MLK Holiday is an Insult
Jan 21, 2008 General
That little gem according to Dallas minister Peter Johnson. Johnson believes that celebrating King’s birth rather than the date of his death by assassination is an insult to him [King} and all he stood for. Johnson also believes that celebrating the birth of King rather than his death allows whites to escape the guilt of King’s death:
“We have ignored the essence of his life and the horror of his death,” said Johnson. “We’ve allowed white America to escape the guilt of his assassination and we’ve allowed black America to drift back into a coma.” United Press International
The first thing to recognize is that we celebrate the lives of people. We celebrate the life of Lincoln not the date of his assassination and we celebrate the birth and resurrection (rebirth) of Jesus. This minister is focusing on the death of King in order to do what? Does he want to stir more hatred? His assertion that this allows white America to escape guilt. What part of white America is guilty? The only person guilty in the death of King died in jail.
There was no huge conspiracy among all the whites to kill King. One deranged guy with a gun shot King and that man was tried and served life in prison. There might have been a few others associated with the assassination plot but they hardly represent white America. John Kennedy was killed by a white guy and we do not have a federal holiday commemorating his death in order to flourish in white guilt. As a matter of fact, we do not have a holiday celebrating Kennedy’s birth.
Many white Americans who are alive today were not around when King was assassinated and 100 years after King’s death there will few, if any, people around who were here then so why would we have a holiday to perpetuate white guilt? Why would we have a holiday to perpetuate white guilt when few whites were involved?
We celebrate the life of Dr. King by commemorating his birth, the beginning of a great journey. Today in America we have large numbers of blacks and other minorities in positions of great responsibility and we have a black man running for the highest office in this nation with a good chance to win.
Certainly that is the part of the King legacy that matters rather than some perceived notion of white guilt.
Tags: assassination, insult, MLK holiday