The Whitewashing Of Martin Luther King - SOME MORE NEWS

Hi. In today's episode, we discuss the literal only MLK quote that Republicans ever mention, how it's a single sentence, why they love it so much, and what else he said that they're avoiding.

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Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
1:25 - Conservatives Cynically Appropriate MLK To Push Their Right Wing Agenda
8:44 - Martin Luther King was, in fact, a Radical Leftist
19:43 - The Only Martin Luther King Quote Conservatives Like
24:20 - Why “Color Blindness” Is Just The Worst
31:38 - The Sick Irony Of Using MLK To Justify CRT Bans
38:35 - Neither Political Party Is Living Up To MLK's Legacy
46:10 - MLK Criticized Capitalism And Was Anti-War
52:20 - MLK Warned Us About The White Liberal And The White Moderate

[karelfinn]

I don't usually use quotes to express my opinion, but there's a YouTuber called Shaun who really hit the nail on the head: "It turns out that what Conservatives... most appreciate about figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass is that they're dead, and cannot defend themselves when their words and ideas are misappropriated."

[frogman]

So glad MLK got rid of racism 👍hope there is nothing in this video that proves otherwise and makes me feel the infinite weight of how terrible our society is!

[gaiusjuliuspleaser]

Conservatives on the BLM protests: "MLK would never have stood for this rioting."
Actual MLK: "A riot is the language of the unheard."

[Thelorme]

His quote "...who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice." hit me. I'm still thinking about it.

[agentvx]

I mean, Ben Shapiro really kind of is an expert on racism. Not sure if you noticed, but he's actually kind of great at it.

[foxstele]

Here's a fun game(by "fun" I mean sad and depressing): look at the contemporary coverage of MLK and see how similar it is to contemporary coverage of BLM.

[estherflecksing]

The reason they love the “content of character” is because they don’t have to change their racial prejudices. It’s not that they don’t like black people, they just think they have “poor character.”

[diegomo]

“MLK would be ashamed and offended by the decisive rhetoric of MLK.”

- Modern conservatives after watching this video

[OGEdger]

According to conservatives, MLK would have hated MLK.

[thechikuneater]

My favorite Malcolm X quote, "You cannot stab a man 9 inches and take the knife out 6 inches and expect the wound to heal. You cannot stab a man and bring out the knife and ignore the wound is there."

[elishavarga]

"it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to life himself by his own bootstraps" - MLK

[JumpingTuna]

Betty White was 7 years older than Dr. King. That's how recent the Civil Rights Movement is.

[lukek]

The thing I heard during the BLM protests that really broke me as a person living in a red area with republican family, "how you react to these protests for racial justice is how you would have reacted to the civil rights movement back then". Seeing loved ones absolutely lose the point of it, farting out how all lives matter, justifying the excessive force, asking for the "absence of tension" not the "presence of justice".

[aliciawoody]

Every time I hear his last speech, I can’t help but think: he knew. He knew he wasn’t going to be allowed to live much longer. He knew that the government had put a hit out on him….but he still gave the speech and filled people with hope.

[Merlin]

Doctor Reverend Martin Luther King Jr said to not judge people by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.
He did NOT say to forget about and ignore the color of someone's skin.
Not judging someone based on skin color is very different than forgetting and ignoring it completely.
It's not difficult to understand this yet so many fail to get this.

[JWalt-gtjt]

Fun fact: "pull yourself up by your bootstraps, " when it was originally coined, was ironic. One cannot lift ones self up by pulling on themselves, unless you can somehow break the laws of physics

[kamalalsb]

I think what's also reprehensible about the recontextualisation of the "I have a Dream" speech is that he says "MY little children", not "All" little children. Because His children, BLACK children, are the ones being judged on the color of their skin. This is not something that APPLIES to white people, this is not an equivalency, this is not "Let's all be colorblind :)))" this is him addressing a problem being experienced by HIS community. White people don't NEED to dream to not be judged by the color of their skin, because seemingly the only context in which they will be is the assumption that they are inherently better than anyone else.

[dwc]

The thing about the so-called "I Have a Dream Speech" is, that part _wasn't even in the speech_ originally; he was wrapping up what he'd intended to say, when Mahalia Jackson (who'd heard him give a version of his "Dream" previously) shouted, "Tell 'em about the dream, Martin!", and since when Mahalia Jackson tells you to do something, you do it, he did.
The body of the speech - as this here video quite admirably showcases - would be more aptly titled the "America bounced its check, and we're here to collect" speech. But that's much too confrontational and concrete. Better to zero in on the visionary and abstract. You can sell nearly anything with that.

[kahli]

Ben Shapiro talking about revisionist history that have serious consequences... as a black man I laughed out loud

[christianbarrett]

I once had a conservative try telling me that MLK Jr. would be a conservative, and when I pointed out him arguing for and endorsing social democracy, the conservative tried claiming MLK Jr. must have been drunk when he made such endorsements and arguments. These people are insane.