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The Dr. King Memorial and The Burial of a Movement
A Black Agenda Radio commentary
Dr. King and the liberation movement he represents will again suffer a brutal blow this week when all are permanently entombed under the violent euphemism of “memorial.” The dedication of this $120 million stone sculpture is to be a national tribute to a man whose entire body of work was designed to destroy the very structure that now claims to honor him. It is no honor. It is a burial. The very entities against which the movement that produced King have struggled for centuries have now attached themselves to him as if to claim victory over, rather than along with, that man and that movement. This memorial should be seen as the hostile, disingenuous aggression against Dr. King that it is and should continue to be a reminder of the absolute absence of sincere change in this society.
Deborah Atwater and Sandra Herndon have written about the meaning of memorials and museums saying, in part, that they serve the “nation-state” by communicating an “official culture” whose job, “through sponsorship,” is to “retain loyalty” and the “virtue of unity.” Atwater and Herndon describe memorials as helping the state develop a “ collective American public memory” and a “shared sense of the past.” Museums and memorials become “the spaces in which that [public] memory is interpreted.” Perhaps most importantly is that memorials are said to also “give meaning to the present.” But given the vicious re-imaging King suffered before his assassination, the vitriol he withstood from a nation determined to resist the change he represented, and given the post-assassination routine destruction of his advancing radical politics, it is simply not hard to determine just what this memorial intends to convey or the present meaning it intends to define.
The collective which has formed to create the memorial seems to be a marriage of the exact forces King spoke most aggressively against: White liberals, corporations and the Black petite-bourgeoisie. The “leadership” team consists of Andrew Young and two current and former executives from General Motors. Their support leadership group consists of people like, Russell Simmons, J.C. Watts and Earl Graves, but of course Tommy Hilfiger, football team owner Daniel Snyder and NBA commissioner David Stern. But better still is the “major contributor” list which consists of such leaders in the march toward peace and equality like defense contractor Boeing and the media empire Viacom. Certainly Disney and Coca-Cola have, when not producing drawn racism or supporting the assassination of laborers, been among the brightest beacons of freedom. Of course, there are others like JP Morgan, Murdoch’s Direct TV, Exxon, Target and Wal Mart – other bastions of workers’ rights and liberty. All have come together to ensure that King be forever separated from his anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-patient work for a genuine revolution.
It is fitting that this memorial is placed so as to sit “along the axis of the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials” permanently fixed between two of this nation’s greatest representatives of enslavement and anti-Blackness. It is fitting that this memorial is being established by the very segments of this society King worked strongest against and to which he offered his most biting criticism. And it is fitting that this memorial be established at a time when King’s words and deeds are least known or followed, while a Black president presides over the falling conditions of Black Americans and the falling bombs over African homes. And it is fitting that the dedication of the memorial will come 48 years after his most famous speech and 44 years after he would call his dream a “nightmare.”
For when we see the dedication ceremony and as we look upon the sculpture itself what we will see is not a true dedication to a great man, instead we will be witnessing the funeral and headstone of a movement.
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27 Comments so far
Show AllThis just can't be repeated enough:
Now that he is safely dead,
Let us praise him,
Build monuments to his glory,
Sing hosannas to his name.
Dead men make such convenient heroes.
They cannot rise to challenge the images
We would fashion from their lives.
And besides,
It is easier to build monuments
Than to make a better world.
So now that he is safely dead,
We, with eased consciences, will
Teach our children that he was a great man,
Knowing that the cause for which he lived
Is still a cause
And the dream for which he died
Is still a dream,
A dead man's dream.
--Carl Wendell Hines, Jr.
Superb poem and good catch. Thanks.
I enjoyed reading Carl Wendell Hines, Jr. poem, especially, since I had never read it before. " And the dream for which he died --is still a dream-----A dead mans dream. Sadly and unfortunately true. Thanks Corvo, Paul.
This is happening for the same reason the main stream media won't EVER play his Anti - War Speech or repeat " U.S. is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world " .
They need to kill his message , just like they killed him . Sanitize it , reshape it , repackage it and then give it Corporate Approval .
It's totally disgusting !
Many Americans are putting much effort into attempting to improve racial equality while not acknowledging the existence of or the power of economic inequality that MLK's efforts evolved into (and that got him assassinated).
Until working class Americans of all colors start recognizing that racial equality is a A SUBSET OF ECONOMIC EQUALITY, and start putting their efforts toward reversing the ever accelerating transfer of wealth from 98% of us to the wealthiest 2% of us, all of their efforts at improving racial equality will be wasted.
'
Once the Right Wing Neo Fasisct Coporation assainated JFK, MLK and Malcolm X and all the other prophets, the one Bob Marley sang about, it paved the way for the slavery they have put the world under...
He had a dream and one worth keeping..
I absolutely despise the Establishment's hijacking, co-opting, and virtual obliteration of Dr. King's legacy as an evolving radical. The scrubbed, sanitized result pays lip-service to King's worthy civil-rights leadership and fervent advocacy of non-violent dissent and protest; it effectively focuses on his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech to the exclusion of all else.
But it was only when King began to transcend his role as a reformer, and escalate his dissent to deeper, more profound, revolutionary critiques of capitalist classism and imperial militarism that he became a marked man.
I regret that many years ago, the descriptive academic construct "role model" was pried from the lexicon of sociology and turned into a banal, puerile, pop-culture cliché that rendered the simpler term "leader" passé. But I grudgingly invoke it to note that in Dr. King's case, being designated a "marked man" was only the first phase of becoming mummified and diminished into a Role Model.
The proposed memorial is a shrunken head writ large.
To use a term employed by writer Rahul Mahajan, it is indeed reprehensible that King's legacy has been whittled down and reduced to a kind of "plaster sainthood".
The radical King, who was brutally murdered by the government's military and security-state agencies, has been placed in a whited sepulcher; the gelded, airbrushed result reduces King to a mere "Positive Role Model": a sort of second-generation Booker T. Washington-- a benevolent patron saint of pious, complacent "good citizenship" and tame, timid, conventional "community service" and "volunteerism".
In life, the Establishment overclass regarded King as "part of the problem"; in death, this same overclass is determined to write a "victor's history" to ensure that his legacy is "part of the(ir) solution".
You can say the same thing about Christianity in America. Christianity has been killed by religious hypocrites, war mongering patriots, greed, the human ego, religious absolutes, dogma, phony religious institutions, the lie of how the rich have been so blessed by God, anything but the true mind of Christ....... what it means to be truly human.
Yep, you hit that one out of the park! I think if Christ came back today and did his temple rant against all the so called Christians they would kill him again.
I was raised Catholic and American and it took a long time to understand how brainwashed I had been.
The Church sits on Trillions while people starve. Has all those gold chalices, plates, ect, Huge building. Hell, one Pope sold Indulgences to help build up the Vatican. That was long before they changed their minds about there even being a Purgatory. Kind of like how the Mormons were for polygamy until they would be denied statehood.
Now the US is the biggest terrorist organization in the world, just like King said.
And Obama had the balls to say that if King was alive in today's world of violence, even he would see it was needed. What King went thru, Obama is doing to other countries.
I loved King's Vietnam speech. It sure summed up what the US stands for today.
Being the most corrupt and morally bankrupt nation in the history of mankind, the US controls and subverts every progressive movement.
In addition to MLK and Christianity, the environmental movement has been corrupted by corporations that have created an environmental industry that has taken on a life of its own and sucks billions of taxpayers' dollars into projects and actions that don't improve environmental conditions and in many cases makes them worse.
Cap and trade is one of the most egregious examples...in addition to resulting in more pollution, it will create another commodity bubble that delivers more taxpayer funded bailouts to the wealthiest 1% while making the rest of us even poorer.
Very true Stephen! The corporate church have crucified Jesus and MLK's teaching's in order to maintain their power, access to corrupt politicians; and of course $$$$$! They almost all condone the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the epitome of hypocrisy is they actually have priests and chaplains in bed with the military! MLK was branded a commie when he was alive, and today he would no doubt be branded a terrorist.
It was the evangelical missionary Paul who first murdered the teachings of Jesus, who you correctly state showed us "what it means to be truly human". But you continue the massacre by calling him by the mythical name that the Church assigned: Christ. His name was Jesus (actually Y'hoshua), and he was a man and a prophet and a teacher. He did not start a religion but merely tried to reform the religion of his birth - Judaism - just as the prophet MLK tried to reform the culture of his native nation.
The greatest representatives of enslavement are the current president and his two predecessors. Let's get that one straight. Also neither president named would be in the least a symbol of slavery Would you like to read the original draft of the Declaraition of Independence this "look all white/ but my dad was black" fellow has? If so you can't have it. But will do presentation for a mere half million dollars per drop at any ritzy white, neo con audience to let loose on them and let a little retribution get through.
I really hate it when somebody badmouths either Sally Hemming or Thomas Jefferson, both of my illegitimate ancestors. Do check on the fact that Jefferson signed legilslation congress passed in 1807 banning the importation of slaves, moving slavery on path to extinction. Then if you want to ignore the facts with such hot air, do so. I have no use for such hot air. We're all black, based on where all modern human beings came from, sub Saharan Africa. That's the real deal. It's the true cradle of civilization and humanity-- when people used to do what the Guess Who could only sing about in that song, "Share the Land."
To top it off, it was outsourced to China to save money.
http://bit.ly/ibpb0H
I donated $150 to the King Memorial when fundraising for it first started and was told that my name would appear at the memorial as one of the founding donors. So, out of curiosity, I went on the website for the memorial yesterday to see what it said about donors. There was a link stating that there would be a wall of donors "to recognize our high level ($1,000,000 and above) donors." I guess I didn't make the cut with my measly $150. :O)
But I saw, prominently displayed on the website under "major donors," the names Coca Cola, GM, Exelon (big nuclear energy corporation and major donor to Obama), BP (killer of oceans, sealife and people), J.P. Morgan Chase (killer of the American Dream), Lehman Bros. (may it rest in peace), Walmart (killer of unions), Pfizer, United Health Group (more killers), AT&T (killer of the Fourth Amendment, among others), Entergy, Boeing (yet more killers), and on and on. I literally felt sick to my stomach to see how this memorial has been co-opted by all these killer corporations, and wondered what MLK would say about it all, especially when the Tar Sands protesters are being arrested just a few blocks away for civil disobedience at the White House, trying to persuade our first African American president not to destroy what's left of our environment with the Keystone pipeline.
So I'm glad to see this article and to discover that I'm not the only one that is sickened by this spectacle. What a slap in the face to my hero, MLK.
Thanks for the heads up, Anne. Here is a link to what she is talking about. If these logos don't make you feel warm and proud about being an Amerikan, you are an ungrateful commie:
http://www.mlkmemorial.org/site/c.hkIUL9MVJxE/b.1190571/k.C963/Corporate_Sponsors.htm
Can there be any doubt that MLK would be in the forefront of unmasking our triple lawbreaker Caesarian president (constitution, war making resolution, UN resolution)? There is absolutely no doubt on my mind that he would be. It would have been the modern equivalent of Jesus tearing into the Pharisees Reverend Al and you know what I am talking about because you are among the Pharisees. I would have enjoyed observing him tearing into all of you false prophets.
Some quotes you will not see at the memorial to Dr. King. Read these and weep for what was lost on April 4, 1968:
"we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."
"A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just."
"A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
"We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late."
No wonder the militarists, racists, and capitalists had to kill him. He figured out their game and made it crystal clear to the rest of the country that would listen. Now these same miserable souls want to destroy his memory and make of him a mere dreamer. He was so much more than that.
It must be said that Rev Dr ML King said those words on April 4th 1967 - THAT'S RIGHT - EXACTLY 1 YR to the DAY before THEY KILLED HIM! I don't think that fact is a coincidence - it sounds more like a CONSPIRACY! Maybe that's part of the reason why the MSNM media never plays even excerpts of this speech - If the people knew he said those things about the US Gov't, military & Power Structure - 1 YR to The Day before his assassination - somebody might start asking some really hard questions...
A Thought... On the day of dedication this monument [or monstrosity as the case may be] someone needs to play MLK's entire April 4th 1967 'Beyond Vietnam Speech' over loud-speaker within earshot of that location! Then follow that up w excerpts of his April 3rd 1968 'I've Been to the Mountain Top' speech, & close out w RFK's April 4th announcement of his assassination! That out to get the crowd buzzing!
Seems like the people that have nascent power like MLK, that want real change, are always either assassinated by a lone wolf or die in a plane wreck.
Waldo, No wonder that modern "leaders" won't say anything like that. The owners have relegated such language to fringe websites, like Common Dreams and Black Agenda Report. Listen to Fox or CNN 24 hours a day and you will hear nothing like them.
So-called liberal sites and programs like the Nation and Democracy Now, in the end will support Obama, because he is their serial chain saw baby killer, and they love him.
Today when I seek inspiration, instead of listening to MLK talk about Beyond Vietnam, I listen to Barack Hoover Obama and his Nobel Peace Prize speech, where he assured the world that despite the prize, he had every intention of continuing and expanding all of the wars of empire. MLK had a dream and BO has never ending violence.
Your blending of Herbert Hoover and Barack Obama is interesting. Both Hoover and Obama presided over a disiintegrating economy. Both Hoover and Obama poured great government fortunes into assisting business as an expression of their devout faith in "trickle down" economics. Both Hoover and Obama were devoutly more interested in reducing taxes and controlling the deficit than in investing in the means to put able-bodied people back to work.
The difference is that Obama has the benefit of Hoover's sorry record from which to learn what not to do--and he did not do so. The difference also is that the electorate has the benefit of both Hoover's and Obama's sorry and similar records from which to learn--and they won't either. Everybody will watch all the ad agency produced propaganda and then drink the kool ade and go out and vote in next year's election. In the US of 2012, effective protest looks like a general strike by as many potential voters as possible and the active picketing of polling places on election day in an effort to encourage as many others as will do so to join them. Too bad that that will not happen either.
Not a bad time to read the 1967 Riverside Church speech/sermon/gospel of Dr. Martin Luther King.
BEYOND VIETNAM
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MLKapr67.html
"The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on."
This memorial is one of the ugliest things I've ever seen --
executed by a Chinese artist trained in Russia!
Huge boulders of the monument seem to block and trap rather than
open -- block holding MLK is 28-30 feet high .... "and you are unable
to see MLK's face" as you enter the Plaza.
Amazed that the King Family allowed this to happen!!
Too much trust, perhaps??
Remember years ago during the vicious debate about an ML King holiday? A comedian suggested that making the memorial out of white marble might do a lot to pacify the threatened mainstream. It looks like that's what we got, and I can't believe it. See the powerful things King had to say (and that we'd better take with us this Fall) in his last essays about a Poor People's March on Washington at jackdempseywriter.wordpress.com
I'm sure that Dr. King could have found better things on which to spend the $120,000,000.
"It's easier to build a monument than a movement "(I forget who, but this is a quote from one of the people closest to MLK back in the day)
The insanity and the bold-faced wickedness of those who rule us in this age is that they seek to manage the very forces that oppose them. I don't believe we've ever seen a period in history where this much control and power has been directed so continuously and effectively at an allegedly 'free' population. Some of you will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure...
Even if you disagree strongly with Derrick Jensen, it's hard to dispute his observation that pacifists mindlessly invoke "Dalai Martin Luther Gandhi" to keep from thinking bad thoughts about what effective resistance involves. We should all be unflinchingly honest with ourselves and admit that violence is very effective when used by the privileged, and that at some point, at a crucial juncture, we also must be prepared to fight back.
Fighting WAS involved in all of the major struggles of history, especially civil rights. It rarely gets noted as such, but the protesters in many of the marches were only able to proceed unmolested because there were armed soldiers standing close by. Only the threat of violence prevented others with violent intentions.