The People's Voice: What MLK would see today

[pampango]

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2011/01/17/what-mlk-would-see-today

And, on this day, I wonder how the Reverend Dr. King would feel about today's American politics if he were still alive.

Surely he would be delighted by the fact that an African-American family now occupies the White House. This is something I didn't think I'd see even in my own lifetime. But surely, too, he would see the backlash.

He would see the racism on display at tea party gatherings, with signs sporting slogans such as:

"Obama's Plan White Slavery"

and

"Obama-nomics: Monkey See, Monkey Spend!"

and

"Obama - What you Talkin' about Willis! Spend My Money?"

and

"Stand Idle While Some Kenyan Tries To Destroy America? Wap!! I Don't Think So!!! Homey Don't Play Dat!!!"

He would hear Glenn Beck of Fox News accuse President Obama of being a reverse racist with "a deep-seated hatred for white people" - despite the inconvenient little detail that Obama's own beloved mother was white.

He would hear right-wing blowhard Rush Limbaugh say things like:

"n Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering."

He would see the rampant xenophobia exposed by Arizona's draconian new immigration law, nicknamed the "Show Your Papers" law. He would see even more rampant xenophobia at play in that same state with the recent prohibition of ethnic studies classes in Arizona schools. He would see the rampant xenophobia exposed by the protests against a proposed Islamic Community Center in lower Manhattan.