Thug Life: How White People Viewed a Living MLK

White People treated a living Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. just as badly as they do Black “Woke” Activists today.

Thug Life

It is very fitting is it not, to feature a mug shot of Martin Luther King Jr. in a column named “Thug Life”? Thug Life. What does that mean, anyway?

The word “thug” seems to be the go-to word for both liberals (who share the same Afrophobia as conservatives) and conservatives (who engage in more overt forms of racism) alike.

Euphemistic language is the American Way. Euphemistic language is the language of a dishonest society, always in need of hiding from specific truths.

Think about how many names exist for the concept of sex or the many euphemisms for penis or vagina in an attempt to be cute, prude, or “politically correct.” The great sociopolitical comedian George Carlin once pointed this out in a routine where he stated how shell shock became post-traumatic stress disorder. Both mean the same thing, but for some reason, we felt the need to keep changing the name, as if removing the usage of one word nullifies the condition.

Of course, changing the word does not change the condition. Calling a crippled person handicapped or worse — handi-capable — doesn’t change the fact that that person is in a wheelchair. Calling someone slow doesn’t change the speed at which he absorbs information.

Needless to say, America has had a lot of practice in euphemistic language. It should be no surprise that America will have a euphemism for the word nigger. “Thug” is the new word designation for “nigger”.

White America, we are not stupid.

We read you. Considering that we’ve been playing this game since Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, and it’s 2023 as of the date of publishing, do understand Black folk read you pretty damn well these days.

The numbers don’t lie; Martin Luther King wasn’t revered by whites in his time, in fact, he was reviled.

The word thug is rarely if ever, used in describing white criminals or even white people of minor public menace. The word clearly has a preferred racial target in America.

It’s almost like it’s used exclusively on Black people. One would argue that it’s not the person but the conduct of the person which grants him such label, but if you look at the light at which Martin Luther King was held in his day, he was referred to as a nigger through and through.

And, of course, the word “nigger” was the 1960’s designation for “thug.”

Being that he DID, in fact, have an arrest record, the mugshot is more than enough to anathematize him racially, conservative media style.

You can take a look at the hate mail he received while he was alive. It’s a carbon copy of the hate modern-day activists get today.

Ultra-conservative J. Edgar Hoover called MLK “the most dangerous Negro of the future in this nation” — after his I Have a Dream speech. Most dangerous negro? Thug life indeed.

While white people today know MLK wasn’t dangerous, the sentiment of the times at which he was considered so is telling. It is this exact sentiment that sees any truth-telling on institutional racism today as “radical” thought.

A research psychologist named Robin DeAngelo pointed out that white people tend to associate mere talk on race relations with danger. This may put things into perspective for non-whites: a mass of people of color protesting may seem uniquely dangerous to whites who only have four racial fears, one of which is merely talking about racism.

Dangerous negroes. Niggers. Thugs. Thug life, I suppose.

Thug is the new designation for nigger. Or maybe, nigger always meant thug, so it’s the other way around. Either way you slice it, the context is the same.

White Americans, similar to the adult who uses cute euphemisms for sex-related concepts, prefer to speak in codes in regard to race-related concepts.

And, of course, changing of the word doesn’t change the condition. The condition is a means of discrediting; if I dehumanize you, then I don’t have to listen to you. White people frequently dehumanize Black people and always have been, and as decades pass the words used to shift and adapt. Yet, the effect is still constant.

Perhaps we should focus on changing the condition, meaning people need to get their heads out of their asses and discontinue methods to discredit people who are suffering and begin listening to those people in pain. If not, prepare to find many more people engaging in the same dangerous negro thug life as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.

Conclusion

Honestly, I can only assess that this phenomenon of white America co-opting reverence to dead civil rights heroes they unrelentingly demonized in their day is linked to the still white supremacist conduct of maintaining White Innocence no matter the cost.

White people had murdered our best in cold blood — assassinated them — because racially, their feelings were hurt when Black people cried out in pain. Afterward, they pretended (gaslight) they were FOR that civil rights activist the whole time.

Looking at these white fragility hate mail letters, there’s no reason to think coming from white people next will be different. No, I really want you the explicitly look at the hate mail MLK got when he was among the living; it’s the same bullshit you send us. The whataboutisms, the blaming, all that bullshit. To the white supremacist haters in the back, you’re no different than your bitchass klancestors.

Do White people require assassinations of prominent Black leaders — by their will (or their hand) and thirty to forty years after whitewashing, erasing, lying, and gaslighting in order to see the light? Why do white people require Black death in order to relinquish political power over others? Why do white people require assassinations of prominent civil rights fighters in order to begrudgingly agree to civil equality?

How long will this sheer lack of socio-political awareness of White identity in America continue? The far right’s (and even the moderate left) slander of the Black Lives Matter movement today is very similar to the far right’s slander of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement in general. The truth is the BLM has repudiated racism, poverty, xenophobia, and all injustices — as Martin Luther King did.

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