White people use Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy to pressure Black people into silence. When we rise up, his name is used as a way to slap us back down. People saying that he would be ashamed to see the state of the country aren’t necessarily wrong. But they’re not right for the reasons they think. He would be ashamed to see that literally nothing has actually changed. Yes, Black folks have made progress, but it’s
nothing compared to what it should be. In his
“I Have A Dream” speech, Dr. King hoped that one day his children (who are now old enough to collect Social Security) would not be “judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” That’s simply not true in America in 2020.
We’re still fighting because Black men and women are
dying because of the color of their skin. The people who are supposed to be protecting them are actively slaughtering them. You want to sit here and quote MLK at Black people, but can’t even see that his words have long fallen on ears that are not willing to listen? If he was still alive, he’d be saying the same things he was saying 50 fucking years ago. That’s why Black people are taking to the streets. The things that were problems for us back then shouldn’t
still be problems for us now. So, we must rise up.