Racefails, aren't they awesome?
My 11 year old niece was aghast when she discovered that I was working on Martin Luther King Day. "How can you work on Martin Luther King Day?! He had a dream and then he gave a speech and that got rid of racism!" Yeah, so we need to have a talk* (with the school board about their curriculum), but at least she has a basic understanding of what MLK was about. Racism. Ending it. I'll take what I can get from 11 year olds.
C. Jane, however, is not 11. So this racefail is not excusable.
If this holiday is all about having a dream, I'd like to declare mine: I have a dream where I get a private audience with Mormon writer Emma Lou Thayne. We'd have tea and readings. Tea and readings--doesn't that sound nice?
No, Martin Luther King Day is not about having a dream. And even if it were, his dream was for equality and opportunity and an end to bigotry and racism. Your dream is to drink tea with someone. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent time in jail to achieve that dream. He suffered terribly, he sacrificed greatly and then he died for it.
And you fucking want tea.
Thus answering the question of how much of a self-indulgent spleen weasel one can be. From now on, we will refer to being truly self absorbed as cjane. As in, "Yeesh, what a cjane he is!" or "How cjane can you be?"
*I tried to explain about nonviolent resistance, but as she said, if that worked why are we always at war? I sputtered something about Ghandi and then went to cry for lost innocence somewhere private. (The bathroom.)
It always amazes me how people come out of the woodwork around this time of year with sad attempts to defame MLK Jr.
ReplyDelete"I'm going to repeat propaganda used by white racists during the 60's in order to argue that King was actually a horrible person, not the loudest voice calling to end racism peacefully."
Of course, JFK is a saint, even though he cheated on his wife... because JFK had the common decency to be white.
He cheated on his wife, therefore racism does not, nor ever did, exist. QED.
ReplyDeleteI was driving to the gym with my kids (8 and 5) and had the radio on. Thanks be to my fictitious divine being for NPR!. They had an interview with somone (I forget who - he just wrote a book about MLK and is a professor at Stanford I think)who was there. A bit of the dream speech was played. It was very moving.
ReplyDeleteOff topic- but are you an Avatar the last airbender fan?
ReplyDeletePeepuls is peepuls. If not, stupidities.
ReplyDeletecheers from not racismfree Vienna, zilch