1 post tagged “race”
At one point in my life, Dr. King's birthday, even before it became an actual holiday, started one of my favorite times of the year. The period from Dr. King's birthday through the end of February marked the one time of year you could guarantee a little Black history in your life.
I was far more fortunate than most. I am the proud product of a 100% Black high school and 100% Black elementary school and a pastor who weaved Black History into the very fabric of the Gospel in the way it USED to be done.
Once upon a time, the fastest way to catch a bad one was to insult the great Dr. King. Depending on who you talk to, Ralph David Abernathy put a bit of salt in Dr. King's game with his autobiography "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down" and the backlash drove him to his grave.
Ice Cube called Dr. King a freak via Cedric the Entertainer in Barbershop and you could hear the usual suspects stand up and make a grasp for the spotlight.
Aaron McGruder channeled Dr. King and had him say "Will you ignorant niggas please shut the hell up?!" on this day last year
I don't think anything bad has happened to Mr. McGruder, but he hasn't been seen lately.
In the book pictured above, Michael Eric Dyson compares Dr. King favorably to Tupac Shakur. His career may have gotten bigger may have gotten smaller, but NO ONE can say it has been the same since.
If you are one for the library, go check out the book. It is an experience to say the least. No one has exactly called Dr. Dyson a liar, so you take everything in the book as written. For me, it didn't diminish Dr. King in my eyes, what it did do is broaden my understanding of him.
We should never be afraid of embracing the frailties of our heroes.
It should not make them less than we thought.
It should remind us that our own frailties are not inhibitors of our own success.
I was far more fortunate than most. I am the proud product of a 100% Black high school and 100% Black elementary school and a pastor who weaved Black History into the very fabric of the Gospel in the way it USED to be done.
Once upon a time, the fastest way to catch a bad one was to insult the great Dr. King. Depending on who you talk to, Ralph David Abernathy put a bit of salt in Dr. King's game with his autobiography "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down" and the backlash drove him to his grave.
Ice Cube called Dr. King a freak via Cedric the Entertainer in Barbershop and you could hear the usual suspects stand up and make a grasp for the spotlight.
Aaron McGruder channeled Dr. King and had him say "Will you ignorant niggas please shut the hell up?!" on this day last year
I don't think anything bad has happened to Mr. McGruder, but he hasn't been seen lately.
In the book pictured above, Michael Eric Dyson compares Dr. King favorably to Tupac Shakur. His career may have gotten bigger may have gotten smaller, but NO ONE can say it has been the same since.
If you are one for the library, go check out the book. It is an experience to say the least. No one has exactly called Dr. Dyson a liar, so you take everything in the book as written. For me, it didn't diminish Dr. King in my eyes, what it did do is broaden my understanding of him.
We should never be afraid of embracing the frailties of our heroes.
It should not make them less than we thought.
It should remind us that our own frailties are not inhibitors of our own success.
