A lot has changed. But a hell of a lot hasn’t.
Two days after Martin Luther King Jr. said the words ‘I have a dream’, the FBI classified the great man as the most dangerous threat to national security in America. He delivered this speech August 28th, 1963. And less than a month later, the 16th street baptist church was bombed by four KKK members killing four black teenagers by the names of Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carol Denise McNair. And severely injured more than 20 others.
Now, had the FBI viewed the KKK, you know the group of people lynching, murdering and raping black people in America, as the biggest threat to national security, some could argue attacks like that could have been prevented. But that would mean actually focusing on the clear and imminent threat, and who wants to do that...right? None the less, when you look at the way Dr. King was surveilled, for simply using the power of word to activate and ignite a movement, it further reinforces a longstanding issue that has plagued American history since its beginning. The vilification of Black people who seek to shed light on injustice. An issue that is still prominent today.
And i’m sure this is around the point where you scream ‘you’re race-baiting’ and ‘that was the 60s, things have changed’. Well i’m glad you mentioned that. Because let’s journey back to just last year, where a leaked FBI report highlighted the imminent threat of ‘Black Identity Extremists’ as a national security threat. Deeming this non existent group as a ‘violent threat, asserting that black activists’ grievances about racialized police violence and inequities in the criminal justice system have spurred retaliatory violence against law enforcement officers’. In their attempts to continue their well-documented proclivity for fomenting discord in black communities, the FBI cited groups that are decades old as ‘proof’ of such a threat.
Now aside from the sheer fallaciousness of such a report, when you weigh up this terminology to the bureau’s infamous Cointelpro program of the 1960s and ’70s, under which J. Edgar Hoover set out to destroy virtually any group with the word “black” in its name, it has frightening similarities. Not to mention that while it has been proven, time and time again, that white identity extremists are the greatest threat to Americans, it is still perceived that radical black people who want to say ‘hey stop killing us’ are considered the biggest threat to America. Hell, when Jeff Sessions was asked about whether there were any white identity extremist groups under surveillance, he said, and I quote, ‘I cannot recall’.
See below.
But the similarities in treatment go beyond the way Dr. King was classified by the bureau, but furthermore by the media, and in popular culture. As James Baldwin put it so perfectly, “when a White man says give me liberty or give me a death, he is a hero; when a Black man says the exactly same thing, he is judged a criminal." Taking a journey once again back to the 60s, inspired by Dr King, Muhammad Ali, at the height of his career, said he was a "conscientious objector" and refused to be drafted into the Vietnam War. He was arrested, his title was immediately stripped, and his boxing license was revoked. In 1968, John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fists in protest, with Australian Peter Norman wearing an OPHR badge in solidarity with them, at the olympic games in Mexico. After which, both Smith and Carlos were expelled from the Games, and lambasted as agitators, traitors, and infamously Black Skinned Storm Troopers by Brent Musburger, who by the way, has never apologized for his remarks.
And now, in 2018, let me think, who else has spoken out against injustice and as a result was tarnished by the mainstream media, called a disrespectful thug and ultimately lost his job as a result of it. Oh that’s right Colin Kaepernick. The man who literally could not have embodied MLK any more in his approach if he tried. Since taking a knee to protest police brutality, he has been raked over the coals. But don’t worry, those who scorned him for this are now out here sharing MLK quotes and praising the great doctor. I swear i’m in the twilight zone.
The bottom line is, it is important to celebrate what Dr. King stood for. But not by standing by and watching those who look to mirror his image be tarnished and silenced, but by standing with them and lending your voice to the fight. Because as Martin Luther King Jr. said,
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter".