I recently discovered Hannah Drake’s blog, WriteSomeShit. Believe me, she has some powerful shit to convey. For MLK Day, please take a few minutes to read her post, Dear White People, Before You Post Dr. King Quotes To Make Yourself Feel Good…
Drake writes,
…before you rush to Google on Monday to search for a quote that you can tweet by Dr. King, I would ask that you look at the totality of his life and message and hold it up to the way you live your life. Do not merely quote words that make you feel good and do not challenge your thinking and actions. Do not tweet quotes that are nothing more than a Twitter performance when in actuality you have done nothing to support the causes that impact Black America. Do not use Dr. King’s quotes as a way to “check” Black America. Do not ask Black America, “What would Martin Luther King Jr. do?”…
Hannah Drake
Thought provoking words and well worth your time. I quibble with her notion of a single, unified “White America” and in particular that all White Americans bear shared responsibility for Trump’s words. I do not like being lumped into a group of “all White Americans” and I especially do not like being grouped with a man who, to pick just two repulsive examples, calls Africa a shithole and brags about grabbing women by the pussy.
But that aside, Drake’s post opened my eyes a bit, she made me more aware of the depth of the anger that she and Black America feels.
I am asking you to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with more than passing gratitude for a vacation day. Take a tiny slice of your day to truly consider what he died for. Take a moment to consider what you can do, because I know that you have a good heart and that you can do more than just read a blog post.
Drake’s “About” page says, “I am writing not for your entertainment, I am writing to shake a nation from its slumber.” Waking up from a slumber would be a great way to start MLK Day.
Thank you so much for your write up and for sharing my blog. It has been an interesting day of comments nevertheless, I press onward. There are some people who focused on the title and made it about them as an individual and didn’t look at the totality of this nation and in fact the world. I have seen MLK quotes from men and women on Twitter today, who we are well aware do not support anything that Dr. King stood for, yet they are committed to the performance of it all. I hope that we move beyond the performance and truly embody what Dr. King stood for. The funny thing, I wrote that blog in 2018 and it is still relevant today and it will be relevant years to come. We have a lot of work to do and a long way to go but I still believe it is possible. Thank you again for sharing and for your message.
I wish that I could disagree with you about how much more work we have to do. I too believe that it is possible so I keep plugging away at it.
“One day at a time.”