Race in America Post-MLK

  In this past week’s Revere Advocate, I noticed the press release out of City Hall on the tribute to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on his national holiday and the words of Mayor Brian Arrigo, “(W)e can use Martin Luther King’s legacy as an opportunity to lift the spirit of humanity across our city as we recognize the power of our differences in making progress for the future.”

  Also, the commentary by Dr. Paul G. Kengor (TEACH MLK, CRT) was a powerful message on how far we have strayed from Dr. King’s life’s work of creating an America that was open to all. He was not about White Power or Black Power but about God’s Power and the Power of all of us together recognizing our common humanity.

  Critical Race Theory is the very opposite of what King sought for this nation of ours that was too often divided by race and sustained by political arsonists who seem to love dividing us from one another. King’s theory was also critical and many refused to hear it. His theory was working past our past and into a future where the aspirations of all our people could work together for the best in us and our nation.

  Dr. King’s dream was a goal and one that may never be reached but we must continue to strive toward the day when skin color is less important than the character inside our skins. CRT is a hateful approach whose object is to keep us apart and too often in a hateful place.

  I met Dr. King once when he came to Boston for a racial justice march and rally on the Boston Common back on April 28, 1965 when I was still only 16 years old. I was 19 years old a few years later on April 4, 1968 when he was assassinated by James Earl Ray.

  America’s roots are not 400 years of racism. America is, yes, imperfect because we are all imperfect people. We are no longer who we were back in 1776, or during the Civil War or in the midst of the civil rights struggles in the ’50s and ’60s. We grow as a nation. We grow as a people. None of us are who we were last year or even yesterday. Our American life is always a place that strives to be better than we were before.

  Dr. Kengor is correct. CRT divides us, “We need to unite people around what is true. Teach MLK, not CRT.”