Martin Luther King Day: An Example of African-American History from Dehumanization to Devaluation

You know some version of this experience. It happens often with a group of friends or family. A song plays and the group tries to think of the artist. Someone loud and proud declares who did it, only to be proven wrong. It happens once and yet everyone continues to reference that one time, that one error and though profuse apologies followed and it was indeed a rare occurrence, it keeps being a source of conversation. That was four years ago, enough already, get over it! Is that how white people feel about the discussions around the racism based on supremacist attitudes that lead to the generational enslavement of the African Diaspora? It was a one time thing that does’t happen now and people should get over it.

That makes sense in an uninformed way. because there is a difference between a mistake and a systematic approach to market, codify and establish an institutionalized system. The United States of America added an additional twist, the enslaved were denied their humanity. They were marketed as sub human.

The concept of racist dehumanization is essential for political scientists who seek to understand the nature, scope, and consequences of white racial prejudice in the United States today. Racist dehumanization consists of a variety of processes that construct, refashion, and maintain race by coding some people as white and therefore fully human and others as other than white and therefore less than fully human. In this review, we focus on the racist dehumanization of Indigenous people and Black people, arguing that processes of dehumanization have long been implicated in both the practice of race- making and concurrent efforts to exploit and dominate racialized groups. We posit that contemporary white racial prejudice can be understood, in part, as the residue of these processes, and we conclude by describing how accounting for racist dehumanization can transform the study of white racial prejudice.

The Politics of Racist Dehumanization in the United States

Martin Luther King Day was declared a federal holiday in1983. As a member of the workforce at that time, the vitriol at such a holiday was palpable. Corporations implemented “personal choice holidays” to avoid adding this to the fixed holidays such as New Years Day and Thanksgiving. In 1994, under President Bill Clinton, congress added the national day of service to Martin Luther King day. The holiday could not be taken away, but, it could be marketed in a way to ease palpable tension into palatable civic duty. It’s no longer marketing dehumanization, it’s marketing devaluation. After all, Alabama and Mississippi still celebrate Robert E Lee day on the same day as MLK day. Astounding because Robert E Lee day honors a confederate leader on the side that lost the civil war; a side that wanted to keep the whole subhuman myth alive.¹

Charts, data, all kinds of information are shown to position the African diaspora in the United States at a disadvantage as least than rather than highlight and honor.  At the time of reconstruction, more than 2000 African Americans held political positions with 17 in congress including 2 in the senate. Four eight years, there was a transformation until, the marketing became effective and eliminated any progress toward equity.

Even after the abolishment of slavery, African Americans continued to be dehumanized. Immediately after slavery was abolished, former slave states enacted the Black Codes, state laws constructing a system of discriminatory treatment depriving African Americans of basic liberties.22 After the Fourteenth Amendment abolished the Black Codes, former slave states implemented Jim Crow segregation.23 Like slavery, Jim Crow segregation was a manifestation of the entrenched belief that African Americans were racially inferior subhumans and who could not share spaces as equals with whites.

BLACK CITIZENSHIP, DEHUMANIZATION, AND THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT

A couple of weeks ago, a friend in conversation mentioned all the photos of Martin Luther King are in black and white, It feels intentional to make it seem like it was a long time ago, history. The term “post racial America” came after the election of president Obama ushering a new narrative, race doesn’t matter.  Angela Davis said “Until the color of your skin is a target, you’ll never understand.” Yet, people think they do and they have no idea. Truly no idea otherwise, there would be no foolishness in terms like reverse racism^. Sure, it is an uncomfortable discussion to acknowledge the impact of over 400 years of discrimination, but acknowledge what it must feel like to live it.

Marketing is powerful and we often only think of it in terms of product placement and advertising, but it is pervasive. You choose what you post on social media. You select the best photos for your profiles. You do these things from your perspective, your views, your values. You choose what is important to you.  There is someone in Oakland that I’ve been told continues to say I left Oakland because of crime. I had several conversation on why I moved. I took a retirement gap year. I made a list of the  things I like to do and want to do. The Bay Area, however wonderful, was lacking those things and without the obligation of a work week and the luxury of time, I chose to relocate to an optimal place. Top priority was the east coast to be more convenient to family. There were other things like, theater, music, dance performances and museums². I created a spreadsheet, added cities, subscribed to newspapers and Boston came out on top.

Here is my concern and alarm. If there were conversations about why I moved and still a narrative continues I fled because of crime rather than I pursued my interests, what chance do I have to convince anyone of ongoing discrimination.

The truth is race shouldn’t matter but it does. This is an opportunity to present an idea that might influence a positive outcome towards racial equity. This Martin Luther King Day, may we all, as a nation of immigrants hold true to the dream of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“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.”

Cover Photo -Photobombing the cast of Phillis in Boston and Faces of Phillis at a Boston Public Library Event

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¹Georgia listed Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee Day on its official state holiday calendar. Since 2016, the state has changed both holiday names to the innocuous-sounding “State Holiday.” Georgia state law requires the governor to pronounce at least one day dedicated to honoring the Confederacy.

²In retirement, I had more time for cultural events, but found maybe, at most two things per month. In Boston have attended 25 events here in 5 months including theater performances, lectures, special museum exhibitions. This must be the place…for me.