Got MLK? - Martin Luther King Day

Skanky Vamp

Skanky Vamp

Sniffin' the Slayer
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Black Thorn
mlk-speak_now.jpg

I had a dream speech said:
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
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Ok, so while I have no clue whatsoever what MLK is an acronym for, I love the post. There are so many things we need to take a stand on, now and always, that being reminded of words like that always is a good thing.
 
I'm guessing MLK = Martin Luther King as it's Martin Luther King day today. Is this all you posted it for Sco, as it's an appropriate day to discuss it?
 
Professor Walsh
Professor Walsh
Aha. So much for sneaking forum time with the kids watching telly in the background. I forgot to turn my brain on. Also, I didn't know that there's such a thing as MLK day - a good day to have!
Dancing man said:
What the hell dude? this is not a thread.
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Is this some sort of abstract existentialist exploration of the notion of a thread, where the conclusion will be that there is no such thing as a thread at all, merely human consciousness? I only ask because it is otherwise almost certainly a thread.
 
S
Skytteflickan88
That's deep. Or total BS, I'm not smart enough to know the difference ;)
miromurr said:
Ok, I've slept on this now, and I'm still intrigued. Why is the OP not an accepted way to start a thread?
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Because to me it just looked like spam, there was no explanation of what the thread was about, the title of the thread didn't explain it any further.

At the very least it should have been pointed out that it was Martin Luther King day for those who didn't know.
 
(Just in case some of you might be curious about just exactly what the world was like, or at least the part of the world located within the borders of the United States, before Dr King and a few of his contemporaries decided to change it...)


Unlike almost all of the rest of you, I can remember those days personally, the anger, and the downright hatred that some people felt. Looking back on it now, it seems all so foolish, such a waste of time. Not what Dr King was doing, but all of the protest and resistance to the fact that people were people, and that the color of their skin was some kind of automatic character reference. I can remember drinking fountains, one white, marked "Whites Only," and right beside it an identical fountain, grey in color, marked "Blacks." (the "N" word always implied, but very seldom actually displayed in print in public) There was only one restaurant in town that would sell food food to "those people," and even there, they weren't allowed to eat inside. They were served in a paper bag (white, ironically) and they had to go outside and eat in the adjacent alley on concrete benches, regardless of the weather. There were separate movie theaters, where there were never any first run movies shown) a separate swimming pool, separate schools, and, as near as I can recall, only one doctor willing to treat black families. I remember being told once, "If a N----- bites you, it's just like being bitten by a rattlesnake. Pure poison."

When segregation was abolished, there were actually businesses that shut down rather than comply. The first movie that I ever saw that had a black man in the lead role was "Lilies Of The Field," and the first interracial kiss on television was when Captain Kirk kissed Uhura on Star Trek, and that was only allowed because he was under a mind control force at the time.

I think I'm gonna stop there, since I'm pretty sure that you get the idea...
 
Professor Walsh
Professor Walsh
Thanks for sharing this.
Have you seen the Got MLK posters? Granted some of the tension (or at least that I see/hear) has subsided but I thought they were really fitting...
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I think(and this is me personally) it speaks about those 'other' posters that looked like that not so long ago as well, and puts a finger in the air towards them..
 
S
StuckinTraffic
That's a matter of perception, I think. I get what you're saying and it is kind of "in your face," but I bet a lot of people don't see that.
If any of you ever have the chance to visit the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN, which is located on the site where Dr. King was murdered.....I HIGHLY recommend it. You will not leave there the same person you were when you went in.

WA, thanks for the post, it puts so much in to historical perspective. Dr. King was not the first to stand up for civil rights, but he's perhaps the most famous (in this country, anyway.) I have seen actual water fountains that were not removed after desegregation and which still say "Whites Only" on them. It was a shock in this day, and now I can't remember where I saw them. The signs still persist, tho.
 
I think being from the 'south' offers a much different experience as well; its surprising how a few thousand miles can change peoples perceptions.
 
Kean
Kean
From my experience it only takesa few hundred miles for perceptions to be changed.
Well, bigotry and racism are everywhere (my dad's from IL, for instance!), but yeah, I do see a lot of "leftovers" from segregation. It's weird when you run across something like that and realize how relatively recent that history is. You can reach out and touch it. There are school buildings here that still say "Coloreds" and "Whites" on them, too. It's becoming less prevalent as old buildings and fixtures are torn down to make way for new, but it is still there.
 
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