I'm sure many of us heard the lovely tales about the glories of nonviolent resistance movements in our various
Myths Of America American History classes. It seems that idea gets increasingly morphed from a largely utilitarian one - nonviolence can work - to a moral one, which says that victims of state oppression and violence have no right to fight back, that the oppressors are the only justified users of force. They're bad, but fighting back is worse. Unless, I suppose, the US State Department declares that you are "moderate rebels" in which case anything goes.
The title is a sardonic joke, of course, as everyone rushes to claim MLK as their own. Pretty sure there's an automated program which sends the "Why MLK Was a Conservative" column to the Washington Post every year.
Anyway, I've been a bit remiss in my life about reading more black writers of all genres and going a bit deeper into black history. A good enough time as any to start remedying that.
