Savant on Dr. King

I KNOW that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was too PROGRESSIVE for most whites and many Blacks. A foe of both capitalism and Soviet Communism, a foe of colonialism and militarism, and--obviously--a foe of racism. King's moderation, if we choose to call it such, rests mainly in his commitment to nonviolence. But why can't one be a NONVIOLENT REVOLUTIONARY? Why can't there be a REVOLUTIONARY NONVIOLENCE? Dr. King, an adherent of the democratic and Christian LEFT, a humanist with an international perspective---was a REVOLUTIONARY whom MOST whites and many Blacks (including some blacks who think they're "conscious " and revolutionary) would feel quite uncomfortable TODAY


And the fact that Paul is CONTINUOUSLY spewing racial insults in AA Forum proves the dishonesty of his very comment here. It reveals his hypocrisy. But I wonder if Paul is familiar with King's advocacy of compensatory justice in the book WHY WE CAN'T WAIT? Sounds kind of like Affirmative Action. Or what about his proposed ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS with social democratic demands that he was intent on presenting to Congress had he lived to lead the Poor Peoples Campaign? Or his opposition to militarism, economic exploitation (which he saw as interlinked with racism) and materialism? As I mentioned before Dr. King was a REVOLUTIONARY; a NONVIOLENT revolutionary, but a revolutionary just the same.


We know now that he was a democratic socialist. I got access to his papers while researching my own book on King. His proposed ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS for the Poor Peoples Campaign (not to mention the actions he intended to take to pressure the government) was awesomely progressive. Had he lived and the Poor Peoples Campaign succeeded, we'd be in a different and better place than we are today. There would be no Donald Trump. And given the improved education and HEIGHTENED consciousness of the American people even most liberals would be seen as too conservative to win an election. The USA might well be more progressive than Scandinavia. And with a wealthy country like the USA--in which slums, poverty, illiteracy no longer existed--committed to a global war on poverty, this entire planet would be a different place. Apartheid eradicated before the end of the 1970s. Militarism and imperialism vanguished. Arabs and Jews living in peace. World hunger abolished. No ISIS abroad, no white supremacist terrorists here. It COULD happened. It still CAN But we must fight for it. As one refrain I recall in a demonstration during my Vandy student days: "Dr. King, just like him! Dare to Struggle! Dare to WIN!"
-Dr. King

 
Now Miscreant White's post here (though nonsensical) is an example of the obtuseness to which so many whites are reduced by their racism. He thinks that the Affordable Care Act provided health care for Blacks at the expense of whites...which is what his white corporate overlords want him to believe. Racism, you see, blocks progressive reforms and legislation that can benefit EVERYONE for fear Blacks folks might be getting something out of it. Does Miscreant White (among others) have such an exaggerated sense of white privilege and superiority that they believe that sickness and injusry cannot happen to them, only to Blacks? The the tens of millions of poor whites in America is larger than the entire Black population? How many of them can afford health care out of their pocket? How many professional middle class people can afford medical care. Now I'm in academia, but fortunately as a tenured professor. I have health care that comes with the job. But nowadays most faculty are CONTRACTUAL, not regular tenured or tenure track. Not only have they no job security but prior to Obamacare they had no health care either. (American universities in the past 20 years have been operating like corporations to expand profits). I have contractual faculty colleagues--white, black, Asian & Latin--who would have NO health care if Obama care was gutted. If Miscreant White had his way a white colleague of mine, a scholar in religion who's married with three kids would lose his health care. I'm sure he and his family would be pleased to know that you racists and reactionaries would happily rob him and his family of health care for fear Blacks might get it. And here's the deal: If Trump does gut Obama care completely, and the very blue state of Maryland doesn't succeed (as it is trying) to replace it, my white colleagues will lose their benefits--as will my Black and Latin colleagues. But I will still have my benefits.




 -Savant