WEBVTT - The Whitewashing of Martin Luther King by Conservatives (Part 1) 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:02.880 Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:05.320 welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:08.520 mission is to foster allyship, empathy and understanding. I am 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:09.600 your host, ramses Joah. 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:12.920 He is ramses Joh, I am q Ward. You are 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:14.080 tuned in the Civic Cipher. 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.759 Indeed you are, and today we are going to be 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:23.720 talking about the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. Martin 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:29.240 Luther the King Junior talk to me, Q Listen. We 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:36.880 are about sick and tired of people who live lives 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:41.600 that fly in the face of what doctor King stood for, 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:49.760 using Doctor King's legacy and his image to justify their 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.880 actions or somehow appear as decent people. And so we're 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:57.080 going to spend the first part of the show talking 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:00.720 about how doctor King's image and his leg was co 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:07.000 opted by conservatives, believe it or not, to whitewash an 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:11.120 agenda that allowed them to appeal to Middle America. And 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:13.080 we're going to spend the second part of the show 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:18.560 discussing how doctor King, in his own words, felt about 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:23.320 some of the hot button issues that are being debated 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:27.640 today or some of the things that have been stripped 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:36.400 away in today's society by traditionally traditional conservatives, I should say, 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:42.920 and these are the same people that kind of invoke 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:48.960 his name around the holidays or throughout the year, that 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.800 try to suggest that they would have stood with doctor King, 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:54.520 or doctor King would have stood with him. So we're 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:56.720 going to again use the second half of the show 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.800 to kind of express doctor King's feelings in his own words. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.360 But before we get there, we are going to discuss 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:05.600 some ebony excellence. 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:06.080 Shall we? 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.919 I think we shall. Today's ebny excellence is brought to 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:13.200 you by actively black. There's greatness in our DNA. Visit 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:19.720 actively black dot com. Today I'm going to highlight somebody 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:22.639 who really deserves some ebony excellence. 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:27.760 For some reason, this one feels extra special to me, okay. 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:32.320 Because there's actually two people I want to shout out. 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.120 The first person is q. 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.280 Ward uh oh. 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:43.080 Q Ward, in case you don't know, is now on 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:43.600 the radio. 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:44.320 My name. 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:51.480 Now he's on the radio. He's talking to hundreds more 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:57.560 stations around the country. He has done h incredible work 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:02.880 in standing up for what is right and championing this 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.160 effort known as Civic Cipher across the country. And I'm 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.880 your brother, and if I'm not willing to give you flowers. 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.280 I can't reasonably expect anyone else to do it. You 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.040 have helped me dream the dream. You've stayed the course, 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:18.120 and here you are on the cusp of something that 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.400 is so monumental and so meaningful. And if no one 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.600 else tells you, I appreciate the work that you're doing. 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:25.359 God bless you, brother. I appreciate you too. 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.480 There's another person that we want to shout out. She 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:30.120 goes by the name of Brandy Irvin. 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:32.120 That's why it felt special to me, not because he 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:33.200 was about to shout me out. 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:39.240 And Brandy has been nominated for the YWCA Tribute to 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:47.320 Leadership Award for her work her work with the Harris 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.640 Campaign and the Democrats, obviously, her work with US here 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.040 on Civic Cipher, and her. 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.080 Social community at large, social. 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:56.560 Work with the Akas and so forth and so on. 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:58.600 So she's being recognized for that, and so we want 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.280 to make sure that we shout her out as well. 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:06.400 All right, I hope that didn't feel like too much 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:08.080 of a pat on the back, but we have a 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:12.800 segment to highlight something that is very special, and you know, 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:14.240 I know that I kind of snuck it in there. 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:19.279 But we've accomplished something that we would have never dreamed, 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.720 and we get to do it while doing good work. 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:27.159 And so I appreciate everyone giving me a moment to 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.279 be able to acknowledge these amazing people that I get 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.039 to work with. Next time, we'll revert to type and 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:37.279 shout out, you know people beyond you know these four walls. Here, 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:43.440 I'm gonna share a bit with you from Yes Magazine, 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:49.520 because there's a couple of times every year when people 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:55.120 will use doctor King's legacy or they will hand pick, 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:59.400 cherry pick parts of his speeches to try to suggest 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:04.040 that doctor King's vision is in alignment with their vision 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:05.440 for this country. 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.560 In alignment with anything that they think or any reactions 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:09.360 that they pursue. 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.200 And this is really only problematic. It's it's it's not 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:20.800 exclusively problematic when it comes to far right conservatives, but 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:27.520 it is often the most visible and visibly jarring is 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:29.760 the word I want to use. So it's it's it's 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.400 just like there's such a juxtaposition. You are trying to 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.880 use doctor King's legacy to suggest somehow that he would 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.520 be in alignment with what you're saying, or to suggest 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.040 somehow that the things that you've done in the past 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.240 are not they don't fly in the face of what 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.800 Doctor Kings stood for and the thing every right exactly 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:55.919 and it's so jarring and it's so strange, but you know, 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:58.479 someone has to exist in this space to kind of 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.279 push back and to defend doctor King's legacy because he 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:08.039 was a tremendous figure in terms of the pursuit of 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:12.400 equity in this country. And if we don't tell our 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:15.520 stories the way they need to be told, we run 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.320 the risk of losing the narrative. And then Doctor King 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:23.240 becomes like Santa Claus, free for anyone to use the 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:27.520 way that they want, right, and this is not what 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:31.200 the man stood for. Their people right now, I met 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.680 these people, they had to bury this man. I met 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.279 Doctor King's son, Martin Luther King the third likewise, and 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:41.440 you know, he's a like you can see him as 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:45.120 a kid in all the photos, but he actually lost 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:49.200 his father because of the same sort of racist ideology 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:55.119 behind the people and indeed the party that co opt 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.240 this man's image, that fought against him having a holiday, 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.159 that didn't like love appreciate what he stood for. And 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:06.320 then as more time passes, they continue to scoop a 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:13.640 little bit more away from his larger than life status, 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.720 and now that he's gone, to try to get some 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.440 of that sheen on them and their campaigns to look 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:23.800 less racist, to look less divisive, to look less like 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.600 they're four elites and so forth. So again, this article 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.120 I think sums us up quite well again from Yes Magazine. 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:39.560 The writer I want to give credit Hajar Yadiza Yazida Yazdiha. Sorry, 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:42.520 I knew I was gonna have a tough time with 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.040 that one, all right. As scholars civil rights activists in 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.000 King's own children have long pointed out uses of King's words, 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.720 especially by right wing conservatives, are too often attempts to 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.800 weaponize his memory against the multicultural democracy of which King 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:01.960 could only dream. Every Martin Luther King Junior Day years 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.120 on the third Monday in January, politicians across the political spectrum, 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.320 including those who opposed establishing the national holiday in nineteen 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.720 eighty three, issue their heartfelt dedications to King, or quote 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.000 him in their own speeches and in their tweets and 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:19.480 on their social media. The article continues in the late 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.960 nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties a sanitized version of 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.120 King was a part of a conservative political strategy for 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:30.720 swaying white moderates to support President Ronald Reagan's reelection by 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:35.439 making King's birthday a national holiday. Even after Reagan finally 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.360 signed the King holiday into law in nineteen eighty three, 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:42.439 he would write letters of assurance to angry political allies 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:48.360 that only a selective version of King would be commemorated. 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:54.600 Even as you read it, now, my blood boils because 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:56.720 we knew this already. Yes, this isn't well, we knew this. 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.240 I'm saying, this isn't a shocker to us. But it 0:08:59.280 --> 0:08:59.960 feels the same. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:01.480 It feels like we're getting it for the first time. 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:03.640 Yes, it doesn't feel like, oh yeah, I knew that already. 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:08.120 It feels like it's so infuriating. 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.800 You know, we've been doing the show for years and 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.160 for many people who are just coming to the conversation 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.080 or maybe they haven't heard of this show before. A 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.240 lot of this stuff, you know, we know quite well, 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.360 just because we've had to, Like we probably will end 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:27.640 up with honorary degrees at some point, because we've had 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:30.200 to do so much research in order to do this 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:35.480 show and have it and use journalistically credible sources, so 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:38.640 that it's not just Ramses and Q's Opinion Hour, but 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.120 rather it is civic cipher a conversation that we were 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.120 able to have that's based in a shared reality. It's 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:45.679 based on facts, it's based on data where we can 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:48.959 actually make some inroads and give you, our listener, what 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.559 it is you might need to have conversations that will 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:58.040 lead to impacting people's opinions, because this show only reaches you, 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:00.760 but you can reach people's lime hearts in a way 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:05.120 that we cannot. But let me continue this article, all right, 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:08.760 So only a selected version of King would be commemorated, 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.480 all right. That version was free of not only the 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.319 racial politics that shaped the Civil rights movement, but also 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.880 the vision of systemic change king and vision. In addition, 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.760 Reagan's version left out the views King held against the 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:25.760 Vietnam War. Instead, the GOP's sanitized version only comprises King's 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.200 vision of a colorblind society at the expense of the 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.120 deep systemic change King believed was needed to achieve a 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.720 society in which character was more important than race. This 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.120 interpretation of King's memory would become a powerful political tool 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.800 increasingly through the nineteen eighties, right wing social movements from 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.560 the gun rights and family values coalitions to nativists and 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:50.600 white supremacists deployed King's memory to claim they were the 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:54.280 new minorities fighting for their own rights. These groups claimed 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.920 that white Christians were the real victims of multicultural democracy 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:01.680 and in fact where the new black. This false version 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.880 of social reality eventually involved into the Great Replacement theory, 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.960 which the article took some liberties right there, because the 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:13.840 Great replacement theority theory existed going back to if I'm 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:17.320 not mistaken, the early nineteen hundreds, late eighteen hundreds, But 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:19.320 I see the convergence there. 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:22.120 Well, yeah, it's weaved into the that's. 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:25.840 The best way to say, yeah, exactly, the far right 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.640 conspiracy theory espoused by public figures like Tucker Carlson that 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.719 white people are being demographically and culturally replaced with non 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:36.160 white peoples and that white existence is under threat. Okay, 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:39.880 So that is basically the Great replacement theory in a nutshell. 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:44.800 And you and I saw racist lawyers and lawmakers use 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:49.199 civil rights precedents and civil rights legislation to get affirmative 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:50.120 action removed. 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.679 Right, So this is and that we're going to talk 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:55.760 more about that on the second half of the show. 0:11:55.800 --> 0:12:02.400 But yeah, that's they. They Those are the same people 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.960 that will tweak quotes and share on their social media 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.080 quotes from doctor King whenever it's convenient, whenever their campaigning, 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.960 whenever it's doctor King's birthday, whenever it's Juneteenth, whatever it is. 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.480 You know, because doctor King is the great Black in 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:20.120 their minds or whatever, and they have a version of 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:23.520 him that they can use to appear less racist in 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.839 their views and less more decent, more decent. That's probably 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.480 a good way to say it to all right, I'll 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.360 finish the article. In these distortions, gun rights activists called 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:37.360 themselves the new Rosa Parks, anti abortion activists declared themselves 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:41.000 freedom writers, and anti gay groups claimed themselves protectors of 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:45.440 King's Christian vision. These disortions of the past were not 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.920 just rhetorical. Over time, these political strategies had powerful effects 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:53.520 and generated what appears as an alternative social reality that 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:57.000 for many white Americans began to feel like the only reality. 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.400 Through the making of these alternative histories, right wings stages 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:04.640 such as Steve Bannon could stir up right wing voters, 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.520 white right wing voters to reclaim and take back America. 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:19.280 Sound familiar, Yeah, unfortunately. So again to your point, this 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:23.240 this concerted. You got to imagine, like the political landscape 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:30.480 of the country in the eighties, right when Ronald Reagan 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:37.200 is coming to power. Ronald Reagan represented a shift in 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:42.920 the Republican Party that had at that time suffered some 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:45.000 some losses in terms of what it is that they 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:49.280 wanted for this country. This country was moving in a 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:55.160 in a more inclusive and progressive way. And Ronald Reagan 0:13:55.679 --> 0:14:02.160 represented two conservatives a way to dare I say, make 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.440 America great again? Right, That's what he represented at the time. 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:13.400 And they had lost the battle on abortion at that time, 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.360 they had lost some other you know, there were some 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.920 other things that were going on, and they needed to 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:26.160 reframe a lot of what they stood for politically in 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:32.360 such a way that it appealed to white moderates Middle America, who, again, 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:35.120 if you'd taken to account the climate of the country 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.920 at the time, was feeling like, okay, well we have 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.520 seen these black people march. Because you got to think 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.760 in the eighties, the sixties wasn't that long ago for 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.240 the people that were alive in voting in the eighties, right, 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.640 So they saw the dogs get sicked on black people. 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.360 They saw the assassination of doctor King. They saw, you know, 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.400 and when you live through that and you know what happened, 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:01.680 you know, maybe your heart beats a little differently. Right, 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:12.960 So it makes political sense for Ronald Reagan to appear decent. 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:19.080 That's that's the word that you used, Q. Even though 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:22.880 a lot of what it is that he proposed and 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.360 wove into this country, of what we remember him for everything, 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:29.160 one hundred percent of what we remember, all of what 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.600 we remember worked against the whole country. Right, there is 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.760 no trickle down economics has not worked. It's been forty 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:36.400 plus years. 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.120 Yeah, Reaganomics was never used to work. 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.840 But yeah, but you know all these things that so 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.120 him whitewashing Doctor King allowed him to get all of 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:49.000 that stuff off, right, because he needed to appeal to 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.400 Middle America, who again at the time, was fresh off 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:57.320 of this moment where they had seen Doctor King get assassinated. 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.320 His whole push was non violence, and he got shot 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.360 on a balcony. He was a minister, he had children. 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:07.880 I have a dream he had a family, had you 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:10.040 know what I'm saying. He wasn't trying to hurt anybody. 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:12.400 They were hitting him. They were hitting them. They're putting 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:14.160 him in jail, left and right, they're putting the hoses 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.960 on the dogs on him, and he got shot. And 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:19.400 all those people that saw that happen, they saw it 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:23.880 wasn't a George Floyd moment. It was Doctor King. George Floyd, 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.080 we never heard of him, and we saw him die. 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:27.840 That was the only thing we know him for. Doctor 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.680 King died after we got to know who he was. 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:33.320 And again, his whole thing was non violence. How did 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.720 the non violent minister lose his life on a balcony 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:42.640 like an animal? Right, So again, for a person like 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:48.480 Ronald Reagan, he gave the white moderate in the country 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:53.640 what they needed, which was the appearance of a decent 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:58.320 administration that was inclusive and so forth. But behind the scenes, 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:02.320 of course, there was this effort to make sure that 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.280 the version of Doctor King that we celebrate as a 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:09.120 country is the version that we are choosing. We're already 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.320 past the little black boys and little white girls sitting 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.520 down at a table together. So we'll just use that 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:18.000 one part of what Doctor King said. We'll give him 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.000 his holiday, and then now hopefully we can appeal to 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:24.040 some blacks and a huge swap of Middle America. 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:30.320 Yeah. Imagine the man who made pursuing higher education almost unaffordable. Yeah, 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:32.640 to make sure that black people didn't get too much 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:33.840 access to educacation. 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:34.200 Yeah. 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:38.359 Also giving MLK a holiday to be celebrated in his 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:42.879 fullness as a vehicle. Yeah, to get himself to power. 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.800 It's really really sick and diabolical. But here we are. 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:51.040 Yeah, and so you know, ah, you know, and the 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.480 craziest part about this whole thing, And I'm not sure 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:55.080 that a lot of people know. And I don't have 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:56.800 the notes in front of me right now, so you 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:58.479 have to forgive me if I leave something out. But 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:00.600 you and I had recently, we had a conversation with 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:04.639 doctor russ Wiginton, the president and CEO of the National 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.880 Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Indeed the Lorraine Hotel 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:14.199 where doctor King was shot, and he was talking to us. 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:17.160 And of course we know this from having done this 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:20.760 sort of thing a couple of times, that doctor King 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:29.000 was starting to appeal to white working class people at 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.760 the time when he was assassinated, Like he went from 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:35.760 you know, let's use the same bathrooms and the same 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:40.840 water fountains to okay, here's how I feel about that 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:46.760 war in Vietnam to ultimately, hey, listen, White America, Middle America, 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:50.840 they're taking advantage of you, and you being racist and 0:18:50.880 --> 0:19:00.239 you being influenced by these politicians in this near if 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.679 that doesn't exist, is costing you. It's not just we 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.040 have the same oppressor. We have the same there though, 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:07.120 we have the same oppressor. 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.600 That was the message that was terrifying. Yes, because the 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.520 level of influence that he had. When when Doctor King spoke, 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:17.200 people listened. Yes, and you know, even you know, the 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:24.399 newly elected former president uh evoked doctor King's I have 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.080 a dream speech to lift himself up, and they all 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.840 do that falsely pointed out that more people came to 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.560 listen to him speak or to his I remember he 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:35.360 said that to something that he did in DC, than 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:40.200 than that attended Doctor Kings. I have a dream speech, 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.520 which we know is a ridiculous thing to say, but 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.840 at all costs. They tried to use him, even to 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:50.639 prop themselves up, not just like somehow that's the benchmark, 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:55.320 not just to falsely pretend to be supporters or lovers 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:55.680 of him. 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:57.760 Yeah, I want to I want to circle back. I 0:19:57.760 --> 0:19:59.440 want to I want to go back just a second though, 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:05.200 when I was talking about doctor King trying to appeal 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:11.439 to the white workers that was happening in Memphis in 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:15.399 Tennessee when he got shot. That's why he was in 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.600 Tennessee was to I think it might have been a 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:20.560 union or something like that, but it was he was 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:23.240 talking to white people, and that that was what he 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:28.200 was on in that moment, creating solidarity across racial lines. 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:32.160 Because I think you put it so eloquently. You know, hey, 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:37.959 we have the same oppressor. And that ultimately cost him 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:42.280 his life. But again, that part of doctor King's story 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.399 you don't hear. All you hear is I have a dream. 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:48.760 So for many people, you know, and if you're one 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.919 of these people, it's it's totally okay. We welcome all 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.720 commerce here at Civic Cipher. It doesn't matter where you are. 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:57.080 We try to make sure that it's an inclusive conversation. 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:05.680 But for many people, they're only awareness of history insofar 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:08.840 as black people are concerned, is you know, black people 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:12.639 were in Africa, they came here as slaves, then the 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.719 slaves got free because of Lincoln. Then everybody beat up 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:18.000 the free black people and it had a tough time 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:21.400 then Doctor King came along and then everybody could sit 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:23.960 down at a table together and there was no more segregation. Right, 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.119 So that's the version of history, many peoples and no 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:29.840 more racism, right. And then Obama got elected. So you know, 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:32.040 here we are right. So this is for a lot 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:36.399 of people how they think that American history has gone. 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:40.680 But for us, we need to color in these details 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:46.800 because it's through the subtle influence of people in positions 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:51.440 of power, the subtle influence of people with huge platforms 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:54.720 or given microphones and audiences to speak to. Often enough, 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:59.040 these are politicians who need to sway public opinion in 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:03.879 order to accomplish things. For often enough, a certain facet 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:10.320 of you know, the population, often the facet that looks 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:13.679 the most like them, but that's not always true, in 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:20.600 order to create the changes or revert to the version 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:25.160 of society that they ultimately want to get to. And 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:32.120 part of the subtle influence comes from things like whitewashing. Indeed, 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.760 the reality of what doctor King stood for, what he 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:38.199 spoke against, what he would be voting for now, flies 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:40.040 in the face of what it is that you vote 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:42.520 for every single day. And if you're a you know, 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:45.680 I don't know, pick a name, far right politician, you'll 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:49.240 see them all, you know, tweet and share his image 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:50.960 and all that sort of stuff. But the fact is 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:55.760 is that they they would not be politically aligned or 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:59.360 ideologically aligned whatsoever. So