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He's Not Your Safe Negro

Yesterday was the day the U.S. observes the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for 2019.

I've always been rather annoyed with how much the safe-negro version of Dr. King is trotted out on the day he's memorialized each year, and folks strip out the more raw, realer, in your face, often uncomfortable. statements from him.

We so easily quote pieces of his "I Have a Dream" speech, but pay little attention to his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech--despite the fact that that speech lost him some support AND was given one year to the day of his assassination. What about his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech--literally given the night before he was assassinated?

Too often, we look back at Civil Rights leaders who have become cultural icons and sanitize them down to a more palatable version of who they were in their life. This isn't only reserved for cultural leaders and icons. It happens upon death for most people. In our desire to hang on to the good, we develop convenient amnesia and forget the less polished, less pretty, uncomfortable bits. 
Funnily, other historical leaders who fought for good in their own spheres of influence don't get the same sort of admiration, the same sort of sanitized safe-___ view. There is no safe-negro-ing Malcolm X, no safe-negro-ing Eartha Kitt (for speaking out at the WH luncheon hosted by Lady Bird), there's no safe-hispanic-ing Che or Cesar--who many people today STILL confuse with Hugo Chavez. I could go on, but hopefully, you get the point.

So, to honor Dr. King, I choose to let his words speak for him and I purposely write this today--the day after the national holiday because all too often, we only pay attention, homage, and respect to the safe-negroes (or safe-fill in the blank) on the days that we're told we should.


Pay attention.
Be informed--on your own terms.
Take part.
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