This is a think-piece.  I hope that it will inspire you to think about its subject matter. Please approach it with an open mind.

Hello World!  I’m going to take a moment to discuss Martin Luther King, Jr., activism, and change. 

What would Dr. King say if he were alive today?  How would he feel about the social progress and lack thereof in the years following his assassination? Many people see Dr. King as a paragon of nonviolence. The real King, like many people, was more nuanced.

In fact, Dr. King was a radical Leftist.  Like many Leftists, he was not popular in his time.  This was a major contributing factor to his assassination in 1968. 

I think that this is very important to highlight.  He was a fanatic for social equality and democracy.  He was explicitly anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism.  He was assassinated while advocating for the rights of sanitary workers in Memphis, Tennessee.

Because of this, he was labeled a communist.

His story is like many Leftist figures in history.  Folks love him now, but he was unpopular in the 1960s. The folks who hate Colin Kaepernick now would’ve hated Dr. King in 1966. It’s statistics; check his approval ratings around the time he died.

He is much more popular now.  His more radical beliefs were de-emphasized in favor of a “saint-like” devotion to non-violence

This was a calculated decision by the powers that be.

So, let’s talk about it.

Dr. King’s legacy is often co-opted to promote ideas that he would have found disagreeable

You can almost say that he has been assassinated twice.  King the man was killed in Memphis in 1968.  King the memory has been butchered in the ensuing years.

Since his death, Martin Luther King Jr has had his legacy appropriated and perverted.  All in service of the status-quo-is-God powers that be weaponize his legacy to stifle modern civil rights movements.

When they aren’t cutting him out of the conversation entirely.

Many of us have been lied to.  And now it’s time to set the record straight.  Whether it’s Dr. King, the founding fathers, Christopher Columbus, the Civil War, etc. 

Demand the truth, for your own sake if not mine.

Now that I’ve gotten that off of my chest, it’s back to our scheduled programming.

Many of his most memorable ideas are still relevant today.

“If (we) cannot do great things, (we) can do small things in a great way.”

I used to feel small in the grand scheme of things.  When I put together this blog, I was cynical about the effect that it could have.

So why bother, right?

I've since adopted a different stance.  It's better to do something poorly than not at all.  This is a variation on Dr.King's words. I can make a difference, even if it's a small one. If I can reach one person with my words, that's a victory. If that person then reaches 2 more people, and those people reached more people, then we can all make a difference.

In short, we don't have to be Dr.King to make a difference. The little things do matter.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to everywhere.”

I can acknowledge that I'm coming from a place of privilege. I am a neurodivergent black man, but I'm also cisgender, heterosexual, Protestant, able-bodied.  And yet, my experience as a neurodivergent black man informs my experience in general. Bigotry is an umbrella, each variant has its own nuance, but there are several underlying threats. I cannot be anti-racist without also being anti-sexist. I can't be anti-sexist without being anti-ableist. I can't be anti-ableist without being anti-capitalist. And I can't be silent or neutral about any of it because silence is complicity.   

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

We can't all be Dr. King, or Malcolm X, or Fred Hampton. And yet, as I said earlier, even the little people like us can make a difference. In my case, it might be starting a blog to establish a platform for social activism.  For others, it might be having hard conversations with loved ones.  Some take to the streets and speak truth to power.

Dr. King argued against letting the rest of the world or future generations take care of today’s problems. We can all make a difference.  We all have the moral responsibility to make the world better for our children. 

The time to make that difference is now.  The time to make our dreams come true is now.

We have made progress towards Dr. King’s dream, but we still have a way to go.

Did Dr. King’s dream come true?  In some ways it has.  Overt state-supported segregation has been eliminated.  More citizens have voting rights.  Minorities are less overtly judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Progress was evidenced the second Barack Obama took the oath of office.  That ideal world that King described is closer to us now than it was fifty years ago.

However, the goal is to see Dr. King’s dream fully realized.  I would argue that we have not even reached the halfway point.  People of color are still disproportionately targeted and brutalized by law enforcement.  We live in largely segregated communities, despite diverse workplaces.  A clause in the 13^th amendment keeps slavery alive through the prison industrial complex.  Many have voting rights, but minorities still face obstacles in voter registration and citizenship.  People, in general, are still far too often judged by the color of their skin and not the content of their character.  The hope of 2008 and our first Black president has been met with the violent backlash of the late 2010s and early 2020s.  

We have not achieved the dream yet, but we have made progress.

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