I’m not sure whether you can call it poetic or horrific that Martin Luther King Jr. Day takes place on Inauguration Day. If Kamala Harris had won in November, the happenstance would’ve been a momentous occasion that signaled how far we’ve come: let freedom ring, poetic justice—all that.
But that’s not where we’re at, so I’ll just say it’s horrific. This day, which is meant to honor a civil-rights legend whom a white supremacist assassinated, is now the day when racial progress is assassinated.
This isn’t me being purposefully dramatic, I’m really not one for hyperbole.
‘I Am Not Your Negro’
Recently, I watched this documentary called “I Am Not Your Negro,” based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript that explored the lives of three of his closest friends, who were all assassinated just years apart: Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, Malcolm X in 1965 and Medgar Evers in 1963.
Although I know this portion of history, thanks to my parents (and no thanks to the Missouri public education system), it opened my eyes to something I had the pieces of, yet hadn’t fully put together.
We never left Jim Crow. It’s simply been rebranded.
The documentary opens up with a 1968 interview of James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show. Cavett asks Baldwin whether he is still met with the remark of “Why aren’t the Negros optimistic?”
“They say it’s getting so much better. There’s Negro mayors, there’s Negros in all of sports, there’s Negros in politics, they’re even courted the ultimate accolade of being in television commercials now,” Cavett states.
Baldwin answers if this is still the language and mindset, the real question is what’s going to happen to this country? This question is still relevant to this day.
‘The Content of Your Character, Not the Color of Your Skin’
In the 21st century, Martin Luther King Jr., is a beloved civil-rights icon, but that wasn’t always the case. From 1955 to 1968, MLK was arguably the most hated man in America due to his radical ideals.
Although his message has been co-opted into being solely about integration, his stance on poverty, equal wages and education made him a villain. He wasn’t just calling for integration; he was calling for a collective psychological mind-shift.
All throughout my K-12 education, we were taught the “I Have A Dream,” speech and that Martin Luther King Jr., simply died—because racialized murder is too radical for school.
This speech has been used to encourage color-blindness and abrasive policies that harm marginalized communities, such as the end of affirmative action, thus making Martin Luther King Jr., a hero to conservative Americans.
One of the most American things a Black man can do is be hated while you’re alive, only to be murdered and then loved in retrospect once you’re no longer around to speak your own words.
What we witness every MLK Day is America’s attempts to rewrite history. And as we know, if you fail to remember history, you are doomed to repeat it.
And we’re repeating it and repeating it.
The Modern Jim Crow
Inauguration Day falling on MLK Day this year—traditionally on Jan. 20—is a reflection of the history and sins of this country. America has a disease of being blinded.
We have Black football players, Black singers, Black writers and even Black politicians. Beyoncé performed during the Halftime show, so “why aren’t the Negros more optimistic?”
We’re too distracted to see that everything Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about is what we’re still fighting. And his message goes way beyond little Black children going to school with little white children.
Truthfully, my experience in my predominantly white school was the most traumatizing time of my life—from being called a ‘monkey’ while walking home from school to being forced to reenact slavery in my history class and having to debate whether Black lives really did matter during Socratic seminars. It’s not enough to be integrated. Black children must be seen and protected.
King’s point was for Black Americans to have the same rights as white Americans—to be seen as citizens so that, among other things, Black children can go to the schools in their neighborhoods with their friends and have the same books and the same opportunities. He spoke out against poverty, questioning the usefulness of capitalism. He was anti-war; he was an intellectual and a scholar.
Now we can all shop at the same grocery stores, go to the same schools, maybe even have the same jobs (if you weren’t born into poverty and if you have access to higher education, of course).
“You wanted freedom? Well you’ve got it.”
As Martin Luther King Jr. put it, we’re telling men who don’t own any boots to pull up their boot straps. When slavery “officially” ended in 1865, Black Americans were left with no resources, no education, no money—then they immediately met with Jim Crow. Now, Black Americans face police brutality, disparities in education, housing, the criminal-justice system, the health-care system. Do I need to go on? The stories are all the same, and they’ll remain the same until we do something about it.
A Brighter Future Is Ahead
I know I sound pessimistic, but I promise I’m not. As James Baldwin so eloquently put it: “I can’t be a pessimist because I’m alive. I am forced to believe that we can survive, whatever we must survive.”
So survive we will. It’s so easy to throw in the towel and ignore the happenings around us just to keep a peace of mind. It’s time to educate ourselves on the past and to continually stay up-to-date on current information so that we can move past the present acceptance of misinformation and deception pushed by our incoming administration.
Let these next four years be a lesson of what happens when history is rewritten, when there’s no standards or resolution for past mistakes. But understand, the greatest thing about history is that we are given a blueprint. We don’t have to repeat; we can have a new future, a brighter future.
This MFP Voices essay does not necessarily represent the views of the Mississippi Free Press, its staff or board members. To submit an opinion for the MFP Voices section, send up to 1,200 words and sources fact-checking the included information to voices@mississippifreepress.org. We welcome a wide variety of viewpoints.
