Archive for January, 2011

Twisted Dream: The Disappearance of the Real MLK

This essay appeared on Colorlines, under a different title. _________ It’s been a rough year for Martin Luther King Jr., and for his legacy. First, as has become an annual ritual, politicians went to church or some other civic gathering for last year’s King Day celebration, even as they continued to support public policies that […]

Service as a Substitute: The Sanitizing of Martin Luther King Jr.

Perhaps it’s no great surprise that Glenn Beck would distort Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message, as he did when he held a rally for mostly white reactionaries on the 47th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in August, all the while suggesting that the group was “reclaiming the civil rights movement.” After […]

Paranoia as Prelude: Conspiracism and the Cost of Political Rage

Unlike some, I will not attempt to make murderer and would-be political assassin Jared Loughner into a poster-boy for the Tea Party. As it turns out, such a feat would do Mr. Loughner an injustice, ascribing to him a level of sane, if yet disturbing philosophical coherence that he apparently lacks, rather than recognizing him […]