Andrew Golis

I have mixed feelings about MLK Day. On the one hand, it’s essential to the lasting power of King’s message that he’s been taken in as a kind of Founding Father. The result that what was once a radical challenge to the established order is now taught to every kindergartner as a canonical story of the power of the American Dream.

But the flip side of being a part of the American canon is that many of the more challenging ideas that don’t fit comfortably within the mainstream, have been conveniently forgotten. The result is that King has been Santa Clausified. Quotes, arguments, and ideas like the ones Jay Smooth brings us in the video above have been conveniently forgotten. I wrote a post last year on the topic that was one of the most popular in this little blog’s history. I hope you’ll check it out and celebrate this day by challenging yourself to look beyond the icon.

Update: Yglesias has a nice little pt related to this on how little we’ve remembered and embraced of King’s radical non-violence.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 8:35 am and is filed under politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.