This article is a bit late, but a few a days ago, on January 16th, we celebrated and remembered Martin Luther King Jr. with this day presented to him. I just want to let all of you know that MLK has always been my hero, next to Tupac Shakur, growing up. What I loved about MLK is that he did things strategically; he was smart. He was for the advancement of blacks and socioeconomically deprived individuals, but he still made his decisions based on rational thought rather than solely emotion. It was even described here that he was a bit disconcerted by Malcolm X and other black rights organizations and activists who used the term "black power". He felt this term and more radical approaches would isolate the civil rights movement from white moderates and other white groups whom he was trying to connect with to enhance the fight for not only black rights, but the rights of all people who were economically underprivileged, all races. I don't necessarily agree with that notion; I support the phrase "black power", but I can totally see why he would oppose it, at that time, based on what he was trying to do.
He fought for many more problems and injustices he saw as well, such as the Vietnam War. He was also radical, to an extent, about the problems that U.S. capitalism brought to the slums and ghettos of the U.S. My point is that, even though he did switch to a more radical platform later in his protests, he still made sure he was strategic about every decision related to his social movements, which is why I admire him so much (besides all of the improvements that followed his efforts, obviously).
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To get a bit off topic for a second, I want to address how funny it is that such a large percentage of the U.S. did not support MLK when he was alive; however, basically the entire U.S. supports him now. Hahahaha. It's just funny to me because literally every middle class conservative that I see on FaceBook (I know, the haven for political argument and blogging these days) who is against Black Lives Matter and all of their protesting, even when it is peaceful, supports MLK. Excuse my language, BUT YOU
KNOW DARN WELL that these people would be a part of that large percentage who DID NOT support MLK during the 60s. They don't support protesting for equal rights and black lives matter, but they support MLK, who protested for equal rights. This is a very contradictory situation. And you know what? I bet you that in 50 years, 94% of the U.S. population will have positive thoughts about the Black Lives Matter movement that existed today. I'm taking all bets. To conclude, it's funny how history repeats itself, huh? I mean, Black Lives Matter has a bit more support today than MLK did back then (43% of Americans support BLM today), but today's society is overall more progressive than it was then, so that small percentage increase does not surprise me.
Anyway, to get to my main point, it seems like everybody today (or a few days ago) is sort of "reclaiming" MLK and bringing a new light to him, which consists of spreading the information that he was a bit radical and not as strictly peaceful as most history books deem him as. This method of remembering him has inspired me to share with you all a dilemma I faced with my attitude towards MLK, which actually caused me to resent him for a bit.
This past November I found out that MLK was, for lack of a better word, a sex freak, and he cheated on his wife, Coretta Scott King, multiple times; the guy loved women.
As disrespectful as some of you might think it is for me to bring this up during his remembrance day, I must bring it up because discovering this truth almost caused me to not refer to him as one of my heroes. I want all of you to realize what I realized about MLK, all heroes, and just humans in general. Now look, I understand human nature, people cheating on their spouses, people having sexual desires, etc. However, my entire life I have looked at MLK as a perfect being, somebody I can only hope to be somewhat similar to when I get older, god-like, if you will. When I revere somebody to this degree, I expect them to follow my mind's image of what they should be, which I have realized is not necessarily the right thing to do.
When I first found out, I immediately told all of my closest friends, bashing MLK, telling all of them that he was not a true leader and everything he did means nothing now. All of this, of course, was all emotion and no rational. I was disappointed. The man that I aspired to eventually be was just another human like me. I still do think that it was wrong of MLK to do commit these actions; however, I do not fault him for it (here's the article explaining it all). MLK was a man on Earth. He had worldly desires and even though he was a man of God, there were still some sins he did not break free from. I have realized that most social norms that society has placed on our minds are not necessarily right or wrong; they are just right or wrong according to society. In the big scheme of things, MLK's sexual actions might not have necessarily been bad, but were rather just necessary parts of his journey to reach a level of maturity that everybody wishes to attain.
Aside from this, the main thing I registered was that no matter what a hero does in his/her private life, nothing should be taken away from what he/she did to be referred to as a hero. Their private life does not affect their accomplishments; it only affects how you perceive their accomplishments.
Martin Luther King Jr., you are still my #1 hero.
