Myths of Martin Luther King

www.lewrockwell.com ^ | January 18, 2003 | Marcus Epstein

[Centurion2000]

It's kind of funny in hindsight but one place that I worked at actually had a James Earl Ray Appreciation Day in place of MLK day.

[rdb3]

That pretty much sums it up. Some may think that my remarks are "baiting." That isn't my goal.

The truth about the entire King legacy is that if America had lived up to her own ideals, there would have been no need for King.

It's really that simple. Yet we have more than a few who lament the accomplishments of this man, no matter how flawed (which of us are not?), and at the same time simply refuse to acknowledge the environment that created him. Let these types talk, everything was sweetness and light (no pun intended) during that time.

We all become free when the absolute truth is not only stated, but embraced, no matter how painful. This is the process by which I departed the RAT plantation. Many other conservative blacks traveled the same path(s).

Finally, the insistence upon living in the past (for both blacks and whites) would be funny if it weren't so sad. I'll serve as the perpetual reminder to everyone that times do indeed change, and people change as well.

What's less than human is for a person to refuse to learn, grow, and if need be, change.

Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
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[Arkinsaw]

Perhaps the time has come to accept that the mythical equality that you all seek is just that: a myth. It isn't ever going to happen. Not through legislation. Not through natural changes in social attitudes. Not through some divine miracle. Not ever. It is time to stop trying.

I see the account has been banned. But I'll respond anyway. Skreepack obviously has chosen not to notice the last 40 years or so. Over in the Balkans and the mideast we have ethnic warfare that has been going on for 500 to 3,000 years without change. Whereas here we have gone from holding people in bondage to having them at the highest levels of our government in charge of all of our security and relations with enemies.

I have seen people who were staunch segregationists 40 years ago who now think nothing now of saying "yes ma'am" and "yes sir" and hold the door open to those they tried to separate from. I personally have walked into a convenience store in demographically black part of Pine Bluff, Arkansas in a Confederate uniform (on the way to a reenactment) and the only comments I received were directed at how I could stand to wear all that wool in July.

When I started first grade I had no idea that it was within a year or two of that school's desegregation. No idea, not a whiff.

When we reburied a Confederate soldier down here several black men from the community came out and paid their respects and everyone there went up and shook their hands and were glad they were there.

Its not all roses, even here on this forum, but your theory that color blind equality is mythical is bull, at least in America. Its laughable really. 40 years is about a generation. ONE generation. If this were the middle east or Bosnia such change would be amazing if it occurred over a period of 500 years. Here its been 40. We Americans are going to do okay and you are sadly mistaken.

[rdb3]

You know it! We're down like four flats on a dumptruck.

To keep you more "current," I'll be sure to ping you early on, okay?

Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

[fatima]

Bump for later read

[AppyPappy]

King was America's Ghandi. The end of Jim Crow was coming and King helped make it a peaceful coming.

[Arkinsaw]

One of the greatest and most influential Americans of the 20th century.

Regardless of what one thinks of Martin Luther King's politics the fact is that he advocated appealing to our conscience rather than appealing to the gun. If I were made to go into the rear door or refused hotel rooms or couldn't drink out of a certain drinking fountain or had to send my kids to a separate and unequal school I can honestly say that I would think America was out of control and a gun might look pretty good.

There were really two ways to go. The MLK way or the Black Panther way. Things could not stand with or without MLK. Regardless of anything else you think of him, he saved America from a much greater, and much more evil, convulsion than we actually faced.

[rdb3]

King as America's Ghandi? That's an apt analogy.

I say that while disagreeing with King's politics outside of making America live up to her own ideals. This comes from studying this history, of course, since I was born three and a half years after his death.

Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

[Restorer]

Very well said.

More blacks than whites insist on living in the past, IMHO.

I think the vast majority of whites are more than willing to accept blacks as equal partners in building America. Far too many blacks seem to insist on hanging onto their ancestral grievances.

If it's whitey's fault, it sure can't be mine!

A highly understandable reaction, but so sad.

[rdb3]

You mention the differences between King and the BPPSD. But don't forget pre-Mecca Malcolm X.

When criticizing King, he said black people should stop singing and start swinging. That would have been rough.

Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

[rdb3]

More blacks than whites insist on living in the past, IMHO.

This is more than just your opinion. This is an absolute fact.

This is what happens when past grievances are used as a path to wealth. This is my largest beef with today's so-called "civil rights establishment" and the Democrat-media complex.

Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

[jwalsh07]

From my perspective the screed above is all about nothing.

America needed somebody to stand up and say hey, "Read the damn Constitution and the DOI", all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.

MLK did that and being an imperfect man who probably would never share my politics, he nevertheless had the balls and the wherewithal did get done what needed doing.

[Alouette]

You left out Myth #8:

Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed that "Anti-Zionism" is the same as "Anti-Semitism"

[Arkinsaw]

I think the vast majority of whites are more than willing to accept blacks as equal partners in building America. Far too many blacks seem to insist on hanging onto their ancestral grievances.

I wouldn't say that this is a black thing since I wear a Confederate uniform from time to time LOL. There is nothing wrong with remembering the past. There is a lot to learn from the manner in which blacks survived through 300 years of slavery. I think the problem comes in when you narrowly focus on the one aspect to the exclusion of all else. For example you don't hear Al Sharpton talk much about the United States Colored Troops or the black men who charged up San Juan Hill. Thats because there isn't as much victim capital involved with them.

Black history and black culture are worthy things to be remembered and honored. Just as long as it is realized that there are a few attempting to focus on only a narrow chapter of it for modern political purposes. (The same goes for those who try to use Confederate memory as a modern political pawn, works both ways).

[mhking]

So am I supposed to be your "crony?" Feh. You know me better'n that.

I've lurked in this thread - I know what was said, but I refused to give the knuckle-dragging elements the time of day.

[mhking]

Some may think that my remarks are "baiting."

You didn't bait a thing. Those that started down this road did the baiting. I've been around long enough to know that damn near anything that comes out of Lewrockwell.com and discusses race will end up being the source of race-baiters' tirades...

[mhking]

So the man was human. He stood up and said that it was wrong for someone to mistreat me simply because I'm black. It took balls to do that, human failings and all.

This entire thread appears to be yet another means for some to break their collective necks and say that I (and others who look like me) do not deserve to be here. Sorry, I'm here to stay.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Yawn. Another King bashing thread from Rockwell. What a suprise?! Of course, just before this he wrote a "forgiving" article about that statist Strom Thurmond. Could Rockwell also "forgive" King for his sins and search out the libertarian aspects of the early King. Forget it! He will give King no quarter but for Thurmond he will overlook any sin! Of course, the King bashers want to ignore the fact that the early King was much more anti-statist than the later King. See the following wonderful attack on Marxism and relativism by King:

"During the Christmas holidays of 1949 I decided to spend my spare time reading Karl Marx to try to understand the appeal of communism for many people. For the first time I carefully scrutinized *Das Kapital* and *The Communist Manifesto.* I also read some interpretive works on the thinking of Marx and Lenin. In reading such Communist writings I drew certain conclusions that have remained with me as convictions to this day. First, I rejected their materialistic interpretation of history. Communism, avowedly secularistic and materialistic, has no place for God. This I could never accept, for as a Christian, I believe that there is a creative personal power in the universe who is the ground and essence of all reality-a power that cannot be explained in materialistic terms.

History is ultimately guided by spirit, not matter. Second, I strongly disagreed with communism's ethical relativism. Since for the Communist there is no divine government, no absolute moral order, there are no fixed, immutable principles; consequently almost anything-force, violence murder, lying-is a justifiable means to the 'millennial' end. This type of relativism was abhorrent to me.

Constructive ends can never give absolute moral justification to destructive means, because in the final analysis the end is pre-existent in the means. Third, I opposed communism's political totalitarianism. In communism, the individual ends up in subjection to the state. True, the Marxists would argue that the state is an 'interim' reality which is to be eliminated when the lassless society emerges; but the state is the end while it lasts, and man is only a means to that end. And if man's so-called rights and liberties stand in the way of that end, they are simply swept aside. His liberties of expression, his freedom to vote, his freedom to listen to what news he likes or to choose his books are all restricted. Man becomes hardly more, in communism, than a depersonalized cog in the turning wheel of the state.

This deprecation of individual freedom was objectionable to me. I am convinced now, as I was then, that man is an end because he is a child of God. Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as means to the end of the state; but always as an end within himself."

Martin Luther King Jr., *Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story* (New York: Harper and Row, 1957), 92-93

[AppyPappy]

We talked about MLK in Sunday School (I teach Sr Highs). It was very difficult to explain Jim Crow to 16 year olds. They have no frame of reference. We had to explain it as the power of large groups(white Southerners) to do stupid things perpetually. They want to know who thought of it and why and why black people just didn't ignore it while demanding equality. "Why didn't the black people just ignore the sign and go in anyway? If the white people beat them up, why didn't they call the police?". They could not comprehend that the government supported Jim Crow.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

...the failure of conservatives to articulate a truly color-blind alternative civil rights movement was a major contributor to the development of the self-parodying one we have today.

It is entirely understandable

Mega dittoes and amen.