You Don’t Have the Right to Talk About Martin Luther King, Jr.

One day of “Memory” is not Good Enough

Protesting school integration in Montgomery, Ala., in 1963 | Photo Credit | Getty Images

It’s mid-January, our thoughts segueing their way to February and African-American History Month, formerly Black History Month, formerly Negro History Week. Libraries, bookstores, and businesses are unpacking their “African-American Interest” paraphernalia. Schoolchildren memorize segments of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, often the only words of King they will ever hear or see. Politicians will Zoom to black churches and sway to fervent gospel choirs. Automakers will somehow conflate a car’s easy handling with the smooth path of current civil rights.

Among our stores of sighs, African-Americans are retrieving that special sigh we reserve for this time of year when white people preach the efficacy of peaceful protest and the magic of passive resistance; only for “us” though, and congratulate themselves for saying nice things about dead black people who would still be alive were it not for white murderers.

The King Holiday Weekend is approaching. It’s not “Martin Luther King Day,” it’s Martin Luther King’s Birthday, and it’s high season for lip service for peace in the face of violence. It is the season to…