[Lace Watkins]

https://laceonrace.com/2022/01/16/the-selling-of-martin-luther-king-jr/

The Selling of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Discussion

[Rebecca McClinton]

Repackaging, repurposing, reusing is exactly what whyte culture does to give a nod to incredible sacrificial work like that of Martin Luther King Jr and so many others without true systemic or internal change. It’s like the land acknowledgments, or other memorial celebrations, gravely remembering for a day, an hour, then returning to the normal whyte supremacy soup and serving up a large bowl. I’ve done it. Still do it. Somedays it looks like scrolling and rolling, or not being willing to sacrifice a comfort or pleasure. Somedays it’s saying I’m too tired or coddling and catering to my wounded spaces more than I should. Sometimes it’s cutting myself off or disappearing, or only listening superficially instead of with my whole being. But they all serve self, not the N Star we talk about here. They serve to protect my own comfort, not lesson the vulnerability of another.

[Kelsi Watters]

Empty acknowledgements. Any excuse to get a holiday, and taking advantage of and using the pain of Black and brown people. Profiting off the lives, pain, trauma, struggle, and sacrifice of Black and brown people. Patting ourselves on the back, giving ourselves our cookies, distorting, appropriating, and miscontextualizing the words of not onlydr. Martin Luther King Jr. but other Black men and women as well. That is the epitome of white supremacy. And I see myfin it. I have taken quotes from MLK or black liberation theology and used them out of context. I have sometimes catered too much to my own comfort or fatigue or how I feel. I wonder what it would look like if MLK Day became a day of recommitment to values of equity and justice, rather than just another holiday.

[Rebecca McClinton]

Yes, in the way ‘holiday’ all too easily gives a free pass, doesn’t it. And in our overworked culture we’re quick to feel (well I am anyway) that there aren’t enough of those and jump to scarcity, and then trail off from there into unhelpful places. It would be cool if they had a ‘trade places’ event where a Black or Brown person could get the day off the white person work it in their stead, which makes me think of our emotional/wellness fund here that is designed to do just that. 🙂

[Grace Bannerman]

Great point about the compartmentalization of honouring with a holiday or those other behaviours instead of frequent, committed work and walking on days when reflection and action are not made easy with a holiday from work.

[Jessie Lee]

I’m reflecting today on the purpose of false narratives, the spinning of words to mean something entirely different than how they were intended, and the deliberate siphoning of information and realities that force white people to face how we use our whiteness and who we trample and kill as we do it.

I’ve been reading today about the assassination of MLK and how the King family and many others did/do not believe that the man convicted actually committed the crime, but rather that he was framed as part of a larger government conspiracy to silence Dr. King and his radical ideas. There was a time in recent memory that I would balk at the idea of a conspiracy because I had a certain level of trust in my government. I trusted in the FBI and law enforcement to protect. I’ve since learned what they were really protecting, and continue to protect, was/is white supremacy.

I’ve become aware of how disinformation is a tactic and the withholding of truth is used to manipulate white people into protecting the status quo. As Lace points out, MLK Day has been twisted to essentially make white people feel good about ourselves even and especially as we are actively upholding white supremacy. Omitting from, adding to, and changing Dr. King’s story allow us to appear, to ourselves and other white people, as “good and benevolent white people.” It is strategic. It allows us to shield ourselves from the choice point of deciding who we are going to be, how we are going to change it at all, after learning the brutal truth of our own complicity.

After facing that choice point in a real way for the first time, I continue to be confronted with a new one every day. I’m thinking that one of the best ways for me to honor Dr. King is to face those choice points courageously, and to choose to be someone who would have stood with him during his time, eye to eye and shoulder to shoulder.

[Rebecca McClinton]

Your post makes me think of the values white individualism…as long as it’s an individual we keep blaming (externalized outside of ourselves) we’ll never be able to find true systemic accountability, nor will I be able to find true change inside myself.

[Laura Berwick]

As a member of the dominant caste, I’m at luxurious liberty to dabble in, taste, try on, ALLLL the ideologies, take my credit for letting them reside against my skin, and move on, without inculcating a thing. Perception of me takes on a reality that benefits me to a bonus extent, beyond the benefit I already have from my actual skin.

This is an always timely reminder to, yes, look at the actions of corporations, not the ads. To not give them the credit of a cover they might don for a day when their bones are antithetical to the image.

It’s also a reminder to me of what “marrow deep” means. That before I take on any of the visible trappings of commitment to racial equity, I investigate my true commitment. And if I’m taking on visible trappings, I need to interrogate why.

Am I joining a march to be seen to do so, or because I believe in the goals? How else will I support those goals? Do I say I’m a member of Lace on Race to earn me RE points with my peers, or to make others aware of what we do, and to encourage and support them in what they’re doing. Am I saying “believe Black women” on one hand, but asking them in real life, “but do you REALLY?” Am I putting my money and vote where my mouth is?

Currently, I’m satisfied with my self interrogation. Not a rest on laurels sort of satisfied. A recognition that I’m active and not passive in my commitments, AND my interrogations. Are there areas for improvement, absolutely. So I’ll keep working and walking.

[Catherine Seaver]

I really appreciate your interogation here Laura about where things are marrow deep versus where you’re letting ideologies reside against your skin (those words are resonating with me). And knowing that even though your own commitments and interrogations are active that there will always be more I’m needing to work on. I like the balance you have here of recognizing the work you’re doing and the reality of this lifelong journey.

I’m currently feeling humbled by the weight and scope of the work ahead – in the pta and in my work as a facilitator (I just got a new job co-facilitatin a 3 month program called Leadership For Racial Equity) – and feeling some familiar desires to hide and disappear for a while. As I’ve learned here, I need to balance the need for rest/managing my slosh and the requirement to keep walking at all deliberate speed. I’m reminded of Dr. King’s words that I don’t need to see the whole staircase, just take the next step. I’m also thinking about how I’ve learned here that my own mind/worries/concerns (so tied to white supremacy culture) will get in the way of me actually doing the next step, and to put those aside and simply take action. Breathe, drink water, repeat.

[Emily Holzknecht]

I am back to thinking about all the quoting of bell hooks after her death and my own reflections on exploiting the words of others as a means of avoiding doing the work myself, an exploitation of labor, which I need to find time to write an essay on. Last month I saw more people quoting bell hooks than I saw references to MLK yesterday. Two different kinds of harm: the exploitation and erasure though not that different as the exploitation is itself a type of erasure. We are individually responsible for both exploitation and erasure. And I am also thinking about how the one day off doesn’t make up for the ways in which our capitalist society also contributes to erasure by working to exploit the people to the point of exhaustion where one day off might give a little towards keeping the workers going for the coming months but doesn’t ease the exhaustion enough to easily carve energy and time out to truly getting to know MLK or bell hooks so that they can be honored rather than exploited or erased. Even so, it is up to me to carve out that energy and time anyway despite all that is against me doing so. The system doesn’t want to be overthrown so of course it will not make it easy for me to hear and process the words that will help to overthrow it. I have to hear and process the words anyway.

[Grace Bannerman]

Thanks for highlighting the exploitation aspect of quoting and the need to interrogate why I’m quoting someone and whether I’m avoiding learning/doing my own personal reflection/making commitments by using others’ words.

[Shara Cody]

This reminds me of “it’s not what we say but what we do that matters” where branding is so often just something we say for marketing purposes and taken at surface value. But it’s much more violent than simply not doing what we say because it’s an exploitation of Dr. King’s work for profit and benefit of white people and often used to justify things that harm Black people. It’s not just “fake” branding, it’s malicious manipulation using someone’s words against them. I’m locating myself in this by wanting to brand myself as doing the work by being part of LoR. That’s giving myself a cookie for each small participation and letting myself relax or am I using it to fuel me doing more online and IRL to lessen and mitigate harm to Black and brown people perpetuated by me, other white people, and white supremacy. I’ll continue to examine what I’m actually doing and not just saying against the North Star.

[Grace Bannerman]

• The main way I personalize this is that I have quoted Dr. King out of context, without knowing the full picture of his beliefs and work. Not taking the time to consider context is not a good thing to do in general, since if I take people out of the context of their lives and times, I might show support for someone whose full life and legacy, or elements of their life and legacy I don’t support.

• In this case, I also didn’t think of the context of myself as white, and being one of many white people and corporations using Dr King’s words and legacy for their own ends, whether those are commercial or social clout. (If it’s quietly and personally meaningful, that needs to be examined like everything, but the externally performative element of using the words is removed).

• As Lace’s piece points out, doing the work to advance the views is the necessary corollary to quoting the words, and may be better than taking and using the words at all in cases like mine. Takeaway actions for me are to learn more about Dr. King in general; to do a little research before I quote anybody, but especially Black civil rights leaders; and to specifically consider why I am quoting anyone and my racial and other social positioning in relation to the people I quote, and people related or implicated socially or directly to the quoted people, particularly if they are in marginalized groups – basically, coming back to needing greater self-awareness and consideration of how my words and actions will land.

[Rhonda Freeman]

Grace I appreciated the way you bulleted your response here. I have been thinking a lot about how I ‘use’ the words, the ideas, the work of those I admire. I know I try to quote them, to give credit and I know it is a work in progress. It is also interesting work. I hope yours is going well.

[Author]

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