blatham wrote:george
If you're offended, I apologize for the color commentary that attended the argumentative point.
But you haven't addressed Bill's question, and mine, as to whether MLK, who did the following....he worked to advance the cause of blacks because they were blacks. He discriminated, based on race. He prejudiced his decisions and his statements on race.
If you hold, and you do so far, that a black supporting a black or a white supporting a black because they are black is therefore a racist.
And thus, under that use of your term, ML King is clearly a racist.
It's a simple consequence of your definition.
Thank you
Again the definition was yours, not mine, and you sourced it from a dictionary - not some rightist screed.
MLK did indeed work to advance the position of blacks. His defining moment was his leadership of the Montgomery Al bus boycot - an organized action to compel EQUAL treatment of blacks and whites on public transport in that city. He worked to achieve EQUALITY, not a new form of institutional preference. That is why he is a hero.
The theology of government enforced affirmative action came AFTER his death, and it was led by far, far lesser lights than MLK. Indeed a self serving industry grew up around it and many of its leaders profited enormously from it, Jesse Jackson prominently among them.
We have discussed affirmative action before. You know I believe that some of it was an unfortunate necessity in the early years, but we have long since passed the point at which its undesirable side effects (including the resentment of others) far outweigh the beneficial good ones.
The really decisive and needed government actions were the Voting Rights Act and some of the early Fair Employment laws.
