February 23, 2004

Conservatives who falsely associate themselves with MLK, are in turn falsely associated with the KKK

Eugene Volokh points out this article in The University of Michigan student paper, reporting the KKK's endorsement of the anti-affirmative-action Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI).

Receiving support from a group that opposes civil rights has raised questions about MCRI's commitment to the ideals of equality.

MCRI asserts that the purpose of its ballot initiative is to guarantee equal protection under the law, regardless of race, ethnicity or sex. For this reason, the group presents itself as a civil rights initiative, heralding the ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In numerous interviews, O'Brien has invoked the activist days of the '60s. He has often quoted King's idea that "individuals should be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

MCRI's connection to King is evident in its mission statement and its petition methods. "Our goal is to finally realize the promise made four decades ago with the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act," the statement reads.

"It should be unconstitutional to discriminate," O'Brien said.

It is, of course, unfair to blame MCRI for the KKK's endorsement - they don't control who endorses them.

But I can't help but see it as a form of ironic justice, since the MCRI has - either through dishonesty or ignorance - severely distorted Martln Luthor King Jr's views. Although we can't know what King would say if he were alive today, there's no doubt that he favored racial (and other) preferences during his lifetime. Here's what King said interviewed in Playboy (January 1965):

Question: Do you feel it's fair to request a multi-billion-dollar program of preferential treatment for the Negro, or for any other minority group?

King: I do indeed. Within common law, we have ample precedents for special compensatory programs, which are regarded as settlements. American Indians are still being paid for land in a settlement manner. Is not two centuries of labor, which helped to build this country, a real commodity?

Here's what King wrote about the "Operation Breadbasket" program, which he helped create and administrate, from King's book Where Do We Go From Here?

Operation Breadbasket is carried out mainly by clergymen. First, a team of ministers calls on the management of a business in the community to request basic facts on the company's total number of employees, the number of Negro employees, the department or job classification in which all are located, and the salary ranges for each category. The team then returns to the steering committee to evaluate the data and to make a recommendation concerning the number of new and upgraded jobs that should be requested. The decision on the number of jobs requested is usually based on population figures. For instance, if a city has a 30 percent Negro population, then it is logical to assume that Negroes should have at least 30 percent of the jobs in any particular company, and jobs in all categories rather than only in menial areas, as the case almost always happens to be.

As racial preferences go, this is much more radical than any currently operating Affirmative Action program.

King's proposals didn't begin and end with race, of course - he also wanted programs to help poor people of every race. But quotes like the above leave no doubt that MLK favored racial preference programs.

So what's going on in Michigan? A group that continually falsely associates their views with MLK Jr., so they can unfairly benefit from MLK's moral credibility, is objecting to being falsely associated with the KKK, because they don't want to be unfairly tarred by the KKK's lack of moral credibility.

Sounds like ironic justice to me.

Posted by ampersand at February 23, 2004 02:21 PM | TrackBack
Comments
Post a comment