The Goddess Professor Speaks

We are all pretty familiar with Godwin’s Law by this point: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches. Well, I’m declaring a new law as a derivative of this one; I’m calling it the GP Law (GP for Goddess Professor, of course). It goes as such: As an online discussion that’s related to race (racism, race-based prejudices, or those perceived as such) grows longer, the likelihood of someone invoking a Dr. King quote from “I Have a Dream” speech increases. We see this shit all the time. I am SO tired of it. Annually, around Dr. King day, we see too many people trot out tired, trite quotes from that speech. Annually, just as many people ( myself included ), write about how ridiculous it is that Dr. King, his work, his legacy, his words are reduced and simplified down to a few quotes from one speech. These people are often, though not always, white. They are often, though not always, poorly educated on anything Dr. K...

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 abo ut 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 d...

I used to hate that I was from Memphis (and loathe  that I'm from the South). As a child, I felt ashamed that my city was the place that killed Dr. King and took that wonderful, transformative man from his family and from the world. As I got older and began to understand the full weight of American history, especially the history of Blacks in this country, my shame often turned to anger. As I aged, I understood better that my city  didn't kill Dr. King but evil citizens who were in  my city killed Dr. King. And while there is plenty of evidence to suggest collusion with city leaders (which would suggest that the city did  help to kill him) and even the United States was found to be responsible for his death , the city itself did not kill Dr. King, and the assassination didn't stop his work. The more I studied his assassination and history, I also realized that if it hadn't have been Memphis, it would've been another city. It just so happened that it was my city. I s...