#reclaim MLK

[thebreakfastgenie]

This is what Vietnam War discourse would actually look like if there was tumblr in the 60s/70s:

That scene in Mad Men where Glenn tells Sally if he doesn't go to Vietnam some poor Black kid will get drafted instead

Draft dodging privilege

Failing the draft board physical on purpose is ableist

Trying to get a psychological deferment is ablesit/sanist

Pretending to be gay to dodge the draft is homophobic

If you're pretending to be gay to dodge the draft you can reclaim slurs

Trigger tags for topics related to Vietnam because it might trigger veterans, people getting screamed at for not using them, discourse about whether they're racist

Can Asian Americans reclaim "Charlie?" (Yes. No. Only if you're Vietnamese. Only if you're literally a member of the Vietcong.)

Lists of celebrities that are canceled for supporting Vietnam ranging from people who actually support the war to people who shared a post about supporting families of POWs

Someone posts about being happy their POW cousin got released, gets anon hate for supporting the war

Excuses not to boycott Dow Chemical, "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism"

Women and people of color get anon hate for talking about misogyny and racism in the anti-war movement

Women shouldn't go to college/law school/med school/grad school because men need those slots so they can get a deferment

The draft proves misandry is real

Anti-electoral leftists opposing the 26th amendment because both sides are the same

"Voting for LBJ is the lesser of two evils!!!!"

"At least Barry Goldwater wanted to end the forever war in Vietnam!"

The students murdered at Kent State get "canceled" for failing some moral purity test

Post about how Jackson State got less attention than Kent State because the students were Black which is actually but in the most bad faith, accusatory tone possible

Feminism and Civil Rights are distractions

Black bloggers get hate for publicly mourning MLK because "thousands are killed in Vietnam every day!!!!"

White American mixes up Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos because they don't know they're three separate countries

Working class people support the war so opposing it is classist actually

"The movement isn't about your fave I hate stan culture!!!!!"

[bklynmusicnerd]

I don't have a lot to say about Laura in those courthouse scenes that I haven't already said. I do think Laura has been regressed for the purposes of sociopathic mooch having someone powerful in her corner. I do think her refusal to acknowledge Trina is intentional, and I'm curious to see if they're ever going to have Trina comment on Laura's need to disappear her.

But I'd actually rather focus on Trina in those scenes because my eyes were mostly drawn to her and her reactions. I think what I'm enjoying the most about Ava chasing after justice for Trina is that it's basically forcing Trina to be honest with herself about what she actually wants vs. what she thinks she should want.

She tells Ava how she doesn't want demon spawn to lose out on his mother but when Ava pushes back and tells her this tiny sliver of justice is something she needs to really move on, Trina really doesn't fight her on that idea. So what we get from Trina in that courtroom is a girl once again seeing if the system she was raised to believe in, the system that turned on her and almost destroyed her life, would finally come through with some "sliver of justice" like Ava suggested.

What she saw was the system (through Mayor Laura's influence) move quickly to protect the girl who drugged her and weaponized the system against her. By the time sociopathic mooch skates with nothing but probation, Trina is sharing Ava's annoyance and side eye of Molly. But I think it's important to point out the differences in Trina and Ava's reactions. Ava is outraged, and Trina is disappointed but not remotely surprised. She is equal parts fed up with the system and completely unsurprised that sociopathic mooch continues to bend it to her will.

Trina's budding disillusionment paired with Laura and Esme's glee is actually weirdly enough the perfect MLK day episode. I don't know how intentional those optics or social commentary were but they're fitting. Trina got to watch the same Molly who tried to throw the book at her, with a trumped up plea deal, tell Ava that "justice was served" because sociopathic mooch would be spending no jail time.

And the resolution and protection for sociopathic mooch happened so quickly in comparison to the months Trina's fate was left dangling in the wind. Trina and Esme did not face the same justice system at all and I think that parallel was intentional.

I think, considering Trina is rumored to be heading in a gray direction, that she needed this moment of being reminded that this system that she wants to believe in will never be as fair as she wants it to be. It was important for her to sit back and observe it all and observe the way Laura (who is just as representative of the system as Molly at this point) used her influence without hesitation.

Trina blocking sociopathic mooch from her victory lap makes all the sense in the world to me in the aftermath of all of that. She wants and has to reclaim her power in the moment and remind the sociopathic mooch that despite her many wins, she didn't succeed in breaking her.

Trina wanting to play the martyr but ultimately being forced to accept that she's human and not above it all is an ongoing thing for her. Despite herself, Trina is still human and deep down, she wants her pound of flesh after being hurt like everyone else, and I think Ava is going to play an important role in Trina coming to terms with that side of herself.

What happens when the most optimistic person gets burned so much that they stop believing in doing the right thing being enough? I think we might see something like that play out with Trina.

[bloghrexach]

🤔 … this is who this creature is!! He has to be stopped!! — sound familiar?

By: LaillaB, founder ‘Reclaim thre Narrative’, from LinkedIn …

“During his visit to Uganda in 2016 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Entebbe Operation, Netanyahu had a meeting with the leaders of Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia. This event took place as Netanyahu paid tribute to the memory of his brother, who lost his life during the release operation.

"Israel has fought terrorism and has developed certain capacities which I think are important for the defense of the world against this global onslaught of terrorism," Netanyahu said.

Speaking about mutual cooperation, the prime minister said "We are eager to share this technology in so many fields with our African friends. We think that Israel now is the best partner that the countries of Africa could have, and it's something that is dear to our hearts."

Netanyahu reiterated the words of Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism,

‘After I liberate the Jewish people, I will go to Africa to help liberate the black people.'

The original Herzl's quote is in his 1902 novel "Altneuland" ("Old-New Land").

It reads:

✍🏻 ‘There is still one other question arising out of the disaster of nations which remains unsolved to this day, and whose profound tragedy, only a Jew can comprehend.

This is the African question.

Just call to mind all those terrible episodes of the slave trade, of human beings who, merely because they were black, were stolen like cattle, taken prisoner, captured and sold.

Their children grew up in strange lands, the objects of contempt and hostility because their complexions were different.

I am not ashamed to say, though I may expose myself to ridicule for saying so, that once I have witnessed the redemption of the Jews, my people, I wish also to assist in the redemption of the Africas’

The Israeli PM also added during his speech;

“We have our African brethren, the Ethiopian Jews, who are in our society, and I personally work every few weeks to help integrate more and more and incorporate in our society."

🗞️ ‘Separate, but not equal treatment plagues Israel’s Ethiopian Jews’

👉🏼https://lnkd.in/edGPraUU

The African Union’s rejection to Israeli observer status was led by then Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi.

South Africa currently leads the charge against granting Israel observer status.

Gaining observer status would help enhance Israel's legitimacy on the continent as well as open doors for bi-lateral cooperation between Israel and other African countries.

With South Africa's landmark action at the ICJ against Israel, it seems highly unlikely that Israel will ever be able to secure observer status at the Organisation of AFRICAN Unity.

🇿🇦♥️ #HandsOffAfrica

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” … MLK 🕊

#reclaimthenarrative — 🍉 — #FreePalestine …

@hrexach

[nokingsonlyfooles]

Brigitte Empire! She's just done a big move to escape TERF Island, and YT (and associated donations) are her only source of income right now. Listen, like, and reply to her video (you don't have to read the YT comments - though most aren't too bad - just say "hi") to help her out with the algorithm, and give money if you can.

And, while I have your attention, how DOES one differentiate between a nice, civil protest and a lawbreaking riot?

Well, is "one" an ordinary human being without a badge - press or police/security?

Like these BLM folks right here?

...Then your input is not required. Sorry. You don't actually get to define whether you're here to be heard or to break shit and ruin it for everyone. You have no authority over your message, and we do not believe you when you express your intent, especially if there's any (I mean ANY) property damage. Human lives are more important than some light vandalism and broken windows, you say? Well, lalalalala, 'cos we're not listening.

But if "one" does have a badge...

Aha! Behold, a miscreant!

Yes. Take that, you... you building-haters!

...one is allowed, nay, expected to put the proper framework around this chaos of, uh, human beings asking for human rights with their (theoretically) protected right to protest.

And this framework is subject to change!

...like, a lot of change. Within a single human lifetime, MLK goes from commie threat to conservative icon, and the protests he helped organize go from "tut-tut, so uncivil" to a triumph of nonviolent resistance. Gandhi and his tactics have gone through a similar rehabilitation/reclaimation.

And Stonewall? It's gone from a riot to a protest to a riot, with an ever-evolving cast of heroes, villains, and participants. Brigitte up there steered clear of who was involved and what their motivations may have been, and I suppose I will too, because we're all very attached to our own personal mythology. We all want to have been there, and there's some backlash and othering for people with queer identities that aren't part of the mythos.

I will say, though, that the man-o-sphere-centric film Buck Breaking sure did cough up an interesting interpretation for us. (Don't bother to watch it, I didn't, I just read/listened about it. It seems painful.) To the brain trust behind this propaganda piece, Stonewall was a BLACK riot - with no queer folks involved at all, certainly not any Black queer folks - and we STOLE it from them. I'm not gonna take that apart either, F. D. Signifier already did, and his experiences give him a better viewpoint than mine.

A riot is defined, and fueled by the police reaction in the moment, and afterwards, the media and politicians will carve it up however they see fit. Generally speaking, contemporary sources tend to err on the side of the police, and slowly get more revisionist as time passes. If the cops don't want you where you are, they will come up with a reason to remove you, provoking one if necessary. (See, my earlier post today, responding to efforts to make it more difficult to protest in the States.)

Cops are trained to parse any disturbance (even a bunch of kids singing patriotic music at the Capitol to score cheap points for the Republican House Speaker) as a threat, and they will minimize or remove it. A protest that does not cause a disturbance is not an effective protest. Thus, ANYTHING can be a riot. And, once the cops fire a few chemical weapons into the crowd, it sure will look like one. That's nice for any newspaper photographers who happen to be in the area!

This is why, when I talk about violent protests, I say the violence happens, like a rainy day or a sneeze. Speaking as a bleeding-heart lefty progressive (I don't show up for shit like January 6th), most people aren't looking to hurt anyone, they just want to be heard. If you do look like you're just there to start some shit, or you bring a weapon, someone will take you aside and ask you to go home, or at least leave that shit in the car. People with obvious weapons make a suitable excuse for the police to start some shit of their own - and we'd all rather not be pepper-sprayed or gassed, thanks. But if the cops want you gone, they are able to turn up the pressure until someone snaps, and then they'll start doing damage and making arrests anyway.

The first Pride was a riot, and a protest, and the participants repaid police violence against them with violence against the police. Police do their violence on behalf of the State, so we tend to overlook it, or spread the responsibility around until everyone is a little bit complicit. (We live in a democracy, right? Right?) But the truth is, a riot can be self-defense. It just doesn't look like it in the papers, because systemic oppression doesn't photograph very well.

Nothing about what's happening is "civil." "Civility" is not what anyone is after, here. What they want is silence. Silence just lets them keep doing whatever the hell they were doing, while pretending we're all OK with it. If you raise your voice, they will do whatever they can to shut you down. They lie, they cheat, they wound, and they kill.

Well, you can't make any noise if you're dead. So first, stay alive. And then, if you can, yell your fucking head off. Don't quiet down no matter what label they hit you with. If you're lucky, one day you'll be a triumph of nonviolent resistance too!

[ultralaser]

How much do you want to bet that Jesus would hate most of what calls itself Christianity today?

i think he'd be about 50/50, and it would mostly depend on whether we were talking about christians like mlk and raphael warnock, or mike huckabee and lou dobbs et al

well, 50/50 might be optimistic, but he would definitely say that most christians probably mean well but are held back by their own biases or their leadership

as a palestinian jew living under martial law in roman occupied judea, historical yeshua would find a lot of common ground with the palestinian struggle today, and find the mike pence end times death cult to be a bunch of people being waylaid by their own prejudices, and their leadership taking advantage of them to enrich themselves, same as the rest of the christian right / white supremacist wing of america

but he would love the black church, and he would love mlk and obama's attempts to reframe the ideals of christianity / the united states as things we are still striving towards, not something we ever had and then left behind. that re-reckoning with and reclaiming of and active resistance to and undermining of the systems of imperial domination would feel very familiar to him

i think for most of the christian right he would adopt their own mantra of love the sinner hate the sin, and push for them to leave the worst branches of american christianity and reject the core tenets of the gop. for everyone else he would mostly say the same things he did the first time about doing more for each other than ourselves

in a lot of ways the world isn't that different, he would immediately recognize us hegemony as roman rule and speak out against it in much the same language as mlk did, and he would be hated for it just as they both were by conservative elements in their own time

[freethinkerfile]

Reclaiming the dream

[stephen-barry]

Gary Younge on 60th Anniversary of March on Washington & Reclaiming MLK'...

[fawkstales]

We’re kicking off our bi-coastal MLK Day Weekend 2023 celebrations in San Francisco with some of the bay area's finest Techno, House and Vogue Beat DJs to liberate your mind, body and soul! Join us Friday Jan.13th for Liber8 SF at F8 as we dance toward a decolonized future, reclaiming OUR music as an expression of blackness, and continuing to show that blackness is revolutionary! Tickets are $20 advanced/$25 door. Use the code DECOLONIZE to save $5! We have guest spots reserved for QTBIPOC people in need of financial support, please DM us if that’s you! (at South of Market, San Francisco) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmXrXekv9F3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[youhaveaguineapigwhere]

MLK day mood

[querxus]

it was an honor to march with black lives matter sacramento and SURJ groups yesterday 

[thesagechronicles]

On the Whitewashing of MLK JR Day

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is always a really weird holiday for me. Each year, I scroll through my social media feed and see celebrities post “I have a dream” and “darkness cannot drive out darkness” quotes. People actively forget his radical quotes and choose quotes to fit their “we are human” narrative. These are the same celebrities that stay silent when injustices are committed every single day against Black people and other marginalized groups.

It’s baffling that America loves using MLK against his own people. Against the people he was very much a like. The very idea of a national holiday dedicated to a man that was murdered by his own government is incredibly ironic.

That is another thing that troubles me is that people believe that MLK died for something. He did not die, he was murdered. He was murdered for the same reasons so many of us are being murdered for today. If he had a say in the matter, I’m pretty sure he would’ve wanted to live and continue his fight.

MLK understood rioters. He understood anger. He was not for bystanders of any sort. He would’ve marched with us today. He would’ve supported BLM.

This holiday is also a reminder of how deep respectability, perceived or actual, polices our movements. There are no holidays dedicated to the strides of Malcom X or the people in The Black Panther Party. This also goes to show how weak respectability is because all of the above people were on the governments hit list. 

Martin Luther King Jr. did a lot for the black community. But if his work was completed with his death, we would not be here right now. If anything, this holiday is a reminder of how far we have to go.

[thatlaidbackdude]

L.A. is woke,lol! Red,Black & Green for MLK & for the people! ✊💯

[fipindustries]

Here’s what’s funny about the far left’s attempt to reclaim MLK as one of their own: the dude allegedly covered up rape back in the day, like many Christian clergy did. The Cold War Radical left in general and Black Nationalism especially was weirdly tolerant of sexual abuse (see also the Nuwabian Nation)

uh, im sorry buddy did you get lost in your way to somewhere?

are you trying to vaguely gesture at hypocrisy or something? i think its fair to say mlk was far left considering he was a socialist and for civil rights back in the 60's, that doesnt sound like moderate left positions to have at the time. far left is just an indicator of your political positions.

[cromulentenough]

Didn’t MLK allegedly cover up sexual abuse back in the day? If so, then that makes the radical left’s attempts to reclaim him unintentionally funny and/or creepy. Cold War-era leftist counterculture in general is way more rapey than one would expect given their “right side of history” reputation.

I don't think saying 'actually he wasn't as peo America as you think and also he was killed for what he said' is trying to reclaim him or excuse covering up sexual assault (if that happened, I haven't fact checked it).

[pinkottre]

HOW YOU CAN HELP: a detailed post on where to text, where to donate, and how to educate yourself and stand up for the black community always.

1) Text FLOYD to 55156 and demand that the officers that murdered George Floyd are charged with murder.

2) Text ENOUGH to 55156 and demand justice- the officers that murdered Breonna Taylor still have their jobs.

3) Text JUSTICE to 55156 and demand that the District Attorneys George Barnhill and Jackie Johnson are removed from office.

4) GO TO https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ For an abundance of resources for protesters, where to donate, and petitions.

5) WHERE TO DONATE:

•Website for nationwide bail funds- Direct bail for protesters across USA

•Minnesota Freedom Fund- Direct bail for protesters in Minnesota

•Reclaim The Block- Organising to divest from MPD and live in a police-free world

•Black Visions Collective- black-led queer and trans-centred organising work

•WFPC Mutual Aid Fund- direct financial aid for young women and trans/nonbinary folk, prioritising BIPOC

6) SHARE WHAT YOU CAN! Reblog and post things. Explain to your friends and family. There is NEVER enough coverage for this.

7) But don't JUST post. Fight racism in your every day life. Listen to and make space for the black community. Call your racist family out. Stand up for the black community in your workplace and neighbourhood. Address colourism and microaggressions. ALWAYS take it further.

8) EDUCATE YOURSELF. Not just from posts like these or elsewhere on social media. Watch documentaries, read books, research movements.

9) ^ Research what went on in Birmingham Alabama in 1963. Research what happened to Emmet Till in 1955. Research the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965. Look into important black figures, not just MLK, but look into the works of Malcolm X, Black Panther Party, Barbara Jordan, Medgar Evers etc.

10) Protest if you can, but stay safe as possible! If I could be protesting then I would be. Remember that water > milk for teargas, milk can cause infection and will not do much. Remember to cover tattoos, coloured hair, scars, eyes/nose/mouth, do not record/post, wear protective shoes!

Fuck cops. Fuck "all lives matter." Fuck property, because that can be replaced- innocent black lives cannot. Fuck people who want to promote 'peace' right now- peace is NOT an option. Fuck "staying neutral"- you're siding with the oppressors. Silence on this matter is hurtful. SPEAK UP!! BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!!!! I am not black but I see you, hear you, and stand with you. I recognise my privilege and I am here to do my part as an ally. -pinkottre aka Netascha, with love from Canada (tags are for reach)