Reminder: despite white people loving to quote the line from “I Have a Dream” abt individualistic things (judging people), most of the speech was abt systemic racism, incl things that continue to harm now—police violence, housing injustice,voter suppression, insufficient change.
And reminder: Rev. Dr. King spoke about American imperialism, capitalist exploitation, and more. He understood that all systems were interconnected.
Quotes in next tweets
When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
— Rev Dr. Martin Luther King “Revolution of values,” 1967
“We’ve deluded ourselves into believing the myth that Capitalism grew from the Protestant ethic of hard work & sacrifice.Capitalism was built on the exploitation & suffering of Black slaves & continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – Black & white, here & abroad.” MLK
. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
—Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Beyond Vietnam,” 1967
“The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.”
— Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr “The three evils of society,” 1967
. “The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.”
— Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Southern Christian Leadership Conference speech, 1967
Here’s Dr. King in 1967 on the “I Have a Dream” speech: “some of the old optimism was a little superficial, & now it needs to be tempered with realism.” Also notes that the first gains—lunch counter integration, the VRA—were free. Next gains cost $$$$$$
@TheRaDR 3 names for the same thing
@TheRaDR Can argue it was this part of his message that really shook up Washington, and not so much the one about racial equality. But the two cannot exist on their own without the other.
@TheRaDR the barrier I see is that people don’t know what the alternatives to capitalism are, in day to day terms that would make sense for their lives and how it would be different. They haven’t thought about the “capital” part. Just the “marketplace”.
@TheRaDR I never understood why we didn't factor some of the defense spending into a thing that supported 'uplift' with spare peacetime capacity, but still had capacity & capability to switch to war mode when needed. Seems like we could have a 2-for-1 deal instead of having to tariff steel & computer chips, etc.
@TheRaDR This may be true but we live in a dangerous world too , would you leave your house without locking your door
@TheRaDR
I can only think or four countries this applies to and unfortunately I live in one of them
@TheRaDR Is capitalism per se bad? Or is it just the hyper capitalism that we are all currently subjected to, that is bad? Re military spending: all that money that could be going to healthcare and education! We could better our entire lives in a few generations if we did things differently, and it feels hopeless for one individual to make a change to a system that big. But then I think of Greta Thunberg, and I’m reminded that it doesn’t take a great person to make change.
@TheRaDR love that quote so much!
@TheRaDR BINGO! Can I also simplify a bit further and call it greed?
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
-John Kenneth Galbraith
Wealth and Poverty speech, 1963
@TheRaDR On the backs of Black slaves and the stolen lands of Indigenous peoples.
@TheRaDR ...but he wasn't murdered until after he opposed the war.
may i share this to my face book? i will link to the mastodon post.
@TheRaDR They're all interconnected then, as they're now.
@TheRaDR the extent the people who like to quote that phrase the most ignore that it is a “then” in an “if… then…” structure is pretty sad. Sure, what he (we) want is a world where people are judged on the basis of their character and not on the color of their skin, but that is the end result of fixing all the crap that makes judging people the other way part of the weave and weft of society.
It’s a dangerous inversion to think it flows in the other direction.
Thanks for the reminder!
In my experience as a "white people'", those who quote this line the most are the least likely to understand the context. No matter how you try to explain it.
@TheRaDR I remember that speech- I was 5 years old. My nanny who was from the south and dreadfully racist said “somebody ought to shoot” that guy, although she didn’t use the word “guy”. Being a young child, I didn’t know why she didn’t like him. Luckily, I didn’t grow up with the same beliefs. You are right- it’s totally out of context….
"Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is the writing that I found to be one of his most important messages.
@TheRaDR a good list to which I may add if I think abt it, Palestinians?