MLK still lies a spinning in his grave

Last year, I observed Martin Luther King Day with a post entitled MLK is spinning in his grave, and it’s pretty clear that the good doctor remains spinning.

Oh, there’ve been a few positives along the way – there’s now a more diverse Congress.

But, but, but…

Attempts to suppress the African American vote continue apace. After all, they tend to vote for, you know… And while Stacy Abrams (Georgia) and Andrew Gillum (Florida) may have lost their gubernatorial races fair and square, there were major elements of racism directed against them both during election season.

Then there’s the Steve King situation, in which Iowa’s darling of a Congressman was stripped of his committee assignments and given a tut-tut vote of disapproval by Congress for his support for white nationalism, etc. Yet he remains in Congress and, in truth, his comments and thinking are no worse than those of Trump (especially when channeling Stephen Miller) and many other members of his party.

Then there were all those barbequing while black, hanging out at the pool while black, selling lemonade while black, asking for directions while black, going door-to-door as a candidate while black, and in the worst case (a fatal one), opening the door of your apartment while black and getting shot by a cop who for some reason thinks it’s her apartment.

Nah, I don’t imagine that, if you’re an African American things seem to be getting any better, racism-wise.

Let’s hope that that, while “the arc of the moral universe is long…it bends toward justice”, and that we’ll someday start taking a more honest approach to the clear and present danger of American racism.

Martin Luther King, Jr., would have turned 90 last week. Chances are pretty good that, if he had lived, he’d be dead already. So he might well have missed some of the nastier things that have happened over the last few years. You know, since Barack Obama made America more racist.

Anyway, I’m sure that the good doctor had a pretty clear-eyed view of our country. But despite that clear-eyed view, I believe he was optimistic that little African American children would “one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Not there yet, not by a long shot. I’m guessing that there are plenty of days when MLK is a spinning in his grave.

Hope nothing happens today that makes him spin more.

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There’s some weirdness going on with the app I use to write my posts. I don’t think the hyperlink to last year’s MLK Day post embedded above works. So if you’re interested, here it is:

http://pinkslipblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/mlk-is-spinning-in-his-grave.html