012123 The Conservative Rebranding of Dr. MLK Jr.

a far cry from the actual man that lived. This guy was prolific, and you know, he's almost it's almost like he's reduced every holiday to just his I have a dream speech and a couple the choice quotes that really they've kind of put him in a category with Santa Claus right right, and that's not really fair. So we're going to take some time and really flesh out a little bit more of Doctor King what he stood for.

And we're going to do that a little later in the show by reading his letter from a Birmingham Jail, which is a really profound letter. We can't read it all, but certainly want to share some parts of it with you. And give you a little bit more depth on the

man that was Doctor King and all that he stood for. Also, we're going to take some time and point out the hypocrisy found most prominently in the GOP in this country when it comes to Doctor King's holiday, where again they take little bits and pieces of his life and kind of throw a quote up here and there for cloud, But they in no way stand for anything that Doctor King stood for. So it's up to us to point

that out and to teach what we know. But first and foremost, we're gonna start off on a high, as we do, with some ebony excellence. Q Shall we we shall? This week's any Excellence sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly Media and brought to you or this The source material rather is NPR dot Org. Shout out to NPR. I'm always gonna love those guys. Anyway, we are going to pay

particular attention to Black Panther Wakanda Forever. This is our example of ebony excellence this week because the movie not only did it do well in the box office, but it's done well critically and it actually earned twelve NAACP Image Awards nominations. With The Woman King and Abbot Elementary,

also earning top nominations. But the sequel, which is where the Marvel film delved into the concept of Wakanda's grief in the wake of the death of T'Challa, a character played by Chad with Boseman who died in twenty twenty, went on to create so much of a cultural impact and so much of a cultural moment, obviously bringing stars like Angela Bassett to the forefront as well as you know, many other people that worked on the film like behind the scenes. And then of course we can't say enough

about the director, Ryan Coopler. But the fact is is that you know, in all all the nominees have conveyed a wide range of authentic stories and diverse experiences that have resonated with many in the black community. And this comes from Derek Johnson, the President and CEO of the NAACP, and he says, we're proud to recognize their outstanding achievements and performances, but you know, leading the way, of course, Wakanda Forever Black Panther with twelve NAACP Image Awards is

just a remarkable fee and definitely have any excellence. Now hopefully they get a bunch of wins. That's what we're hoping. Now. How did you spend your m okay holiday? Q? At work? Yeah, well, I happen to know that you didn't just work, unfortunately, you did have to work. I get that, but we also had to work in this space as we do and kind of share a little bit more stories and give a little bit more insight. And I don't think we can call what we did after work work not

this time, well it was. It was kind of in the same spirit as work, but that was a little bit more fun. Admittedly, we got a chance to sit down and interview with a good friend of ours, but we definitely did fellowship in the name of doctor King and for that reason on that day. But also one of the things that we did, you know, with the time off, you know whatever, you get a chance to kind of check in with social media, you get a chance to tap in with people you haven't heard from

an while. And of course, you know, with Q and I working in this space, you know, folks think of us, you know, being in the space where we're trying to kind of create a more equitable world along racial lines, and you know, for some of our friends and people that were connected with we're top of mind, and so things get sent our way. I want to take a moment and shout out and instagram handle live Love, Sorry,

Live Love, Liberate. She's a good friend of mine and a good friend of the show, and she managed to compile a bunch of stuff that really illustrates the delusion that has found its way in recent years to right wing social media platforms, certainly right wing political platforms, and in no way represent the reality of what doctor King

stood for. And it feels a little bit insulting that they would take Doctor King's words stand on them, at least in a digital space, saying that this was a great man and these things that he said were so profound, and we're glad that the country has reached this level, and so forth and so on, and then the other three hundred and sixty four days of the year actively work against what not only what he would wrote in his letters and has given his sermons, but even in

the I have a dream speech which is in and of itself picked apart and used oftentimes out of context by these folks. And it's up to us to kind of set the record straight, you know, the hypocrisy we do. I thank you hypocrisy. We point out a lot of hypocrisy and in all you know, political arenas, but not enough can be said about the extreme hypocrisy that we find in you know, conservative circles. It's it's the strangest thing.

It's they're so it's like it's like watching crazy people, but there's so many crazy people sharing the delusion that you can't convince them that they're crazy. Right, But I will read to you exactly what made its way to us, and we'll discuss and you can see, you know, and decide for yourself if in fact this is crazy, this is a delusion. So let's start one of the things. And this was just a meme that was sent along that I thought was kind of important, uh, for us,

you know, getting into this subject matter right now. The meme was a child holding a poster and the poster says, stop using MLK as an example of a peaceful protest. You shot him too, I was heavy, right, Yeah? Right? Is this there's nothing you can do that's good enough? Right? And and we're gonna get a little bit more into that when we get into the letter from a Birmingham

ham jail for our way Black history factor. But yeah, you know, doctor King was certainly one of those people that had to push back against folks you know of the cloth, you know, ministers and pastors and preachers pushing back on him, telling him that he should not protest in a non violent way. Right. And bear in mind that his approval rating again was twenty percent when he

was alive. Twenty percent. Now everybody looks back and go doctor King, you know, but when he was alive, eighty percent of the people disapproved of him, his methods, what he stood for, his face, whatever. You know, people just didn't like him. And that's something that this country loves to forget. I don't forget that, all right. First up, Rand Paul. Okay, so Rand Paul is, you know, again a conservative politician. Rand Paul quoting doctor King on anything

is laughable. Isn't that crazy? So here's a a It looks like a tweet from Rand Paul. It says, as we honor MLK today, may his courage inspire us to redouble our commitment to working together for change. Let's commemorate the life of doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. By uniting the two Americas into one. In America that includes just dot dot dot. Okay, so this is, you know, the tweet as you get the idea, to get the gist

of it. And then in the screencap that was sent to me, there's an article and the headline says how Ran Paul blocked the Immit till Anti lynching bill while the nation more on George Floyd. So this man talking about commemorating the life of doctor King, uniting the two Americas and so forth and so on. It feels like, you know, what it takes to unite the two Americas is to recognize that the two Americas have different views,

have different concerns, and different realities. Right, this is something that I'm sure every politician can understand. But when you fail to account for one of those facets, one of those elements, halps, it seems less like I want to work together and more like I want to seize more power and subject you to my reality. Who in the world and I need you to be okay with that? Right? Thank you? Who in the world would block the Immit till Anti lynching bill while the nation was mourning George Floyd?

I mean, we don't even need the second part. Who would block an anti lynching bill period. And see it's it's these things that feel so hurtful, and it's like everybody's just ignores this and keeps voting for these guys. And that's I don't go ahead. I think you are providing too much grace.

quote a person like that? Why even celebrate doctor King's Day? And it feels like they want to get some of that Doctor King clout. Now that they've whitewashed the legacy, they want to cash in on it. Right, So I think that what you're saying is absolutely right, just adding a couple of layers are a little bit more seasoning to it. But yeah, man, this is this is the strangest thing. I've never seen anything like it. All right,

let's go on, Ron DeSantis, there's another name. He's the guy from is that governor indeed Florida Governor rond de Santis.

So suffice it to say, he just you know, copied a you know, a meme or screen, you know, a photo of doctor King standing next to a cutout of his I have a dream speech right, the text right, and then above the photo he put happy MLK Day with an exclamation point, and that, you know, the cutout is the you know, I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and every mountain, shell,

et cetera. Blah blah blah. Right, And the person that grabbed this entire scream, grab and send it over to me, responded to Ronda Santis, saying, pretty close to that horrible crt, like that that's that's Black history right there. You sure

that's what you want to do. And for those that don't know, this guy, Rondasantis has been perhaps the biggest and most vocal opponent of CRT or in fact, American history, teaching American history in schools right based off of nothing, based off of some imaginary boogeyman, kids are going to be sad and not you know, love the country and feel bad about themselves or whatever, which in my estimation

is complete and utter nonsense. It feels very unfair, and it feels like another whitewashing of history, and it's dangerous. But it's particularly hurtful when this person, who does not want us as a country to look back, certainly doesn't want our children to look back, will readily pool from black history when it keeps him slightly i mean, in terms of the optics, looking slightly less racist than he absolutely is, absolutely is right. And again, these are things

that you need to know. Not everybody that you know quotes the Bible, is you know, going to heaven? You know, I'm sure there's some sort of even a believer. Sure there's some sort of anecdote that I've heard growing up. I come from a Christian tradition in my house, and so there are these little things that we passed around back and forth. But you know, the same seems to be true here with the in the political arena with

respect to doctor King. Here's a funny one. The actual at GOP social media handle, which is I'm assuming the handle for the entirety of the political party known as Republicans in this country. They're just they just put a

post that says happy Martin Luther King Day. And this is just sort of funny because the person also responded with a clip clippy the clip art and it says, hi, it looks like you're quoting doctor Martin Luther King Junior to try to hide the fact that you give comfort to racist Would you like some help logging out forever? That's awesome? Yeah, man, it's crazy, but you know that one doesn't have as much you know, teeth in it in it from a journalistic standpoint, but it's just sort

of something that's a little bit funny. Let's go to

Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz has has a post that and we know we realized this was from last weekend, but we had to talk about this because if we don't point out this these hypocrisies, then you may associate these backwards political leaders on the right with an actual American hero who probably would be more left than everybody that even I know, and I'm way over there on the left man, But you know, Ted Cruz, he put a post that says, today we honor the life and legacy

of doctor Martin Luther King Junior. Pretty standard. And then there's like a photo of doctor King, you know, everything like that. And then there's a picture of him interrogating or interviewing whatever you want to call it, Judge Katanji Brown Jackson, and he's holding up the children's book. You remember that scene on the floor of the children's book was like basically an educational book for children about race and so forth. And so again, doctor King was certainly

about educating, certainly about together in his fellowship. So forth, we need to understand each other, we need to support each other, help each other. And then Ted Cruz, almost everything that he's done in this space has been If doctor King were still alive, Ted Cruz would, based on his track record, would stand in opposition to almost everything Doctor King stood everything, And so again, just pulling a

little bit of political. They reworked the image of Doctor King because he wasn't Malcolm X. It reworked him, made him a little bit more, you know, a friendly like you said, made him into basically Santa Claus, and then took him for themselves. And it feels like, wait, you know, and we've seen this happen with music we're rock and roll with, you know, We've seen it happen time and again with all bits and of our culture. It's taken from us, it's whitewashed and repackaged, you know, for a

white audience. But to see this happen with Doctor King, someone who in many ways is a moral guidepost for not just black people, but for this entire country, to have his legacy and his story be co opted, his words be co opted and used in these circles where the source of the hatred that we're dealing with, the source of the conflicts. I mean, we can't figure this gun stuff out. We can't figure none of this stuff out.

And often enough, it's those people on that side of the aisle that are standing in the way, and as you mentioned, very intentionally out loud, not hiding it. They wide open and then all of a sudden, Doctor King's Holiday comes around and everybody's like, oh yeah, Kumbaya, and then the day after they get right back to it. All right, let me let me continue. Here's another name, you know. Mitch McConnell, uh says, today we honor an

American hero, the Reverend doctor Martin Luther King Junior. His dream of equal justice and the abundant opportunity inspired our nation to make historic progress and continue to make us

better to this day. And this quote was superimposed this quote that he This tweet rather for Mitch McConnell is packaged, as it was sent to me, was packaged with a photo of Mitch McConnell receiving an award standing in front of a gigantic Confederate flag, and he's old as dirt, so these basically the same age as he is now. So clearly this person wants the image of Doctor King.

But Doctor King was really about, you know, togetherness, and Mitch McConnell just uses words, but you know, standing in front of that flag, you'd be hard and pressed to make a case that that's what you're really on.

of that, and more selflessly for us probably than anyone. Ever, how about that, like his his his rap sheet with regards to the causes that helped us, long and impenetrable, that that part of his legacy cannot be tarnished or questioned for real willing to sacrifice at all as he ultimately did for all of us and not just skinfolk.

done for the past couple of years. And you know, once he turned that corner, you know, once it wasn't about hey, can we use the same bathroom or drink from the same water fountain or sit at the same lunch counter. Once it was like once it was like, hey, you're coming after you know, our war, coming after you know, our money, or you know, creating cohesion between poor people and poor whites and poor blacks. You know, then it became okay, well, this is this guy has got too

much power. Once his approval ratings started to tick upward because he's now reaching into new communities and identifying commonalities, then it becomes more problematic. So you know, this list goes on Lauren Bobert and whoever else the rest of these people are more of the same. The details, but I do want to leave you with this. Here's a

tweet from Bernice King, which is doctor King's daughter. She says, if you're going to quote and authentically honor my father on MLK Day, commit to embracing a world house perspective, determine how you'll disrupt unjust systems and thinking with non violent strategy, which that was doctor King. That was what he was about, nonviolence, and that's what they took. They preferred him to Stokelye and to you know, uh uh

Malcolm Malcolm and James Baldwin everyone else. Doctor King was a minister and you know, anyway, I'll continue support policies that reflect higher consciousness and make no excuses for hate. So this comes directly from his daughter. This is what you need to do on doctor King's birthday, and unfortunately we have not seen that from our conservative branch.