MLK DAY FROM AN OLDER MAN'S EYES

What does Martin Luther King Day mean to me? Well first of all it allows me to reflect. Reflect on the day I was in bed with my young beautiful wife and the news came over the television that Dr. King had been shot. I remember the tears filling my eyes, not just for Dr. King, but for this country. You see, I was around when John, Malcolm, and Dr. King were assassinated and unbeknown to me at the time, I’d feel that sadness 60 days later with Bobby.

This day reminds me that there is an element in this country that will stop at nothing to maintain control. It reminds me that this element will not let ideas of white supremacy fade. This day reminds me of how we have been socialized to support our own oppression. This day reminds me of how naïve we were in 1968.

Not to distract from Dr. King’s legacy or his courage, there’s been no equal since that time, but we must also understand that Dr. King only changed what the elite needed changed for their worldwide business and ideological interest. They needed an America that would be perceived by the world as “racially and religiously" tolerant to promote its ideals of democracy, freedom and an open society. This was necessary so the populace of other countries could demand “an open society” and thereby allowing American interest to get a cultural and later economic foothold in their society.

However at home it was the same old story baked in a different oven. The elite were covertly undermining any real racial progress in the United States with their carrot and stick edits and law enforcement that allowed the free flow of narcotics into select black communities while promoting a rhetorical War on Drugs. They further allowed the slow escalation of the exportation of jobs and developed the double whammy of decadent (negative black) media images that they could exploit and promote for white unity through black disunity. For example, Good Times, The Jefferson’s, What’s Happening, Different Strokes, etc. all promoted the image of the black as clownish and childlike and the contrast was a rational, reasonable, white society. This elite white supremacist interest needed the American public to buy into their rhetorical systems so it could be marketed at home and abroad like a cheap trick and Dr. King was, in my humble opinion, the unsuspecting catalyst.

In the final analysis I’d say the symbolism of this day, MLK Day, had its moments of hope and optimism in 1968, but upon deeper inspection, I believe Martin died to keep faith in a dream that would culminate into a nightmare.