Stop Pimping The Dream, Honor It - Chris "Preach" Smith

Today is the official holiday to honor and cherish the
legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It’s a day we all 
can sit back and honor a man who fought for America
to honor its pledge to ALL of its citizens of freedom 
and equality, especially people of color and the poor
and the working class. 

But do you see that image at the top of this article?
THIS is how some people have chosen to commemorate
the day. Rather than focus on the struggles of MLK,
there are those who choose to solely look at it as 
just an extended weekend with a tiny bit of history
attached to it that affects them. It’s a chance to kick
back and party. And so, party promoters across the
country have taken it upon themselves to include
MLK in their flyers in the most appalling way. That 
flyer up top was to promote a party in Michigan. The
outrage it sparked led to the party being cancelled.
It is the vanguard  of a slew of flyers that have gotten
out there over the past few years. Another shameful
example is below this paragraph.


Listen, I’m all for long weekends that take you away from
your respective grind. But these flyers are nothing more 
than an example of the disconnect and the disrespect that’s
cloaked in misguided ‘salutes’ to those from the Civil Rights
Era. We’ve seen other instances in Lil Wayne’s poor lyrical
quip evoking the murder of Emmitt Till. There’s a part of 
our folk who are deluded by the ease of technology and 
social media and other trappings of advancement that the 
generations before them fought for. You can see it on Twitter
all the time. Ignorance and fame go together like rotgut
ripple and sunflower seeds in their minds. This is the kind
of mental & social environment that brings this about. Even
JDate has been caught advertising a 40 percent off sale
using Dr. King’s most famous phrase and likeness on Twitter.
And controversial animal rights organization PETA, who’s 
never seen an issue they cant’ troll in a left-handed racist
manner has issued a tasteless tweet today. Make no mistake,
MLK is being digitally pimped. And that’s disgusting.

Now of course, there will be those cynics and pragmatists
who will make matador moves around this. ‘It’s just flyers.’
‘It’s not that serious.’ And they would miss the point. Think
of this: the Congressional Black Caucus along with the King
family had to seriously fight to even get Dr. King’s birthday 
recognized nationally as a holiday. President Ronald Reagan
had opposed the bill at first claiming cost concerns. Senator
Jesse Helms even went so far as to smear MLK’s name with
a 2,000 page brief. Even when the bill became law in 1983,
states weren’t all on board. Arizona is the most prominent
example thanks to Senator John McCain’s stance which only
changed once that state lost a Super Bowl in 1993. Other
states had combined the day with other days. New Hampshire
is known to be the last state in the union to officially make
it a holiday…in 2000. Just because we’ve advanced a few 
steps doesn’t mean we’ve totally arrived. It’s already a bit 
bothersome that Martin Luther King and his legacy has had
to undergo a whitewash of sorts to make him nearly as 
one-dimensional as other prominent figures of color are 
portrayed. Those cats who dream up and think of these
flyers should know better. Especially when you consider 
all of those efforts to make MLK a Day of Service and all
of the people who volunteer. It’s time that they & others 
stop trying to pimp the life and legacy of Martin Luther King
like this. A flyer for a party shouldn’t come at the cost of
your dignity.