Rev Martin Luther King Jr

Every year as the MLK holiday weekend approaches I begin to feel a bit nauseated—not because of Dr. King himself, but because of the way our culture has tried to transform his memory into something that will make it more palatable to white sensibilities. I have a great deal of respect for the real Dr. King, which is why I find it so offensive that his message seems to become more diluted each year. Way too much attention is paid to his famous March on Washington speech of August 28, 1963, while the larger body of his work gets overlooked. Indeed, even within the analysis of that one speech, there is too much emphasis on the easiest to swallow, least offensive parts of the oration—specifically, the “I HAVE A DREAM” sequence. That sequence about the dream was tacked onto the end of his speech in an impromptu way. It was not even a part of his prepared text. It is highly unlikely that he wanted the “I have a dream” addendum to be the main takeaway from his speech that day. If one looks at the whole body of MLK’s work a very different picture emerges.