Six on MLK: Theaters to commemorate MLK Jr. assassination with free screening of Oscar-nominated documentary about his life;
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panaritisp
Apr 2, 2019, 5:53:17 PM4/2/19
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Six on MLK: Theaters to commemorate MLK Jr. assassination with free screening of Oscar-nominated documentary about his life; Queens History Talk by author Tonya Bolden w/free book signing; White People Must Save Themselves from Whiteness; MLK's legacy is invoked to support issues he wouldn't stand for; White Supremacy Hurts White People
*Queens North History Talk: Award Winning Author Tonya Bolden's M.L.K. Journey of a King
Thursday, April 4, 2019 (the anniversary of MLK's assassination in 1968)
4:00 PM-6:00 PM ... Still a few spots left!
The Queens College School for Math, Science & Technology
148-20 Reeves Avenue, Flushing, NY 1136
CTLE Credit available
Free Book and Signing by the Author
... flyer attached
[AMC] Theaters to commemorate MLK Jr. assassination with free screening of Oscar-nominated documentary about his life
"Movie theaters in New York City and across the country will honor slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by showing a free film about his life Thursday on the anniversary of his assassination.
AMC Theatres will present screenings of director Sidney Lumet’s 1970 documentary “King: A Filmed Record ... Montgomery to Memphis" on April 4 at 6 p.m. to honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr. on the 51st anniversary of his death."
Once again, MLK's legacy is invoked to support issues he wouldn't stand for
"Year after year, notable figures and institutions attempt to recast Martin Luther King Jr. as champion of causes that don't align with his legacy."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/once-again-mlk-s-legacy-invoked-support-issues-he-wouldn-n961551
White People Must Save Themselves from Whiteness
"I was a rather rebellious youth when it came to black idols. Dr. King didn’t give me stoic, regal pride in the face of mindless oppression. The parts of King’s language which echoed around me felt hollow and presumptive, passive, and they ignored what I thought of as a clear truth. Tolerating institutional racism and waiting for justice was like making peace with a swarm of bees: it was an act of foolishness and self-destruction. I’m allergic to bee stings (and almost everything else). Only later did I realize that I, like so many Americans, had been manipulated into seeing only a truncated mantra, one pieced out and arranged with an agenda (much like the Bible over time, pieces removed for being too fantastic, too outrageous, too unpalatable for the ruling classes who printed the paper). The tender, G-rated “I Have a Dream” speech is readily hauled out annually as a declaration that we’re doing our best. However, in “The Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King said, “I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace of direct action.” That one gets little repeat play. Now, as then, moderates are seen as the revered bridge between extremes, but that position is itself extreme. Toni Morrison is often quoted as saying, “If you can only be tall because someone else is on their knees, you have a serious problem,” but the rest is too often lobbed off. She continues saying, “White people have a very, very serious problem, and they should start thinking about what they can do about it.” Anyone who has met Morrison can probably confirm that she means what she says the way she says it. Yet, the jagged pills of injustice get reduced to comfortable aphorisms and tokenism, and white adjacency becomes more and more tempting. Even people of color can cozy up to whiteness in the softer perimeters, where lip service is given to appease tender hearts that seek no harm (or seek to remain invisible). The perimeters need to harden."
MLK Day activities underscore the contrast between Trump and 2020 Democrats
"President Trump gave a fleeting, low-key nod to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the civil rights hero’s national holiday Monday, while Democrats who may run against Trump in 2020 fanned out to public events across the nation for more fulsome tributes.
The contrast served as a reminder both of Trump’s troubled record on race relations, and of how central black voters will be in choosing the Democratic Party’s nominee to unseat him. One aspirant, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, chose the day to announce her candidacy; she likely will be the only black woman in what’s becoming a crowded party contest.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has been weighing a 2020 bid, used his appearance at a Washington event to criticize Trump’s impact on race relations, and acknowledged to a mostly black audience that whites are often blind to the racism around them.
“We’ve learned in the last two years it doesn’t take much to awaken hate,” Biden said, speaking at a memorial hosted by civil rights activist Al Sharpton. “White America has to admit there’s still a systematic racism — and it goes almost unnoticed by so many of us.”
White Supremacy Hurts White People
"As such, it’s now increasingly clear that the swelling scourge of white nationalism and the terrorism committed to further it won’t slow down unless white people begin to understand that though white supremacy may target the black and brown, it doesn’t discriminate. White supremacy hurts white people, too. That may be no more evident than in the Republican Party. Perhaps more consciously and clumsily than ever, the GOP in the Trump era uses conflicts over racial identity to obscure a plutocratic agenda that subjugates poor white families as readily as non-white ones. The party’s problem? Their president doesn’t commit racism as subtly as his Republican predecessors. Whereas racism lay beneath the party’s brand more so in the past, Trump has tattooed it onto its forehead. Republicanism is now inseparable from this corrosive notion of white identity."
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