(published 1/14/00)
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day
by Mischa Gelman


  I have one simple wish for the public coverage of this coming Martin
Luther King Jr. Day: let's have something different than usual. Every year
we get the same things from the media - a glance at King the civil rights
leader, almost accompanied solely by a snippet of his "I have a dream"
speech. It is good in that these things deserve lots of recognition. It is
not in that it horribly belittles a great man's contribution to our world.
Ignored are King's economic views, his pacifism, his religious
fervor...even his flaws. One of the great orators of our century has all
but one of his speeched neglected by TV. Similarly, his wonderfully
written Letter from a Birmingham Jail doesn't get reprinted in the papers.
  Poverty was an issue Rev. King needed to be dealt with, as he organized
marches of the poor and fought for unions, seeing economic rights as vital
as civil rights. We don't hear that he considered unjust class systems as
potentially evil as racially unjust systems or that he felt poor whites
suffered discrimination and deprivation and needed help - yet the media
seems hung up on his racial beliefs, not considering the egalitarian
approach King favored. Perhaps it believes selfishness to be the root of
his thought, despite Dr. King's statement that "an individual has not
started living until they can rise above the narrow confines of their
individualistic concern to the broader concerns of all humanity." Some on
the right, like J. Edgar Hoover, took such beliefs to indicate socialism,
and my colleague John Lacny made a similar claim in this paper last year.
When examining King's words and actions, though, one does not find
socialism, just as one doesn't find support for libertarian free market
economics grounded on the selfishness Rev. King hated. King's colleagues
affirm the fact that Hoover was simply Red-baiting King and that such
claims had no basis in fact. If the media actually covered King's economic
beliefs, such false claims would presumably not be voiced.
  Dr. King once called racism, materialism and militarism "giant
triplets." We don't hear of his pacifistic beliefs, just as we don't hear
of his egalitarian economic thought. Never mind that his pacifism drove
his civil rights activities in the form of civil disobedience rather than
the utilization of aggressive tactics. Never mind that he was one of the
most vocal critics of the Vietnam War, something also utterly overlooked
in the media presentation of King's life. Never mind that Gandhi served as
one of his primary role models. A great opportunity to discuss pacifism is
ignored in favor of yet another showing of a marvelous speech we've all
heard many times.
  Just as Gandhi's importance in forming Dr. King's ideas is ignored, so
too is the importance of religion in that process. The media, with its
secularist tilt, conviently forgets that King's organization was called
the Southern Christian Leadership Council and that King and his primary
aides bore the title of reverend (the media seems to believe "Dr." is a
far more respectful title for some reason when both deserve great
respect). Ignored is the influence of Social Gospel leader Walter
Rauschenbusch in the formation of King's beliefs. If we got an accurate
portrayal of the religious elements of Rev. King's dream, we would see
more easily the hollow media claims of a "religious right" and
"conservative Christians" by realizing that true religion is not so easily
pinned down politically.
  Just as these things that made him great (rather than simply the leader
of one of the greatest causes of the century), King's flaws are ignored. 
His friends knew better. His best friend and closest associate, Rev. Ralph
David Abernathy, has condemned that King was an adulterer. The media,
which rightfully decries politicians who commit this sin, is silent,
showing a sad double standard. The silence serves a more harmful purpose. 
Dorothy Day, now being considered as a candidate for sainthood, once said,
"That's the way people try to dismiss you. If you're a saint, then you
must be impractical and utopian, and nobody has to pay any attention to
you." By making Dr. King into the saint he wasn't, the media makes him
seem less like a real man. He did not want to be a leader yet gave of his
self, including his life, for numerous good causes. If they stopped
portraying his heroism as inevitable and showed him as human, it would
encourage the rest of us to similarly strive for a better world, at
whatever cost to ourselves, rather than simply making him a one-cause man
to idolize.
  Martin Luther King, Jr. spent his life fighting for open minds and open
hearts. It is sad the media takes a close-minded view of him on the day
spent honoring him, showing us only a fraction of the person he was.

    Mischa Gelman hopes Pitt students spent Monday in activities Dr. King
would have approved of, rather than just seeing it as another day off.