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    MLK Is Not the Far-Right’s Whipping Boy, STFU

    By 8 Mins Read
    Martin Luther King, Jr., giving a speech, while George Meany, also at the speakers' table, listens Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

    It’s that time of year again when bigots unclench their assh*les enough to pretend they actually give a f*ck about equality.

    Why yes, MLK day is coming up, and the same party that was against learning about the Civil Rights Movement is sure to praise its greatest son. Because blatant racism is now frowned upon, far-right politicians scurry to associate themselves with the perfect victim ( a victim of racial injustice whose character is much more difficult to attack than that of Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery—you get the picture), in order to show that despite their sh*t-soiled track records, they in fact are not racist monsters—because look, MLK DAY QUOTE!!! 

    Dr. King is the ultimate martyr of racial injustice: a child of God, with the boom of a preacher’s voice whose message of peace and non-violent protest resonated with the world, a loving father and husband, a man who always addressed respectability politics in a suit and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Outwardly hating MLK would not bode well for one’s legacy, but instead, whitewashing his legacy allows for the spread of racism in such a benevolent and stealthy way that it can alter history in the past, present and future.  

    President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act as Martin Luther King, Jr., and others look on.
    Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

    The religious white-right unequivocally hated MLK when he was alive. Even in his peaceful message of Christian kindness was still demonized—by Christians. The Southern Baptist Convention, founded in 1845 and unlike Dr. King, is still alive and well today, was and is a pervasive motivator in politics. According to Gallup, its members mostly swing Republican. While it has become more racially inclusive over time, its initial founding as an organization is rooted in racism, most specifically when it split from Northern Baptists over the issue of slavery. During Jim Crow, the SBC was pro-segregation and only changed its stance when it realized that it might affect global missionary efforts, as they may be viewed as f*cking hypocrites by potential converts. At that point, they switched gears and their new cause, célèbre became abortion.

    However, racism still prevails in the SBC today as well as other parts of the far-right/evangelical parts of Americana. 

    Every MLK day, without fail, Arkansas governor and underqualified nepo baby, Sarah Huckabee Sanders—a woman whose looks mirror her insides—takes an opportunity to tweet about celebrating MLK’s legacy, most often in a vague manner that does not specifically address the things he fought for, and most importantly, against. She has even gone so far as to stray outside the confines of the holiday and use his quote about being judged on the content of one’s character and not the color of one’s skin when celebrating the repeal of Affirmative Action; how dreadfully disgusting and insulting. This is not uncommon for many racists who are afraid of the title and find comfort in identifying with the parts of his teachings they can take out of context. They also ignore King’s stance on Affirmative Action, made clear in his writings years later, in the 1967 book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community, where he states, “a society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro.”

    Additionally, Huckabee-Sanders postulates giving a f*ck about MLK, but the official proclamation she crafted to honor the observation of the holiday in Arkansas, was either not worthy of an edit or written by someone too intellectually inept to have escaped the perils of growing up in a state ranked 38th in education, (I’m calling her dumb).

    Her grammar was not indicative of a professional government document and is just as shockingly dismissive in its crafting as someone having the f*ckdacity to evoke MLK’s likeness, while also canceling AP African American History throughout said state.

    Ahh, yes. We can acknowledge MLK, but we can’t acknowledge why we are acknowledging him; that makes sense.

    To add even more insult to injury, Huckabee-Sanders graduated from Little Rock Central High School. Yes, THAT Little Rock Central High School. The site of the historic integration of Arkansas schools by the Little Rock Nine. She even evoked her Alma Mater in her inaugural address.

    It’s funny how it is okay to learn about Black history when it benefits her. 

    Another slimeball lawmaker, Ted Cruz, who always looks as if he’s going to fart out of his mouth and left his own constituents for dead while he hopped town to go escape the cold, quoted several of MLK’s statements about Christianity on Xitter, as well as an entire thread dedicated to the “I Have A Dream,” speech. However, the only time he mentioned Black History Month was to complain about the lack of representation on a TV ad that featured Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, and Stacy Abrams and no Black Republicans. To make a stink about a bias based on racial identity while also denying it happens is certainly illogical. But hey, so is kissing up to the man who insulted your wife. Ron DeSantis, the governor who wanted children to learn that slavery taught Blacks valuable skills, was sure to post a picture of MLK and a quote on social media with “judged by” and “the content of their character,” highlighted in a different color.

    Well, if that isn’t convenient.

    For years, Bernice King, Dr. King’s daughter, has asked racists not to quote her father to justify their white nationalist propaganda and agendas. She has called out both Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz for their abuse of her father’s name while espousing racism, to no avail or apology.  

    The nefariousness hypocrisy of the Republican party is outrageous and dangerous.

    They reject learning about MLK but will take his words out of context just to use them to talk over the same Black voices he spoke for. The most disheartening part about the far-right usurping MLK’s likeness is how antithetical it is to his mission. It is metaphoric slavery; it is the usage of a Black man’s labor to fund and fuel a racist white machine. These people never tweet any quotes from MLK denouncing white corruption and systemic racism, no. Quite often, it is nothing but the regurgitation of the same quote from his “I Have a Dream” speech. They completely undermine that the reason MLK wanted his children to be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin is BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT; hell, his own child cannot even vouch for the character of her own father without the, ‘but agggshuallly,’ of racists who are too spineless to admonish him out loud, so punishing his legacy with a white eraser is their next best option.

    Logically, it is impossible to think someone who fought for Black equality would look at this country in its current state and think we have achieved it, especially since no one fighting for equality before or after him has made those claims. Appropriating Dr. King’s likeness to quiet the very causes he championed is murdering his legacy and just another way for racists to tell Black people OUR story and what he should mean to the very people his work was meant for. It is taking his kindness as our weakness.

    Dr. King is not here. Not because old age led him to his final slumber. No. He was murdered by the literal flesh-altering divisiveness of white supremacy and whitewashing his legacy is nothing but a culture vulture eating at his final remains. 

    There is no difference between the desire to eliminate Black history and the desire to eliminate Black historians. 

    Kyla Jenée Lacey is an accomplished third-person bio composer. Her spoken word has garnered tens of millions of views, and has been showcased on Pop Sugar, Write About Now, Buzzfeed, Harper’s Bizarre, Diet Prada, featured on the Tamron Hall show, and Laura Ingraham from Fox News called her work, “Anti-racist propaganda.”. She has performed spoken word at over 300 colleges in over 40 states. Kyla has been a finalist in the largest regional poetry slam in the country, no less than five times, and was nominated as Campus Activities Magazine Female Performer of the Year. Her work has been acknowledged by several Grammy-winning artists. Her poetry has been viewed over 50 million times and even used on protest billboards in multiple countries. She has written for large publications such as The Huffington Post, BET.com, and the Root Magazine and is the author of "Hickory Dickory Dock, I Do Not Want Your C*ck!!!," a book of tongue-in-cheek poems, about patriarchy....for manchildren.

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