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2006-01-15 Home Front: Politix

Poll: Most Americans See Significant Racial Progress

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Posted by lotp 2006-01-15 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 MLK was a lying, swearing, plagiarizing womanizer who deserves a national holiday named after him just about as much as J. Edgar Hoover deserves a Federal building named after him. Both of them were frauds who will cause future generations of Americans to wonder what the hell this generation of Americans was thinking when we lionized such worthless bastards. We won't be on the track to REAL racial equality until BLACKS lead the charge to end the big lie and dump all the honors given to MLK in favor of awarding them to some other, truly deserving black person.

Posted by mac 2006-01-15 00:59|| 2006-01-15 00:59|| Front Page Top

#2 I gotta disagree, Mac. So the man couldn't keep it in his pants... that doesn't invalidate King's courage, leadership and vision. He had enough sense not to bay for blood in the streets, and enough pride to refrain from demanding reparations for slavery. America needs leaders like him, despite regrettable personal flaws.

My favorite quote from the article: Three-quarters of those surveyed say there has been significant progress on achieving King's dream. But only 66 percent of blacks felt that way. "Only" two-thirds. Heh.

Posted by Rory B. Bellows 2006-01-15 02:35|| 2006-01-15 02:35|| Front Page Top

#3 I agree with Rory. If not for Mr. King's non-violent demonstrations we would not be where we are today. Is it perfect? of course not but having been born and grown up in and around Selma, Alabama, I can tell you if the Civil Rights Movement had been hijacked by anyone advocating violence as a way to achieve equality there would have been a bloodbath. Would those non-violent tactics have worked 10 or 15 years earlier? I doubht it. The advent of NAtionally televised news let the entire Nation sit in on what was happening and, in my opinion, guarenteed the success of Mr. King's movement. That he was murdered and the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton took over was, again in my opinion, a tragedy. It set the Civil Rights Movement back decades and paved the way for Affirmative Action and PCism.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2006-01-15 09:01|| 2006-01-15 09:01|| Front Page Top

#4 Agreed about Hoover, and people are now talking about renaming the FBI building. King did make a substantial contribution the the US and the World, regardless of possessing human failings as do we all. Nobody is talking about changing his holiday.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-01-15 09:09|| 2006-01-15 09:09|| Front Page Top

#5 When self appointed 'leaders' of the black community demand(!) that Washington and Jefferson's names be struck from schools and streets cause in their day they had slaves [like the rest of their contemporary world], the rationalization of MLK's sexism doesn't wash. If we accept people for who they were in the times they lived, yes, by all means let us celebrate and recognize each achievement and contribution. However, if that same community demands perfection by modern standards of others, then their heros too must meet the same standards they themselves demand.

Posted by Slurt Hupeart2484 2006-01-15 09:24|| 2006-01-15 09:24|| Front Page Top

#6 Nobody is suggesting an al-Sharpton Day.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-01-15 09:26|| 2006-01-15 09:26|| Front Page Top

#7 I have a Scheme!

/al Sharptom

Posted by 6 2006-01-15 10:07|| 2006-01-15 10:07|| Front Page Top

#8 ROTFLMAO 6.

Posted by lotp 2006-01-15 11:15|| 2006-01-15 11:15|| Front Page Top

#9 #6, lol.

I gotta disagree with you mac. MLK, despite his human failings, left a great legacy. He'd be dismayed by the race hustling that goes on today.

Posted by 2b 2006-01-15 11:22|| 2006-01-15 11:22|| Front Page Top

#10 I'm old enough to remember walking into a beer joint in Louisville with some other guys from Fort Knox - in uniform - and walking out again when the bartender told us he couldn't serve the colored guy.

There was real, live racial injustice in the country that most of us started working really hard to get rid of in the late fifties and early sixties. I class the people who deny the progress with the people who were obstructing it back then.

I wasn't particularly fond of MLK when he was alive, but most people could accept the idea of one man (or woman) being as good as another. The idea was more important than the man. Since he died the man has been conflated with the idea. It's still a good one, even though it brings with it undesirable side effects, starting with the Revs. Jesse and Al.

Posted by Fred 2006-01-15 12:43|| 2006-01-15 12:43|| Front Page Top

#11 What MLK did above all was use television to show racism in its ugliest light and non-violence to show blacks in the best. The nation was ready to listen after WWII and he seized the moment. But plenty of ground work was laid by the A. Philip Randolphs and Rosa Parks before he hit the scene. Perhaps no Washington, but he did bring back in us the better angels of our nature.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-01-15 13:04|| 2006-01-15 13:04|| Front Page Top

#12 Well damn said Nimble.
Please to note that I was one of the first on RB to laugh at the theory than Spemble = Snopes.

Posted by 6 2006-01-15 14:43|| 2006-01-15 14:43|| Front Page Top

#13 That's what I ment when I said Mr. King used National Television to further his cause. Most people are decent people and when National TV (use of sattelites) made it possible to get information virtually as it happened more and more people were made aware of the inequities of race. The video of the violence on the first Selma to Montgomery March and the use of fire hoses and police dogs against peaceful demonstrators brought the violence right into everyone's living room. We decided this was not what America was supposed to be about. Liberty and Justice for All.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2006-01-15 15:24|| 2006-01-15 15:24|| Front Page Top

#14 Nope, you haven't convinced me. I always figured that anyone who purported to be a man of God and took pay for the job ought to be providing an example of probity and honor. Somehow repeatedly cheating on your wife, plagiarizing not only your dissertation but the thing you're most remembered for (the dream speech), and being a race hater yourself (the FBI tapes show this) doesn't quite seem to meet the requirements for the position. The REVEREND MLK broke every principle he ever espoused. He was a sleazy, lying media whore and the only thing that has people remembering him is the MSM's continuing admiration; same thing goes for Jack Kennedy. Assassination bought them both 50 years of fame but their actual accomplishments were damned small. Both of them were guys who wanted the power and perks that came with popular adulation but at bottom didn't have a principle to their names and wouldn't know one if it came up and bit them.

As for King's advocating nonviolence, give him what little credit is due for recognizing the alternative had absolutely no chance of success. Black revolutionaries in this country don't do well; they end up dead in a hurry. Ask anyone who knows the story of the Black Panthers in Oakland. If blacks had started a violent uprising in 1960's America anywhere but in their own communities they'd have been shot down in the street like dogs to the point of extermination. As it was there were plenty of whites who cheered them on as blacks burned their own neighborhoods and killed each other.

Most whites still don't give a damn about blacks because they've been conditioned by experience to expect no better from them. This has much to do with the people who, like King, have supposedly represented the black community. They've been lying, deluded, self-aggrandizing clowns as bad or worse than King was. You want to sing praises to honorable and decent black men who have done something admirable with their lives and stand as an example to all, not just their race? Start with Ralph Bunche and Thomas Sowell. Continue on with Shelby Steele and Ron McNair. Those are true black heroes and there are plenty of them out there. King just isn't one of them and continuing to praise a guy who just doesn't deserve it is doing nothing but perpetuating a a truly pernicious lie.

What's more, what happens when the black kid who has been raised his whole life on what a great example MLK was actually comes to find out the truth? Does he say to himself, "Gee, the REVEREND MLK whored and lied and cheated but everybody still says he's a hero. Why can't I do that and succeed? He did." Is that really a good thing to pass on--that blacks can't be held to the same moral standards as everyone else because they just can't measure up? Or do we just call that moral affirmative action? Other places (like DU) might but here on the 'Burg I don't think so. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, no matter what the color of the bird. If the REVEREND MLK's failings would have precluded his being honored if he was white, he doesn't get a pass just because he's black.

Posted by mac 2006-01-15 15:25|| 2006-01-15 15:25|| Front Page Top

#15 "If the REVEREND MLK's failings would have precluded his being honored if he was white"

Three words for you, #14 mac: J. F. K.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2006-01-15 16:26|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/page/15bk1/Home_Page.html]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/page/15bk1/Home_Page.html] 2006-01-15 16:26|| Front Page Top

#16 Bingo, Barbara.

I've worked for several Black men over the years - two business entrepreneurs and an Army full colonel with a PhD in engineering. All 3 got some help from the initial stages of affirmative action, when the country as a whole woke up to how bad things were in some places for Blacks.

All 3 used that to move forward, and to contribute to society as a whole and to their communities in particular. And none likes what affirmative action has become. All give a lot of their time and effort to serve as positive role models for Blacks, especially young Black boys and young men. And 2 of the 3 rank among the best bosses I've ever had.

All 3 would and do honor MLK for his non-violent leadership. I do too.

Posted by lotp 2006-01-15 17:39|| 2006-01-15 17:39|| Front Page Top

#17 Hey, Barbara

Go back and reread my post. I mentioned JFK as being in the same boat with the Rev.

Posted by mac 2006-01-15 20:50|| 2006-01-15 20:50|| Front Page Top

#18 mac - Thomas Jefferson and all of the others who are responsible for our freedoms had slaves. So are they off your list too?

Posted by 2b 2006-01-15 23:34|| 2006-01-15 23:34|| Front Page Top

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