I remember the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., of course. I was a senior in high school when it happened. A senior in a small (some 25,000) but very wealthy oil town in south Arkansas, in a deep-South part of the state near the Louisiana border…. My father was a Louisianan whose parents moved to south Arkansas during the oil boom to find good-paying jobs.

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/1

And what's happening in our country today suggests that, rather than intending to face and atone for that history, we intend to bear down on that ideology and that belief system.

No matter how strongly and clearly Dr. King warned us of the misery we bring on ourselves and everyone else by behaving this way….

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/8

And what's happening in our country today suggests that, rather than intending to face and atone for that history, we intend to bear down on that ideology and that belief system.

No matter how strongly and clearly Dr. King warned us of the misery we bring on ourselves and everyone else by behaving this way….

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/8

And when and how will this end? The needless targeting of people due to their complexion, their nationality, their ethnicity, their gender, their sexual identities, their social class?

It won't end until we white Americans face — at long last — our deep centuries-long enmeshment in an ideology and constructed system of white supremacy propped up by white Christian nationalism.

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/7

Just smug, and in many cases jubilant, silence. That classmate and I were among a handful of students who openly expressed our shock and sorrow at Dr. King's murder.

This was the world in which I came of age. Bloodshed piled on bloodshed.

And now all over again, Minneapolis, and prior to that Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Orleans….

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/6

A few years ago, a high school classmate of mine — he and I competed through high school for the top two academic spots in our class — passed through Little Rock and asked if we could meet for lunch. When we did so, he reminded me that the day after Dr. King's murder, almost no one in our high school had anything to say about this historic event — no shock, no sorrow, no outrage.

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/5

The two white teens who were charged for the killing were exonerated by a jury of all white men. The whole town knew the three white teens were guilty. They bragged openly about what they had done.

This was the world in which I came of age.

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/4

Bloodshed piled on bloodshed.

A few months before Dr. King was murdered, two of my high school classmates, white teens, were charged with shooting and killing in cold blood a Black teen in our hometown. He was shot from their car as he walked on a road near his house. It was well known that a third white boy in my class was also in the car, but he was the son of an influential doctor and not charged.

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/3

I remember the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., of course. I was a senior in high school when it happened. A senior in a small (some 25,000) but very wealthy oil town in south Arkansas, in a deep-South part of the state near the Louisiana border…. My father was a Louisianan whose parents moved to south Arkansas during the oil boom to find good-paying jobs.

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/1

"If you want to be terrified for America’s future, look at what Trump’s Homeland security thugs are doing in Minnesota.

But if you want to be inspired for America’s future, look at how ordinary Minnesotans refuse to be terrorized.

Minnesota, right now, is where Americans are bravely, resolutely, and boisterously living out King’s words in 'Letter From Birmingham Jail.'"

~ Marty Kelley

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #Trump #Minnesota #ICE #MaskedThugs #immigrants
/18

https://www.wonkette.com/p/its-martin-luther-king-day-which

"If you want to be terrified for America’s future, look at what Trump’s Homeland security thugs are doing in Minnesota.

But if you want to be inspired for America’s future, look at how ordinary Minnesotans refuse to be terrorized.

Minnesota, right now, is where Americans are bravely, resolutely, and boisterously living out King’s words in 'Letter From Birmingham Jail.'"

~ Marty Kelley

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #Trump #Minnesota #ICE #MaskedThugs #immigrants
/18

https://www.wonkette.com/p/its-martin-luther-king-day-which

"Celebrate a King, not a Trump."

~ William Kristol

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #Trump
/17

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/celebrate-a-king-not-a-trump-mlk-jr-day-norway-denmark-greenland-nobel

"Most Americans seem willing to watch and wait, if they are watching at all."

~ Steven Beschloss

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #Trump #Minnesota #ICE #MaskedThugs #immigrants
/16

https://www.americaamerica.news/p/the-fight-of-our-lives

"Against the backdrop of these conversations, at the end of days spent watching videos of masked ICE agents assaulting citizens for the crime of walking in the wrong neighborhood, having the wrong accent, or espousing the wrong political beliefs, it’s hard not to see the obvious parallels."

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #Trump #Minnesota #ICE #MaskedThugs #immigrants
/15

Dan Pfeiffer notes that he's been having conversations with his young son Jack about what's happening in Minnesota, and he's glad Jack is too young to ask follow-up questions:

"When you have these conversations with young kids, you want to reassure them that this kind of oppression is in the past and that we live in a better, more enlightened time."

#MLK #MartinLutherKing #Trump #Minnesota #ICE #MaskedThugs #immigrants
/14

https://www.messageboxnews.com/p/mlk-minnesota-and-the-battle-to-define

"Here we are again. An overtly White nationalist Trump regime has ginned up fear of 'the Great Replacement,' 'wokeism,' immigrant violence, and anti-white discrimination (not to mention fear of changing your child’s gender and of women taking men’s jobs). High prices? No healthcare? Never mind. The regime is keeping you safe from these threats to white male dominance.

History may not repeat, but it does rhyme."

~ Jennifer Rubin

#MLK #MartinLutherKing
/13

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/americans-should-understand-mlk-jrs

In a speech titled “Beyond Vietnam” given…a year before his assassination, King called America the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” That quote doesn’t make it into many Martin Luther King Day celebrations.
—Chris Hedges, Death of the Liberal Class (2010)
#martinlutherking #martinlutherkingday

In a speech titled “Beyond Vietnam” given…a year before his assassination, King called America the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” That quote doesn’t make it into many Martin Luther King Day celebrations.
—Chris Hedges, Death of the Liberal Class (2010)
#martinlutherking #martinlutherkingday