In what’s become something of a yearly tradition here at PB, we’re re-running this fantastic post by Friend of the Blog Ari Kelman, a history professor in California who blogs over at Edge of The American West. Kelman looks at the sterilization of King’s image, who was never the saintly, beloved man in life that Read More
Martin Luther King was never the saintly, beloved man in life that he has become in death. Ari Kelman over at Edge of the West gave us permission to re-run this fantastic post on Martin Luther King, Jr., and the sterilization of his image. The Martin Luther King of American memory serves this nation as Read More
via SEK, we learn of the Young Cons, two “MCs” whose lyrics are generously laced with Republican talking points. Our apologies, of course. Their website suggests that the whole thing might be tongue-in-cheek, but from the actual lyrics and delivery it doesn’t look like these cats are joking. I mean, yeah, they’ve clearly got to Read More
Last week ari re-posted a smart blog entry on the Santa-fication of MLK, whose rough edges had been made smooth in our civic memory. He was despised while he was living, and his stances also confounded other leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, but little of that makes it into school textbooks. Rosa Parks has Read More
ari has a fantastic post up outlining King’s rhetorical evolution and the events that led to the national holiday and the soft-focus whitewashing of his memory. Counterpoised against the ostensibly violent Malcolm X, who supposedly would have forced America to change its ways by using “any means necessary,” King comes off as a cuddly Read More
