Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
We know how King would respond to our current mean season of political unrest, racial division and state-sanctioned violence. He understood much more than the fact that “riots were the language of the unheard.” He eloquently argued that the racial upheaval gripping the country during the 1960s was the direct result of white supremacy’s uncanny hold on every aspect of American life, from public schools, housing and health care to criminal justice, employment and domestic and foreign policy.
What would Martin Luther King Jr. do in our time? King would not denounce the looters, but focus on the economic, social, and political conditions that produced mass protests contoured by bursts of violence. He would find our age of racial division, white denial and spreading wealth inequality and violence an all too familiar artifact of his own time. His response, then, would be to speak on behalf of the indigent, to help feed the poor and to organize for the revolutionary policy changes that will finally make the kind of uprisings we are now experiencing a thing of the past.
King wrapped his arms around the radical Stokely Carmichael
Comments
From the article
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 07/29/2020 - 1:08pm
It is one thing to observe that certain conditions lead to a breakdown of civil order and another to see non-violent resistance as a path to political leverage.
The writing of MLK Jr. goes into both of those ideas.
by moat on Wed, 07/29/2020 - 9:50pm
Yes, and furthermore, I didn't read actual support for rioting or looting into Peniel Joseph's interpretation either!
What he's saying is that it was that MLK Jr. was ruing the circumstances that make people do it. It was to speak to what needed to be fixed to stop it from happening. That what he still always supported is nonviolence theory.
Matters not in the end because we see what we want to in see in old texts (i.e., the Bible as well.) And rmrd seems bound and determined to find old text that *proves* what MLK Jr. would support today. As if one really could do that and not just suppose.
For example, Peniel Joseph conveniently leaves out trying to predict what MLK Jr. would say about white kids rioting against black police chiefs, black mayors, etc. and one of his main assistants becoming a highly honored and respected congressperson and being laid in state in the capitol with worldwide accolades, and a two-term half-black president of the United States for that matter. A lot of things he was fighting for happened, he would have moved on.
He might have revised his thoughts on Stokley Carmichael, for example. Maybe he'd like his ideas even more, who knows.
I would say take a look at how Al Sharpton has changed. He was with him and he's still with us.
by artappraiser on Wed, 07/29/2020 - 10:23pm
In your revisionist interpretation of King, would he support secret government police in Portland?
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 07/29/2020 - 11:50pm
Jesus, they killed the fucker. Give it up already. Its like some weird necrophilia thing - putting words and thoughts and actions into a long dead corpse - let the man rest, find a new hero.
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 07/29/2020 - 11:53pm
Your statement is illogical.
King is an icon. He will continue to be a reference point..
There is a book by the late Elijah Cummings set for publication
John Meacham has a book about John Lewis scheduled for publication
Some compare current protests to Russian novels older than King
Life goes on.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:20am
Lit majors compare the current protests to Russian novels. Anna Karenina may yet inspire Melania to walk off a train platform, who knows. And sure, biographies are a dime a dozen in the used rack - i bet Lady Di's making a comeback.
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:26am
A diversion. Martin Luther King Jr. will remain a topic of discussion.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:32am
I'm catching up on Pliny the Younger, no time for all these new fads.
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:36am
I wasn't interpreting King. I was interpreting Peniel Joseph surmising what King would think of current events and interpreting you surmising what King would think of current events. Actual history has nothing to do with this, revisionist or any other kind, it's about current events, and guessing what a character transported from history would think of them. Which I was interpreting.
by artappraiser on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 2:24am
p.s. Not meant to disparage. This is a common activity, what Joseph and you are doing. People do it with the Bible, the Torah and the Koran all the time!
by artappraiser on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 2:27am
I'm more curious how he got his name and how he survived growing up in the Bronx with it. (sez the juvenile smartasses in the back row)
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 2:43am
Would King support the government response in Portland?
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:23am
I suppose it's important somehow to hypothesize what MLK would think about anything that happens after his death. Would MLK support the rampant promiscuity of rock musicians, many of whom only began to play rock and roll music to get laid? My guess is yes given King's own rampant promiscuity. But you know the man better than I. What do you think?
by ocean-kat on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:34am
You did not address the question.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:33am
I bet MLK woulda dug the shit out of Janis Joplin. Dont think Kylie Jenner's his type.
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:38am
I'm fairly certain that with changing mores that MLK would support polyamorous relations. It's strange you never see people making that point on sites explaining or defending polyamory.
by ocean-kat on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:47am
Dude, how CIS-latte privileged you behave. MLK wouldve totally been spearheading intersectionalist movements.
Though likely would be hesitant with satanic succuba and alien sex. Are we to "Snakes on an Astral Plane" already? Samuel L would be such a perfect pairup for MLK - "Say 'what' again, motherfucker - just try it..."
https://digbysblog.net/2020/07/theyre-all-pushing-the-snake-oil/
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:50am
Do you think MLK would expect everyone to answer any question on blogs or would he find it acceptable for some people to sometimes not answer questions on blogs? It's a tough but important question first because blogs didn't exist before MLK died and second because deciding what MLK would think about things that didn't exist or happened after he died is always important and not at all a waste of time.
by ocean-kat on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:40am
I think he'd object to the term "blogger" - gotta look into that.
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 12:48am
MLK acknowledged the importance of terminology so I don't think any one could argue that he wouldn't weigh in. I'm embarrassed to admit I not a sufficient student of history to know what name he'd prefer. But I'm pretty sure Robin Williams would call them boogers.
by ocean-kat on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 2:25am
Violent protests in Hong Kong
Extradition treaty put on hold
Protests continues
Those Hong Kong police are brutes
Protests in Portland
Secret government police sent in
Hiw dare those protesters actually protest?
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 9:06am
Post-modern haiku?
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 07/30/2020 - 10:11am
Flock of Karens or homeless substance abuse concerned?
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 08/03/2020 - 2:08am
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 08/03/2020 - 8:11am
As I said, what Prof. Joseph is doing is basically reading tea leaves, but if I were forced to bet, I'd bet on Rev. MLK Jr., if alive today, would agree with Rev. Jesse Jackson:
Interestingly-and again times and opinions change--but in 66 and 67 MLK & Jesse both thinking like capitalists
and if you are a capitalist, first thing you want to do is insure that people's property is protected or the whole thing falls apart.
by artappraiser on Mon, 08/10/2020 - 2:52pm
Black female chief resigns
Speechless in Seattle - You've Got #Fail
The New Progress Protest - back where we started
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5f32404ac5b64cc99fdd8835
by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 08/11/2020 - 7:58am