Citation needed for this assertion.
What he did was a political analysis. So while he could provide citations to political scientists who said similar things that wouldn't make the true necessarily.
The "citation needed" only works if you want to assess the premises, so do you want a citation for racism being/having been more widespread or for Europe having had a antisemitism problem?
It's fine to not know everything, there are lots of thing I know nothing about.
When I don't know anything about a topic, I have found Wikipedia to become a great starting point to become less ignorant.
How France after having been a "laissez-faire" country (the fucking word is in French!) became the country it is today
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_du_Conseil_national_...
How Clement Atlee transformed the UK
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Attlee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attlee_ministry
Why the US has for foreigners terribly obvious blind spots
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_civil_religion
Labor history of the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_St...
History of antisemitism in Europe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_antisemitism
History of racism in the United States of America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_States
Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Hemings
Yes I'm pretty sure you are incomfortable with the topic at hand if you see absolutely no point in my "incoherent rambling"
History of racism in the United States of America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_States
There are plenty of good books. You can start with the writings from Martin Luther King.
He wrote ton of words in his life, not only the epic misleading "judge a man not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character"
https://crossculturalsolidarity.com/mlk-speeches-sermons-ess...
He also said "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." and "Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World!" and "I am convinced that men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don’t know each other, and they don’t know each other because they don’t communicate with each other, and they don’t communicate with each other because they are separated from each other"
The race debate (You're either with us or against us!) as it stands in the USA today would have MLK rolling in his grave.
It's 100% clear in the sense that it's the one quote that people who don't want to hear about racism love. And isn't it perfect that it comes from the most admired anti-racist in US history? It's perfect for that and that's why it's super widespread.
It's also a complete travesty of Martin Luther King's thoughts to laser focus on this one quote.
Martin Luther King was describing an ideal society in the far future that looks nothing like our messy present.
Do you think Martin Luther King purpose in life is fairly summarized by "Hey we have talked too much about racism already" ?
Why then did he bother to be so hated, to go in prison, march so many miles, ...?
If that makes no sense it's because it does.
Here is another Martin Luther King's quote
> Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles over racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or to feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it
https://nativenewsonline.net/opinion/dr-martin-luther-king-j...
I didn't laser focus on this one quote, my previous reply includes several other quotes of his. Perhaps it is a complete travesty of his thoughts to ignore something he said in what is his most famous speech?
> Martin Luther King was describing an ideal society in the far future that looks nothing like our messy present.
Indeed, a future where his children "will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." But as I said in my previous reply, the race debate as it stands in our "messy present" does the opposite of this.
> Do you think Martin Luther King purpose in life is fairly summarized by "Hey we have talked too much about racism already" ?
Where did I say that? I'm talking to you about racism now.
> "even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or to feel remorse for this shameful episode"
Unfortunately MLK didn't live to see Obama become president, Michael Jordan dominate the NBA, or Lizzo playing James Madison's crystal flute.
Another MLK quote from his book "Why We Can't Wait":
> "Lamentably, it is a historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals."
Note he says nothing about race here. This quote has more to do with "pretax and posttax income inequality" than race does. Reducing inequality to racism is naive at best.
Martin Luther King didn't talk all his life about race because he wanted to but because he had to : it's the structural problem #1 of the USA.
Obviously things are better than in his days, and in his days there were better than before the civil war. That doesn't mean there are right today.
Again why the powerful hatred against Obamacare? It makes zero sense on economic grounds.
Just before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King was leading the "Poor People's Campaign"
As you can imagine it was not focused on race but on poverty. And people who love the skin of color quote usually don't want to talk about poverty.
And thank you. It's a pleasure to have an actual dialog rather than just being accused of being a nazi when asking a question or putting forward an opinion (The with us or against us war cry of BLM I referred to earlier)
> Martin Luther King didn't talk all his life about race because he wanted to but because he had to : it's the structural problem #1 of the USA.
I would argue racism is a symptom of a deeper issue. If I would have to name "structural problem #1" in the western world I would say access to a quality education. I referenced an appropriate MLK quote in a previous reply: "I am convinced that men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don’t know each other, and they don’t know each other because they don’t communicate with each other." A quality education should fix people not knowing each other and give them the ability to communicate to one another, and racism might be a solved issue in a single generation.
> Obviously things are better than in his days, and in his days there were better than before the civil war. That doesn't mean there are right today.
100% - there is lots of room for improvement.
> Again why the powerful hatred against Obamacare? It makes zero sense on economic grounds.
I agree with you, it makes no sense on economic grounds. Nor in my opinion on humanitarian grounds, or any grounds for that matter. I am very much in favour of public healthcare and wouldn't stop there but include education, transport, essential services etc etc etc but there are issues there too. (Just ask anyone who works in the NHS in the UK or a public health service in Australia)
It's not a racial issue tho. MLK again: "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane." - once again no mention of race, but a mention of inequality - the topic of this original post.
Republicans tend to be opposed to public services and it was primarily republicans who reduced Obamacare to the shadow of its former self. But being a republican or believing in privatisation doesn't make somebody a racist. Believe it or not, there are people who genuinely believe privatisation is in the best interest of the public. As I mentioned above, spend some time talking to workers in public health in Australia and England. It won't take you long to find one who believes they should privitise everything, even if they're life-long left-leaning party voters.
> Just before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King was leading the "Poor People's Campaign" As you can imagine it was not focused on race but on poverty.
MLK was a true hero.
> And people who love the skin of color quote usually don't want to talk about poverty.
This doesn't follow logically for me. If someone is quoting MLK and talking about being judged not by the colour of their skin but the content of their character, surely they'd much prefer to talk about poverty rather than race? Certainly it is that way for me.
Reducing every difference to race and every issue to racism is not productive. If it's productive and useful I could talk about solving poverty all day, but the minute someone suggests their opinion holds more weight because of the colour of their skin I turn off and immediately lose all respect for them. Why? Because I'd prefer to be judged by the content of my character (and my life experiences) and not the colour of my skin. If we all did that there would be no race debate.
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Anyway I'm turning off for the day but thank you for the chat. People always have more in common than they think, if only they'd take the time to listen (reminds me of that MLK quote!) You've helped renew my faith in people.