Martin Luther King and son find a burned cross on their lawn.
My Fediverse Friend @JenWojcik@mastodon.social yesterday said,
If you are white and have an MLK quote queued up for tomorrow:
Delete that shit and: Go make a donation to a Black justice organization, or patronize a Black owned business, or read a Black author, or educate yourself on dismantling systemic racism.
Signaling you’re an ally doesn’t mean you actually are one.
Which is really solid advice. I suggest all of us join Jen, but you know, do some of these things everyday or at least often. Allyship is not just a one-day-a-year thing. I’m thinking about heading over to Métier.
As always, thanks to Jen. It’s a really good point. If you are on the Fediverse, give Jen a follow. She’s a good’un.
Mock Paper Scissors 
Mmm social justice beer. 🙂 Looks good.
Not at all looking forward to all the GOP racist crackers spouting That One Martin Luther King Jr. Quote That They Think Excuses Their Racist Bullshit all day.
Dudes and Dudettes, we KNOW what side you would have been on (or WERE on for a lot of you!) in 1963…
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The 18th Street Brewery down the block in Gary is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays — I’ll be stopping by this weekend. Also please consider:
https://bailproject.org/
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When I was in the marines I knew a number of black marines. At that time, there wasn’t a lot of trust between the races, but we got along well enough, except for the fact that there were a number of southern white marines who seemed to actually hate black people. I hope that situation has improved, but I have my doubts. Racism seems to be a long term sickness that transcends rational thought. I think Jen (and Ten Grain make an excellent point…
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One of MLK’s more electric moments…
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One of my heroes.
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Well, here in humid alabamistan, you have to go out and search high and low for any semblance of it being MLK day since the local media favors covering the 2nd inauguration of addled-brain guv. me-maw (who doesn’t have the courage to finally admit what some of us already know of her tsk-tsk homosexuality) and her idiotic MAGA posturing that goes against everything that Dr. King stood for and promoted.
Morally bankrupt republicans here have unfortunately more or less neutered Dr. King and his timeless teachings but at least they stopped celebrating Robert E. Lee’s birthday, so progress?
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I agree with your friend Jen and you on this part of her message: “Go make a donation to a Black justice organization, or patronize a Black owned business, or read a Black author, or educate yourself on dismantling systemic racism”–and to do so regularly.
But we’re a nation awash with white nationalism, with elected officials (and justices) making overtly racist statements and actions more frequently than we’ve seen in sixty years. So I think we need more white people quoting Dr. King (and others)–not fewer. The broader public needs to hear King’s wisdom and insights beyond the Republicans’ favorite “…not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
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I agree that we as a country are awash in racism, with way too many top state and federal officials seeming to be steeped in racist nonsense. My first awareness of the issue of racism occurred in early middle school when I read “Black Like Me” which was a book written by a white man who disguised himself as a black man to investigate racism in the deep south. It was quite shocking to me, but it also made me understand what black people had to go through. It was a worthy read…
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I read it too, Jimmy T, and was similarly affected. John Howard Griffin, a journalist, was the author. I’ve written a fair amount quoting Black Americans, including several I know, about the small slights and large outrages that simply interfere with their everyday living.
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The thing is, Annie, we already know the content of their character.
Rgds,
TG
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You mean those Republican characters? They have no character.
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The thing is, TG, if we’re talking about those Republican characters, they simply have no character.
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Sorry for the redundancy. Your site didn’t recognize me and forced me to give info, which didn’t show the first time. It’s asking again now.
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Just because they can be characters, doesn’t mean they have character. Recast from the line “Just because you are a character, doesn’t mean you have character.” Spoken by ‘The Wolf’ in Pulp Fiction.
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