If you didn't know, Wednesday, April 4th, 2018, commemorates 50 years since the U.S. government conspired and killed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. If you missed that historical marker, you can easily be reminded of it by the recent spate of hit pieces coming out against King. These slanderous pieces are easily available in this sound bite, call out, social media cowardice culture that exists today. People are able to post things they would never articulate in public. One of the latest yawn pieces is that Dr. King had a relationship with a European woman during his seminary years.
The White woman story about Dr. King is consistent with the suggestion that Malcolm X was gay. Or, Che Guevara was homophobic and sadistic. All of these stories are either exaggerations of the truth, partial truths, or outright lies. One thing they all have in common is their objective of discrediting the work of the individuals in question. And, one thing all of those individuals have in common is their uncompromising opposition against imperialism and the oppression of the masses of people on the planet.
That last point is the most critical one all of us must remember. The only reason you know who Dr. King is. Who Malcolm is. Who Che is. Its because of their work for justice. Nothing else. Even if all the stories about them were true, surely you realize that if the most notable thing these individuals had ever done was be with a White woman, be gay, or be homophobic, you would never know who these people were. The reason you know them is because of their political work. And, by extension, the reason you receive these stories about them is because of their political work.
In 2016, there was a piece of legislation that passed in the state of North Carolina, U.S. That law - House bill 52 - was widely debated and talked about before it was passed. The focus of the law was its requirement that people born as men or women in the biological sense use bathrooms based on their genitalia. Professional sports teams decided not to have sporting events in that state for passing that legislation and it was the topic of much debate throughout the U.S. What most people didn't know about that law was the verbiage within the law that made it illegal for private sector employees in the state of North Carolina, U.S., to negotiate for pay increases.
You see, the big moneyed interests that pushed this legislation through were always focused on the prevention of wage increases provision. The transgender piece was only included because they knew that most people would react in support of the law because of backward religious views and reactionary homophobia. They knew that most people wouldn't research the law deeply. Most people would never know anything about the wage increase restriction provision because the passion against transgender people would be all that is necessary in this sound bite social media culture to push that legislation through. Their strategy was effective.
And, that same backward strategic approach is often employed against the forces of justice to subconsciously turn you against those forces. That's why the revolutionary character in the Black Panther movie comes from a place of impatience, violence against women, and ego, because that's how they wish you to think about revolutionary organizers. That's also why the way these people acknowledge the 50 year commemoration of Dr. King's assassination is to focus on who he was with. They know that subject, especially the fact that it was a White woman, will get many of you to look no further as it relates to the work of Dr. King. Some people will be talking about this White woman every time Dr. King's name comes up from here forward. And, as long as people are defining Dr. King this way, no one will be talking about how he slowly evolved into a class warrior against the capitalist system. How his "Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam" speech was a clear indictment against capitalism and a call for significant change in this society. They won't pay attention to the fact that Dr. King was killed in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4th, 1968, because he was there to support the garbage worker's fight. That he was in the midst of organizing a poor people's campaign that pushed to bring millions of poor people to Washington D.C. to protest injustice. That the youthful organizers within the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), like Kwame Ture (formally Stokely Carmichael), Ruby Doris Robinson, Cleve Sellers, and Jamil Abdullah Al Amin (H. Rap Brown), were pushing King in a more militant direction. And, that those SNCC organizers were impressed with the degree in which King had moved to the left. If the radical youth of SNCC recognized King's shift, clearly the U.S. government recognized it.
The widely documented and clearly articulated vision and (illegal and immoral) methods of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) counter intelligence program, coupled with the facts behind the murder scene at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, provide unlimited proof that King was killed by powerful forces supportive of U.S. imperialism who saw King's leadership as a viable threat to their interests. That's the King they don't want you to remember and/or learn about.
Instead, let's talk about who King was with. That way, we are not going to be accountable to anything at all. We certainly won't be responsible to question what happened to King and there will be absolutely no expectation that we would even consider (shudder) carrying out his work.
In fact, I'd actually like to close out this piece by saying that if people are aware of these types of stories about King's relationships, Malcolm's relationships, Che's personality, yet they haven't even bothered to read any of King's books, like "Why We Can't Wait, Stride Towards Freedom", or "Where Do We Go From Here?" Any of Malcolm's books like "The Final Speeches of Malcolm X" or Che's diaries on the Cuban revolutionary war, the mission in the Congo, and/or Bolivia, then there is a lot they should be strongly thinking about here. They are either actively working to discredit this work as an agent of imperialism or they are a pitiful lackey of imperialism, simply aiding and abetting our enemies without even being smart enough to see how they are being used as a tool. The books by these giants are critical because if people read them, they could not be peddling cheap gossip about these warriors. If they read these works, and they are serious people in life, they would see what's happening here and they would work tirelessly to defend the people who defended us. Anybody with any sense cares as much about who King was with as I care about who you are with. Zero percent. Some of us, like Dr. King, are sincerely trying to focus on things much more serious.
The White woman story about Dr. King is consistent with the suggestion that Malcolm X was gay. Or, Che Guevara was homophobic and sadistic. All of these stories are either exaggerations of the truth, partial truths, or outright lies. One thing they all have in common is their objective of discrediting the work of the individuals in question. And, one thing all of those individuals have in common is their uncompromising opposition against imperialism and the oppression of the masses of people on the planet.
That last point is the most critical one all of us must remember. The only reason you know who Dr. King is. Who Malcolm is. Who Che is. Its because of their work for justice. Nothing else. Even if all the stories about them were true, surely you realize that if the most notable thing these individuals had ever done was be with a White woman, be gay, or be homophobic, you would never know who these people were. The reason you know them is because of their political work. And, by extension, the reason you receive these stories about them is because of their political work.
In 2016, there was a piece of legislation that passed in the state of North Carolina, U.S. That law - House bill 52 - was widely debated and talked about before it was passed. The focus of the law was its requirement that people born as men or women in the biological sense use bathrooms based on their genitalia. Professional sports teams decided not to have sporting events in that state for passing that legislation and it was the topic of much debate throughout the U.S. What most people didn't know about that law was the verbiage within the law that made it illegal for private sector employees in the state of North Carolina, U.S., to negotiate for pay increases.
You see, the big moneyed interests that pushed this legislation through were always focused on the prevention of wage increases provision. The transgender piece was only included because they knew that most people would react in support of the law because of backward religious views and reactionary homophobia. They knew that most people wouldn't research the law deeply. Most people would never know anything about the wage increase restriction provision because the passion against transgender people would be all that is necessary in this sound bite social media culture to push that legislation through. Their strategy was effective.
And, that same backward strategic approach is often employed against the forces of justice to subconsciously turn you against those forces. That's why the revolutionary character in the Black Panther movie comes from a place of impatience, violence against women, and ego, because that's how they wish you to think about revolutionary organizers. That's also why the way these people acknowledge the 50 year commemoration of Dr. King's assassination is to focus on who he was with. They know that subject, especially the fact that it was a White woman, will get many of you to look no further as it relates to the work of Dr. King. Some people will be talking about this White woman every time Dr. King's name comes up from here forward. And, as long as people are defining Dr. King this way, no one will be talking about how he slowly evolved into a class warrior against the capitalist system. How his "Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam" speech was a clear indictment against capitalism and a call for significant change in this society. They won't pay attention to the fact that Dr. King was killed in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4th, 1968, because he was there to support the garbage worker's fight. That he was in the midst of organizing a poor people's campaign that pushed to bring millions of poor people to Washington D.C. to protest injustice. That the youthful organizers within the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), like Kwame Ture (formally Stokely Carmichael), Ruby Doris Robinson, Cleve Sellers, and Jamil Abdullah Al Amin (H. Rap Brown), were pushing King in a more militant direction. And, that those SNCC organizers were impressed with the degree in which King had moved to the left. If the radical youth of SNCC recognized King's shift, clearly the U.S. government recognized it.
The widely documented and clearly articulated vision and (illegal and immoral) methods of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) counter intelligence program, coupled with the facts behind the murder scene at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, provide unlimited proof that King was killed by powerful forces supportive of U.S. imperialism who saw King's leadership as a viable threat to their interests. That's the King they don't want you to remember and/or learn about.
Instead, let's talk about who King was with. That way, we are not going to be accountable to anything at all. We certainly won't be responsible to question what happened to King and there will be absolutely no expectation that we would even consider (shudder) carrying out his work.
In fact, I'd actually like to close out this piece by saying that if people are aware of these types of stories about King's relationships, Malcolm's relationships, Che's personality, yet they haven't even bothered to read any of King's books, like "Why We Can't Wait, Stride Towards Freedom", or "Where Do We Go From Here?" Any of Malcolm's books like "The Final Speeches of Malcolm X" or Che's diaries on the Cuban revolutionary war, the mission in the Congo, and/or Bolivia, then there is a lot they should be strongly thinking about here. They are either actively working to discredit this work as an agent of imperialism or they are a pitiful lackey of imperialism, simply aiding and abetting our enemies without even being smart enough to see how they are being used as a tool. The books by these giants are critical because if people read them, they could not be peddling cheap gossip about these warriors. If they read these works, and they are serious people in life, they would see what's happening here and they would work tirelessly to defend the people who defended us. Anybody with any sense cares as much about who King was with as I care about who you are with. Zero percent. Some of us, like Dr. King, are sincerely trying to focus on things much more serious.
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