I was doing some shopping online last night, and I noticed that the the big name corporate entity (who shall remain nameless) that owns and operates the site had a Martin Luther King Jr. sale. It was something that shocked me: actually, I've been saying for years that "certain folk" would never fully recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday. More specifically, they'd never accept "King Day" and the significance of Civil Rights Movement as it is interwoven into American history, enough so to be celebrated.
I always felt there was no way we'd ever see a 33% off King Day sale, much like you do any other American national holiday. But in so many ways, I guess with the repackaging and watering-down of the ever popular "Dream Speech" it was a matter of time. Quite naturally, he isn't the revolutionary as he should be celebrated and revered. Checkout the following interview with Dr. Jared Ball via Paul Jay and The Real News Network as he breaks it down to the gristle:
BIO: Jared Ball is an assistant professor of communication studies at Morgan State University where his research interests include the interaction between colonialism, mass media theory and history, as well as, the development of alternative/underground journalism and cultural expression as mechanisms of social movements and political organization. Ball is a columnist with, and produces a weekly radio column for, BlackAgendaReport.com. He is producer and host of the Legacy Edition of We Ourselves which airs Fridays 10a-11a (EST) on Washington, DC's WPFW 89.3 FM Pacifica Radio and is also the founder and producer of FreeMix Radio: The Original Mixtape Radio Show, an emancipatory journalistic political mixtape. He is a former editor of and current peer reviewer for the first academic journal dedicated to hip-hop, The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture from Words, Beats and Life, Inc., has been a board member of the International Association for Hip-Hop Education, and has served as a Communications Fellow for the Green Institute.
