Dream or Agenda?
Agenda or “dream” – what does this monument represent?
by Bryan K. Bullock
With the unveiling of the Martin Luther King memorial approaching, the question on many people’s minds is, which Dr. King will the participants be celebrating? Martin Luther King’s messages have been taken out of context to such an extreme degree, that now even the far Right in America have appropriated his “content of character” line for their own use. Many of the far Right, as well as some on the Left, would not have and did no support most of what King stood and died for. His speeches have been reduced to sound bites, bits and pieces of his profound speeches used to make a point that King himself would not have supported. So which King will be promoted, celebrated and praised at the unveiling? The King who bravely stood alone against the Vietnam War or the King who supposedly only wanted everyone to love each other?
The life and philosophy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King has been perhaps the most misrepresented of any person in U.S. history. The selling of King as a simple “dreamer” who “loved” everyone is out of line with the real Dr. King. The celebration of this remarkable life by sitting around listening to speeches is antithetical to what the real King stood for, symbolically and literally. The unveiling ceremony will no doubt do little to correct this. We revere King’s words only because his words were backed up with action. He was not some mere speech-giver as are the “leaders” of today. He was an activist, a protester, someone who challenged the status quo and who knowingly laid his body and life on the line to do so. He did not “dream”, he acted, pushed, and fought for a society that still does not exist.
In the final days of King’s life, he was staunchly and openly opposed to militarism and the expanding American empire. His speech opposing the Vietnam War is still one of his strongest, most powerful speeches. He was not only against America’s military action in Vietnam, he was also clearly critiquing America’s operations throughout the globe, calling America the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and saying that militarism was an extension of racism and hurts the poor. Given that America is still occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Haiti, and bombing Mother Africa in Libya, expanding the new colonization of Africa via Africom, and still threatening Iran and North Korea and supporting the oppression of Palestinians, it is doubtful that King would be celebrating the actions of America today, despite the presence of a black man who sits atop the empire. How many of the people in the audience will connect the unveiling of the King memorial with the idea that King was courageously anti-war? Shouldn’t there be an anti-war rally scheduled, in which everyone at the unveiling will attend? As they stare at the monument in awe, will the audience be inspired to join the Black is Back coalition in protesting America’s Other Wars? Will anyone ask them to? Will they join ANY anti-war protest movement or activity, or start their own? It is questionable as to whether any of the speakers will criticize the various wars of empire that America is currently engaged in – as King himself would be doing? In fact, how many of the speakers will in fact be King-like? Willing to be ostracized and isolated, as King was in his final days, to stand on the principles of anti-militarism and anti-empire? Most, if not all, will probably be mainstream, self-appointed “leaders” and politicians, whose speeches will glorify a partial life, and present the man as an earthly black Christ whom everyone loved and who loved everyone. No doubt, many will try to connect the election of a black president with the fulfillment of King’s agenda. None will probably note that King was against empire no matter what the emperor looked like.
Most people relate King to the civil rights movement and they will say, ad nauseum the word “dream.” Who among the speakers will use words like “agenda”, “plan”, “blueprint?” All of these words necessarily imply and require action. Dream, of course, does not. So, when the monument is shown, who will tell the crowd that King’s plan for African American liberation has, in many ways, been literally, reduced to a dream? The black male incarceration rate, the wealth gap between whites and blacks (and the accompanying black male unemployment rate), the reduction in the net worth of African Americans through massive foreclosures, the unresolved and increasing issue of police brutality against black people, the assault on affirmative action policies (by black people no less), the rise of the surveillance state, indefinite detention, the concentration of wealth, the destruction of the public school system are all issues that King would have wanted Africans in America to rally around and take action against. Will the many speakers and so-called leaders link these issues? Alternatively, will they say innocuous, banal things like, “the dream is unfulfilled?” Will anyone note that Dr. King was assassinated because of his actions and not because of his dreams? Undoubtedly, some of the speakers will say something self-evident like, “there’s more work to be done”, as if this statement is bold and brave, but how many will lead the audience through Washington, straight to the White House and demand an end to ANY the aforementioned issues? How many will chastise, criticize and admonish the President, the Congress, their own majority white governors and state legislators, for not speaking to, let alone addressing, any of these issues?
This man, this leader, has been so thoroughly water-downed and de-fanged, that he bears almost no resemblance to the actual living King. The monument will probably bear greater physical resemblance to him, then will the way his life will be presented. He anticipated that some sort of affirmative action would be needed to allow African Americans to catch up to whites in employment and wealth creation. Who will acknowledge this? And let’s be clear, this water-downed, all loving, Christ- King was created and his words cherry-picked, in order to make him more palatable to white America, to the political establishment and to those blacks who were uncomfortable with his stance on the Vietnam War and his Poor People’s campaign. King was hated, condemned and ostracized by the mainstream media and by black “leaders” at the end of his life – not because he talked a good game of love, but because he fought for a life worth living and because he refused back down and sit down. Lyndon Johnson withdrew the security detail that he assigned to protect King when he would not soften his stance on Vietnam – both men knew what this meant. Who will mention this at the unveiling? Black and white ministers and those whites who simply wanted to help end segregation, left the “movement” when King began addressing issues of poverty and militarism. This King cannot be celebrated. He would be embarrassing to the President, the Congress and the black “leadership” who gather to have their day in the sun. The celebration of this King would lead the ultra-right wing Republicans, and many Democrats to boycott the unveiling celebration.
To memorialize the real King would make many in the audience and on the presentation panel uncomfortable. The celebration of this life, the real life of Dr. Martin Luther King, would give strength and encouragement to poor people to rise up in America as they are doing in other parts of the world. Who will connect the uprisings in Briton, Egypt, Tunisia and Syria to the confrontational protests of the civil rights movement? Will anyone even use the word “racism’ or “oppression” in a current context?
Much will be said about “love” and non-violence (as opposed to non-violent resistance against oppression). Little will be said about the power of resistance in a racist, oppressive system that marginalizes and victimizes black people. Instead of honoring the genius in the strategy, speakers will simply encourage African Americans to be non-violent in the face of police brutality and the mass incarcerations of black men. They will be told to simply “love” their political and social enemies, whose policies and narratives affect them in real, tangible ways, instead of fighting, protesting, voting and marching, against them and their ideas and legislation. By de-fanging King, as well as Malcolm, the Right (and the Left) have commoditized two of African American’s most important leaders, co-opted their justified anger, re-wrote American history and have thereby weakened our movement and castrated any current and future revolution.
The King monument, as do so many symbols, will be seen as substance. It will be presented as a culmination of a movement and a celebration of the past. As such, it will not challenge the wars on nations, nor the wars at home. It will be presented as the closing of a chapter in American history and will not be connected to the unfolding, current story. The monument will not be placed in the context of the monumental failures of capitalism, black leadership, white liberals and political parties to solve the ongoing needs of African Americans and the poor; it will do a monumental disservice to the real King.
Bryan K. Bullock
Bryan K. Bullock is a lawyer. He was habeas counsel for detainees imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He practices employment discrimination and civil rights law and is a resident of Gary, IN.
I loved reading this article reminds me personally about what I remembered about that time and Dr. MLK, this article is an enlightenment of the monumental celebrated for reasons I will pay close attention as to how representation acknowledges a man that who are we that claimed to have loved…If I can say thank you Dr. West for your hard work in the communities and commitment to those with the greatest need due to discrimination based on race; most at a disadvantage due to poverty; etc…
“This man, this leader, has been so thoroughly water-downed and de-fanged, that he bears almost no resemblance to the actual living King.”
As one of the leaders of a years long protest of the monument (with a file 12 inches thick), I can tell you that your quote above is right on. And I know you won’t be surprised to learn that the quotes used on the monument have been “edited” to be “more inclusive” and there are NO references to black, African American or colored, anywhere on the monument. To make it worse, this was a conscious decision by those who sought to honor Dr. King! There is no way this monument could capture the range and depth of our beloved Dr. King. It was carved by an atheist Communist Chinese artist who did not have a clue who Dr. King was until he was schooled by American sculptor Ed Dwight who created the original maquette Yixin worked from. The stone was quarried in China by workers paid $2 per day (bet Dr. King would LOVE to know that), and it was constructed here by workers from China so the labor could be paid in yen when they got back home.
The People’s Republic of China has staked a claim on our National Mall…
No US company was allowed to bid on the actual monument itself (read the Federal Report), and the reason the monument project took so long to reach their financial goal is because they could not claim the $10 million set aside for the project due to violations of the Buy America Act. What a fitting monument to present to one of our most brilliant native sons. A sculpture “Made In China” and presented to our country by a nation with one of the worst human rights and civil rights records on this planet. Yep. Dr. King would be proud.
In keeping with your comments about the King monument I would like to add my comments by submitting a speech I gave in 2006 concerning the King holiday.
The national birthday celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was last month,
This month we celebrate African American History Month for 28 days. One celebration follows hot on the heels of the other and thus January and February events inspired by historical accomplishments in the African American community coalesce into the wintertime remembrances of the people of the African Diaspora throughout the United States of America and the world. In the past two months we have reaffirmed our dream. We have honored our African heritage and we have announced, once again to the world, that the defining principles of our existence must be wrought by our own hands.
Tonight I would like to voice a few of our concerns with less emphasis on the prefix and hyphen of ethnicity; without the sometimes confusing context of 400 years of finger-pointing, and with a concern about the seemingly insignificant but psychologically damaging underpinnings of our great society.
During the Civil Rights movement the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the many heads of a metaphorical dragon that threatened to upend the social, class and political status quo in the United States of America. Dr. King’s success lay in the fact that he was intelligent, courageous, and articulate in the delivery of his message and actions. Thus, Dr. King was transformed into an African American leader and icon, which in the eyes of the American executive polity, had to be dealt with. Unfortunately, Dr. King found himself in a position where he had to bestow a modicum of trust to the administrators of a system that had historically demeaned, isolated, and/or ignored the African American component of the American melting pot. In other words, Dr. King and in fact, the entire African American community had to accept a response from the self-same overseers who had never bothered to invite African Americans to participate fully in the American dream as anything more than byproducts or peripheral anomalies forged in the founding of this powerful republic. In the final analysis, Dr. King’s efforts for many may be summed up and remembered as a dream … It was and still is a good dream… It is a hopeful dream… and above all else, it is a dream that has become the foundation of hope for millions within and without the African American community.
However, we should never forget that the dream of Dr. King emerged from spiritual, intellectual and physical conflict. It is a dream that requires proactive participation for its attainment. It is a dream that requires an acute awareness of strategies that could potentially be effective in reaching its objective. It is a dream that requires vigilance to ensure that the compacted conduct of a nation divided along racial lines would hold sway in the winds of change while being confronted by outdated traditions, ethnocentric attitudes, and immoral beliefs that sought to keep African Americans confined to the underbelly of Eurocentric linear logic.
Unfortunately, in order to dream with out being proactive, with out a lack of awareness and with an absence of vigilance, America simply needs to fall asleep. If the dream of Dr. King is to be realized and the generation that no longer looked upon the practices of the past as tolerable are to be remembered, Americans cannot allow themselves to fall sleep. Dr. King’s vision must be more than a dream. If Americans allow themselves to sleep, the best we can ever hope for is an American nightmare in which we will find ourselves relegated to insignificance and viewed as a rigidly congealed mass in a melting pot that is doomed to failure. Sadly, many Americans have deviated drastically from the dream of Dr. King and are rapidly approaching the nightmare that is now a reality for far too many of its members. Thus, I find that:
I have a nightmare whenever I note that the African American community is familiar with the lives and accomplishments of Thomas Jefferson, King James, Socrates, Queen Elizabeth, or even Daniel Boone, but have no knowledge of Lucy Terry, John Henrick Clarke, Julia Hare, Tony Martin, Anna J.H. Cooper, Septima Clark, John G. Jackson, Chancellor Williams, Na’im Akbar, or E. Curtis Alexander.1
I have a nightmare whenever I note that the combined African American psyche can tell us little or nothing of the psychological, historical or sacrosanct origins of Osiris, Obyah, Ngai, Amma, Oledamare, Ifé or Baba Loas, but can recite western ecclesiastical tradition verbatim. 2
I have a nightmare whenever the presumption of innocence in a felony case can only be invoked during a trial. This is particularly disturbing once we understand that ninety percent of these types of cases never go to trial; therefore, no constitutional guarantees of due process are applicable. This infamous distinction becomes increasingly difficult to swallow when it is understood that as a group young African American males are constantly under attack by negative social pressures that include a devastating drug culture, institutional racism, diminutive educational expectations, technological distractions, and inadequate parental oversight.3
I have a nightmare when the important point of Columbus’ voyage as being the first to discover the Americas continues to be honored as an historic milestone because it unleashed the unprecedented growth of capitalism while ignoring or downplaying the resulting plunder of indigenous Americans, the underdevelopment of Africa, the relationship between European intervention and global exploitation and genocide, archeological evidence of Northmen’s settlements, and Mansa Musa’s explorations.4
I have a nightmare as feudalism is thinly disguised as a civilized workable economic system veiled in words like “mutual contracts,” “mutual obligations” and “bound to the land” instead of what it was: the European enslavement of other Europeans.
I have a nightmare every time African American children are taught that the conqueror brought civilization to backward lands and in the process the genocide of the Arawak people is glossed over in history and treated as an acceptable consequence of imperialistic expansion. This is particularly distressing when African American children are taught these lessons without the benefit of understanding the conquered cultures prior to these external invasions. How is it that what was acquired by robbery and plunder, can now be virtuous in a nation?5
Finally, I have a nightmare whenever I look at the academic, economic and political elite of America and find that too many of them blindly follow a path of individualism accepting little of the inherent responsibility thrust upon them by the idealism of democracy and citizenship.
Continuing in this vein, the poor, weak and downtrodden have a responsibility too, and the yoke of poverty, miseducation, and unrealized opportunities are not viable excuses to capture sleep to the detriment of their future. The dream of Dr. King can only begin to take shape once we awaken from the nightmare we have helped to create. The dream of Dr. King waits patiently to feel the vibrations of our footsteps as we approach. The dream of Dr. King must pass from an idea into the reality of our existence. Until then the dream of Dr. King is just that –a dream.
I skipped the MLK day parade in Denver this year because it was led by an ROTC contingent from a high school. King has been sanitized…
Check out the following mixtape of Dr. King’s speeches from ’66-’68! It can be used to bring people out of their delusions about the brother.
http://www.archive.org/details/DjSeseTheLsComingMixtape
Poor news – Syria’s ‘mutilation mystery’ deepens…