A Question for MLK Day 2020…
MLK would be 91 had he survived to celebrate his birthday this year…
So, here’s the question:
Would either Obama or Trump, or both, have become president if MLK had not been assassinated in 1968?
MLK would be 91 had he survived to celebrate his birthday this year…
So, here’s the question:
Would either Obama or Trump, or both, have become president if MLK had not been assassinated in 1968?
01/20/2020 @ 6:16 pm
Both would be irrelevant
01/20/2020 @ 8:42 pm
Obama might well have been unnecessary and, as a result, Trump would have been impossible….
01/21/2020 @ 9:34 am
Good question.
Imma guessing that Obama would have been a MUCH better President if MLK would have been there booting him in the ass (preventing/exposing things like BO’s sell out to Wall St.) and all previous/subsequent Presidents would have worked harder on the “a rising tide raises all boats” thing by working harder towards true equality for “many” minorities, thereby eliminating the majority of the complaints/historical bigotry of Trump’s base ( The hard core racists would have remained, regardless, but their “fringe” supporters would have been greatly diminished.)
On a side point, I think if MLK was still active we would not have nearly the LGBTQ equality we currently “enjoy” and many of the more horrendous anti-woman’s rights laws would have been passed because, frankly, King was quite the anti-woman’s rights, homophobic misogynist.
01/21/2020 @ 9:57 am
BTW…
“If King were alive today, his words would threaten most of those who now sing his praises”
~ Cornel West
01/21/2020 @ 2:00 pm
Ron, he “allegedly” (because the actual FBI tapes are still sealed) laughed while watching a fellow pastor raped a woman https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-tapes-allege-mlk-watched-rape-2019-5
and told a gay kid to go see a shrink implying that he has “acquired” a bad “culturally based” habit” that he needed to “correct”. https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/01/20/martin-luther-king-jr-gay-teen-advice-ebony-magazine-civil-rights-coretta-scott/ … https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2017/01/martin-luther-king-jr-s-dream-include-lgbtq-people/
01/21/2020 @ 12:39 pm
Amy, I agree that an MLK presence would have influenced presidential behavior and policy re the civil rights and human rights of black and brown people here. It certainly would have altered the course of immigration policy and enforcement..
“King was quite the anti-woman’s rights, homophobic misogynist…”
What evidence can you produce to support this rather stark assertion…
There were valid and legitimate reasons why MLK may have opposed civil rights legislation which included language that expanded the protections to include (white) women and LGBTQ people…
There were legislators who saw the insertion of language covering women and gays into omnibus civil rights bills as a way of ‘watering down’ or blinding the thrust and impact of laws originally crafted to address the lingering affects of racism and the political, social, and economic, legacies of slavery…
In fact, one can effectively argue that the group that has benefited the most from civil rights laws and policies (Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity) which eminated from the movement led by King is white women…
01/21/2020 @ 3:01 pm
I’m surprised that you, of all people, would trust in the ‘efficacy’ and ‘integrity’ of any FBI file or report re MLK, knowing the history of the J. Edgar Hoover crusade to discredit and smear MLK and the movement…
Re the ‘advice’ to the young man:
I can live with this quote from the same article you linked:
“Though Dr King’s response may seem ill-informed by modern standards, his advice to the boy is remarkably calm and polite, given the fears and active scaremongering about gay people at the time.”
I would like to think that MLK’s approach would have evolved as time passed and the times changed.
01/25/2020 @ 12:29 am
I agree. I think he would have evolved as information evolved. At that point homosexuality was still viewed by the psychology field as pathology. He also predated the heart of the modern feminist battle. I suspect you’d find a great deal of change among a lot of civil rights figures on gay rights and more change on women’s rights.
01/21/2020 @ 3:17 pm
” Affirmative action has meant – or was supposed to mean- that, all things being equal, the weight of the decision, what ever the decision happens to be should go in favor of the qualified black applicant.” Talking To The Wall.
01/21/2020 @ 7:53 pm
Thanks Jayne..
01/21/2020 @ 9:33 pm
Thanks Jayne…
01/21/2020 @ 9:35 pm
Thanks Jayne…