Happy MLK Day 2022
On this MLK day 2022, we should remember wise words of Dr. King. Especially his most beloved quote, which was courageously anti-racist at the time but would now be considered "unwoke":
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”
I would also highly recommend a speech given in honor of MLK by Clarence Thomas when he headed EEOC during the 1980s. For some reason it has not been published outside of the Congressional record, but I am hoping Hillsdale doctoral student Chris Goffos will publish an edited volume containing it soon. It is most worthy; consider Thomas’ courageously anti-racist statements about Apartheid in South Africa, along with his guidance for fellow conservatives:
[C]onservatives can learn a lesson from Dr. King... Surely the free market is the best means for all Americans, in particular those who have faced legal discrimination, to acquire wealth. Yet the marketplace guarantees neither justice or truth. After all, slaves or drugs can be bought and sold. The defense of equal opportunity to compete in a free market is a moral one that presupposes the Declaration. And Martin Luther King was fighting for that goal…
…One might profit from a comparison of King in the segregation crisis with the behavior of others in earlier crises- for example, that experienced in the Depression. The New Deal was the moderate response to that crisis -with Communism and fascism being extreme responses. Dr. King's extremism may well have been the only moderate response to the rule of segregation. Now today we must still question aspects of the New Deal, yet Franklin D. Roosevelt remains as popular as ever, as attested by the frequency with which President Reagan invokes his name. It is not inappropriate for us conservatives to make a similar comparison: let us honor Martin Luther King today, the same way we can admire Franklin Roosevelt. This does not oblige us conservatives to affirm all the actions either man undertook, but we can still honor them for heroism in dealing with the crises they faced.