This whole thing about Martin Luther King Day as a holiday misses the most important lesson of his life.
MLK's lasting legacy was not, "Let's end discrimination and treat us Negroes as equal to white folks", or, "Let Freedom Ring". It was instead, King's shrewd observation that if a Negro wants to be successful, he needs to study the white man and do what the white man does.
We did not, for example, see King dressed in African tribal robes like some of his race do today. King noticed no white man dressed in these robes. He correctly decided it would not be a smart thing to do. King wore a suit and tie like white men do.
King always had a white man's hair cut. He did not go to a barber and say, "Make me look ugly. Give me dreadlocks."
Martin Luther King Jr.'s great contribution was that he understood the white man had things figured out better than the Negro. The smart Negro therefore should look and act like the white man.
MLK's lasting legacy was not, "Let's end discrimination and treat us Negroes as equal to white folks", or, "Let Freedom Ring". It was instead, King's shrewd observation that if a Negro wants to be successful, he needs to study the white man and do what the white man does.
We did not, for example, see King dressed in African tribal robes like some of his race do today. King noticed no white man dressed in these robes. He correctly decided it would not be a smart thing to do. King wore a suit and tie like white men do.
King always had a white man's hair cut. He did not go to a barber and say, "Make me look ugly. Give me dreadlocks."
Martin Luther King Jr.'s great contribution was that he understood the white man had things figured out better than the Negro. The smart Negro therefore should look and act like the white man.
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