By Kevin Alexander Gray
I listen to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches and sermons over and over again like some people listen to popular songs. I have my favorites, such as “The Other America,” “Where Do We Go from Here,” “The Drum Major Instinct,” and “How Long, Not Long.”
I like these better than the “I Have a Dream” speech because they have more substance.
In “The Drum Major” sermon, King said “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve” — regardless of your station in life.
In “The Other America” speech, King preached about wasting billions on an “ill-considered war” while neglecting the poor in America.
When you examine the levels of poverty and unemployment in the nation today, I believe that King would determine that the nation had failed to heed his vision of jobs, justice and peace.
These days, it’s difficult to compete with the mainstream’s success in making King just a starry-eyed “dreamer” and a commercial commodity.
I was watching a football game during the holidays when a commercial from one of the retail chains announcing its MLK Day sale popped up on the screen.
It didn’t even use an image of King, just the initials “MLK,” accompanied by an array of appliances marked down for “the one-day event.”
Looking back to the dedication of the King Memorial on the Mall in Washington in October, you couldn’t ignore the many corporate sponsors of the monument. The list of supporters was a who’s who of American business — General Motors, Tommy Hilfiger, Verizon, General Electric and Walmart, just to name a few.
Even so, I’m always thankful when Martin Luther King Jr. Day comes around.
Whatever the advertisers try to sell and the politicians try to tell you, King’s message of unconditional love and nonviolent redemptive good and his steadfast attack on the evils of racism, poverty and militarism cannot be ignored.
They can try to co-opt him, but his image is always going to look odd next to a washing machine or a hamburger or a self-serving politician.
Kevin Alexander Gray is a writer for Progressive Media Project and author of “Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Fundamentals of Black Politics.”