear: Our emphasis must be twofold: We must create full employment, or we must create incomes. The very notion of a grand austerity bargain with the Right would have been anathema to MLK.
Were Martin alive, he would skewer the putative leftists and their lesser evil rationales for backing the corporatist, warmongering Obama. As both a theologian and a revolutionary democrat, as Temple Universitys Prof. Anthony Monteiro has described him, MLK had no problem calling evil by its name and in explicate triplicate. His militant approach to non-violent direct action required him to confront the underlying contradictions of society through the methodical application of creative tension. He would make Wall Street scream, and attempt to render the nation ungovernable under the dictatorship of the Lords of Capital. And he would deliver a withering condemnation of the base corruption and self-serving that saturates the Black Misleadership Class.
He would spend his birthday preparing a massive, disruptive action at the Inauguration.
from http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/don%E2%80%99t-you-dare-conflate-mlk-and-obama
One school of thought holds that corporate servants like Obama could not have taken root in Black America if Dr. King, Malcolm X and a whole cadre of slain and imprisoned leaders of the Sixties had not been replaced by opportunistic representatives of a grasping Black acquisitive class. In any event, had King survived, his break with Obama would have come early. Surely, the Dr. King who, in his 1967 Where Do We Go from Here speech called for a guaranteed annual income would never have abided Obamas targeting of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the weeks before his 2009 inauguration. Forty-five years ago, Kings position was clear: Our emphasis must be twofold: We must create full employment, or we must create incomes. The very notion of a grand austerity bargain with the Right would have been anathema to MLK.
Were Martin alive, he would skewer the putative leftists and their lesser evil rationales for backing the corporatist, warmongering Obama. As both a theologian and a revolutionary democrat, as Temple Universitys Prof. Anthony Monteiro has described him, MLK had no problem calling evil by its name and in explicate triplicate. His militant approach to non-violent direct action required him to confront the underlying contradictions of society through the methodical application of creative tension. He would make Wall Street scream, and attempt to render the nation ungovernable under the dictatorship of the Lords of Capital. And he would deliver a withering condemnation of the base corruption and self-serving that saturates the Black Misleadership Class.
He would spend his birthday preparing a massive, disruptive action at the Inauguration.
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"Does Barack Obama represent the political tradition of Martin Luther King?"
limpyhobbler
Jan 2013
#21
I think if MLK were alive he would be harshly critical of Obama's brutal drone warfare policies.
limpyhobbler
Jan 2013
#33
If MLK were alive today he would be really disappointed in President Obama.
limpyhobbler
Jan 2013
#18
It's cool to say how a particular political philosopher from history would view modern events.
limpyhobbler
Jan 2013
#35
Actually it's very cool to learn about the philosophical ideas of liberation and non-violence
limpyhobbler
Jan 2013
#39
Do you understand that a person can present their opinion without expressly labeling it an opinion?
limpyhobbler
Jan 2013
#43
It's cool to say how a particular political philosopher from history would view modern events.
limpyhobbler
Jan 2013
#34
I agree, nobody can actually know 100% for sure how a historical figure would view current events.
limpyhobbler
Jan 2013
#38
It was his opinion. One doesn't have to say "this is my opinion" because it's implied.
limpyhobbler
Jan 2013
#42
I don't think conflating an activist with a politician or religious leader with a politician is good
stevenleser
Jan 2013
#46