Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Like clockwork and without fail, as surely sunset follows sunrise, each Martin Luther King Day features mass misappropriation from disingenuous or ignorant white folks.
They cherry-pick his message to find the most palatable, most nonthreatening quotes and post them on social media like Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Still, who was kicked off the Tulsa Race Massacre Commission in 2021 for signing a bill that outlawed teaching critical race theory in public schools.
“Dr. King’s dream was the American Dream — we’re one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all,” Stitt tweeted Monday. “He knew that greatness was determined by the content of our character and merit, not skin color or background. MLK’s legacy is forever engraved in history.”
Makes me wanna holler and throw up.
Stitt reverences a dream that his ilk fights against becoming reality, a common theme when MLK Day rolls around. But ESPN broadcaster Pat McAfee offered a new twist on the old saw, using a euphemism for the N-word to suggest we’re nearly free at last.
“Obviously it’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day,” McAfee said Monday on his eponymous show. “He had a dream. And I think LANK was one of the closest we’ve had to potentially that dream coming to fruition. So let’s realize that as we look around and that we’re maybe more close than we’ve ever been.”
What the hell is he talking about?
We don’t need a Pew report to know “America is exceptional in the nature of its political divide.” We’ve got 400 years of evidence, with too many states like Oklahoma trying to run it back and rewind the clock. Roughly half the nation’s voters favor an orangy grifter who admittedly wants to flush democratic ideals and place racism on a pedestal.
I suspect McAfee’s obtuseness results largely from his eight…
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