On a local talk show the host is claiming that it was Obama that worsened race relations, and how "conservative" MLK was. Of course, he ignores the role bigots like him played in the situation. When Obama was elected he was part of the group that said Obama was elected due to his color, and "white guilt". When the Republicans refused to work with Obama he supported making him a "one term President". When MLK was alive he ridiculed him even as they now ridicule Black Lives Matter. When Obama spoke of anything relating to racism he mocked him. Martin Luther King spoke of the need for character, yet he honors one of the most unethical, and immoral, "men" ever elected to the office of President. And, as usual, he obviously has not a clue as to what MLK stood for yet he is willing to use him as a political pawn to further his own bigotry: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/...g-are-we-celebrating-today.html?_r=0&referer= "It is easy to forget that, until fairly recently, many white Americans loathed Dr. King. They perceived him as a rabble rouser and an agitator; some rejoiced in his assassination in April 1968. How they got from loathing to loving is less a story about growing tolerance and diminishing racism, and more about the ways that Dr. Kings legacy has been scrubbed and blunted. The Dr. King we remember today is particularly at odds with his radical turn in his last years. In 1967 he denounced the Vietnam War and warned that America was courting spiritual death. In early 1968 he planned the Poor Peoples Campaign, in which millions of impoverished Americans black, white and Latino would gather in Washington for an enormous demonstration. He called for $30 billion annually in antipoverty spending, and asked Congress to guarantee an income for each American. To many Americans, this sounded like socialist lunacy."
Washington and Lincoln were more significant, but we don't have legal holidays on their birthdays. Everything is backwards in today's Amerika.
Washington's and Lincoln's birthday were holidays for many years. They were later combined into President's Day
Let me see if I could rephrase what he said: It'd be better to have an Obama Day, than an MLK day. At the end of the day, MLK led peaceful protests. But just like with slavery, I feel like full integration would have happened eventually(slavery needed the advent of the trailer to be obsolete. And the global economy would make segregation a non-starter for a developing or world power.) In short, MLK's achievements are overstated when compared with the simple fact that it was politicians who made that achievement possible and that it would have happened anyway. Basically, I don't hold MLK to be a Harriet Tubman. Just someone of relative importance. Why isn't there a Rosa Parks day? Or <insert 1960's activist> here. Great accomplishments are undermined by bragging about them, that's what this means IMO.
Every place I've ever lived and most places I've visited have streets named after MLK, not so with Nixon, Reagan or Bush. And I've already seen roads and schools named after Obama.
Does a specific white man have a holiday? To be honest, I don't think it would ever be allowed. Christmas (if you believe Jesus was white) was changed to the Holiday Season. Easter and Good Friday were changed to Spring Break. Columbus day was protested off the calendar. Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays somehow disappeared. Did I miss any? I think there's a hint of political correctness with our holiday allocation system.
When I lived in California and Vegas the streets were quite nice, the one in El Paso not so much, but it was still representative of El Paso's communities....except El Paso is 85% Hispanic and just 3% white. Every city in California, Vegas and El Paso also had a Cesar Chavez Blvd. In California it almost seemed like a requirement for every city to name a street after those two people and possibly a school.
Is this one of those questions where people only care because a black guy has a holiday but never cared before, despite said holiday being observed since 1986? President's Day still exists, last I checked. St. Patrick's is also around, for those who think of that as such.
As usual that didn't answer the question. Tell you what go to Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, NYC, New Orleans, Dallas, etc. and tell me where MLK Blvd is and what it looks like.
What's your point? Most MLK Blvds are meant to honor Blacks and originally most blacks lived in squalor conditions. Hence wherever MLK Blvds exist, things don't look all that nice -- or at least that is probably the norm unless the area has since been gentrified.
I don't get the day off and there are no celebrations because people say he had slaves or something like that. It's still a federal holiday probably because government employees get the day off and the union would go ape if it was taken away. But some communities have renamed Columbus day. Quest to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day sails ahead http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/09/us/columbus-day-indigenous-peoples-day/ I could only imagine what would happen if they tried that with MLK day. And MLK's name is seen in so many places it's overused, people now associate it with a street or building without knowing who the man was. Never met him, and that's no more of a holiday than Valentine's Day. However, I'd venture that more people actually go out and celebrate St Patty's day than a lot of other holidays and probably have no clue as to why their doing it, it's a lot like Cinco de Mayo, just an excuse to drink. As for the holidays of individual presidents being combined all into President's Day, do you think MLK day should be renamed to honor all civil rights activists rather than just one guy? Me, I really don't care one way or the other about all this holiday stuff, and that includes Christmas, New Year's and Thanksgiving. Instead of closing shop for the day, I'd prefer if my company just gave me an equal amount of floating holidays to be taken when I felt the need to tie one on. Cheers SBB, I'd do beers with you. It would be fun.
I have to agree although not in the way you think. Obama is nothing compared to the likes of Trayvon, Brown, Grey, Shabazz, Newton, and so on.
President obama Stompy feet will be out soon, thank goodness. These faux civil rights gurus have became a cliche. - - - Updated - - - I do not know about that. I mean a thug is a thug.....
It will be nice for the nation to be focused on things other than race or climate scare crapola. Focusing on the economy for the first time in eight years, for instance, would be nice for a change.
