My 18,000 word thesis earned me a Masters of Biblical Studies degree (a wholistic plan to empower low-income black America). I'm here to network for publication and to seek out like-minded African Americans (curtis.hervey@yahoo.com). As a Distinguished Graduate of OCS, I seek to apply battle-tested military principles to solving black pathology by issuing a national warning order. I'm an iconoclast, my doctrine is Washingtonian (as in Booker T.) and my role is that of Socratic Gadfly. King, our national hero is honored and praised, but for what? The civil rights model was counterproductive and degrading. This legacy teaches that to get anything from he mainstream, we’ll have to endure torture, humiliation, incarceration, abuse, etc. and maybe, just maybe, if we grovel enough, we’ll be “blessed” with some rotten scraps from the mainstream’s Table of Plenty (cornucopia). Sickening.
I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees. It is better to starve in freedom than to be a chained, well-fed lap-dog.
King is simply the wrong role-model. King needs to be exorcised from the black consciousness. We need a better standard for black leadership.
Although I respect his courage, tenacity, leadership, eloquence, etc., I abhor King’s futile tactics and dead-end strategy. Undoubtedly, the publicity King generated influenced Supreme Court rulings and civil rights legislation. But, we have no economic foundation. We are a house built on sand.
In the past, once the King-mania died down, after all the smoke from the civil rights demonstrations died down, blacks were faced with the reality of zero socio-economic change for those who needed it most: the poor. The civil rights movement (CRM) was essentially a class-struggle. The low-income blacks were exploited and abandoned. They were duped by the middle-class leadership of the CRM and rioted after they realized their situation had not improved after the King Civil Rights Circus left their town.
In my estimation, the CRM failed. We have yet to achieve desegregation. We have yet to integrate. The myopic CRM ministers ignored their moral obligation to discern the proverbial writing on the wall and refused to heed the Moynihan Prophecy in 1962. That prophecy has now been fulfilled: ironically, Integration (assimilation) contributed to the gradually disintegration of the black nuclear family.
As a people group, our failure to develop our human capital with industry and trades means we are yet incapable of self-employment and have become wards of the state. Socialism simply won’t work because it cannot cancel out discrimination. Discrimination exists because of white supremacy and is designed to keep blacks from becoming competitive for
Our only option is to abandon MLK’s socialistic mad dream and instead pursue “equality” through economic independence. If we fail to do this, we’ll remain dependent on the mainstream and at their mercy, panhandling for crumbs.
Yes, we celebrate King’s legacy each year, but continue to experience zero economic change among our poor. Like always, after the King Circus leaves town, our socio-economic status will remain unimproved. This is the true legacy of MLK and it is past time for us to awaken from his socialistic dream that has become a nightmare.