The Latest from the Prospect
 â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â
Â
View this email in your browser
<[link removed]>
**JANUARY 16, 2023**
Kuttner on TAP
****
****
****
****
****
****
****
****
**** Celebrating Dr. King's
Embrace of Multiracial Justice
We need coalitions of conscience now more than ever.
Friday, on Boston Common, there was the unveiling of an unusual
sculpture celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
<[link removed]>
In contrast to the usual heroic statuary, this piece of public art,
called "The Embrace," depicts the entwined arms of a couple.
The artist, the African American sculptor Hank Willis Thomas, was
inspired by a photo of MLK embracing his wife, Coretta Scott King, at a
news conference in 1964 when Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
But Thomas meant the embrace more broadly
<[link removed]>,
as the joint embrace of all who worked together to advance civil rights,
of whatever race and background. On the plaza surrounding the piece are
the names of others, many of them unsung, who worked for racial justice,
here in one of the most racist of Northern cities.
The celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. is a good time to recall that
Dr. King was above all an integrationist, both morally and tactically.
He understood that the grand strategy of slaveholders and
segregationists was to keep poor whites and Blacks with common economic
interests divided by racism.
In his epic speech <[link removed]>
when the Selma-to-Montgomery march of 1965 finally succeeded, Dr. King
declared: "The southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor
white man Jim Crow. And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food
that his empty pockets could not provide, he ate Jim Crow, a
psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at
least he was a white man, better than the black man."
Dr. King understood better than anyone that if civil rights were to be
realized, in Congress and in the hearts of the citizenry, they would
need the support of whites as well as Blacks. He was willing to work
with a reformed and repentant onetime segregationist, Lyndon Johnson, to
that end.
In an era of rising Black consciousness and rising wokeness on the part
of progressive whites, mirroring the ever more explicit racism on the
part of the far right, it is too easy to forget Dr. King's call for
multiracial coalition. Without it, we will never achieve his dream. It
is too easy for a white writer of a certain age to wonder if it's even
OK to say this.
The brilliance of Hank Willis Thomas's sculpture is that it invites
the viewer to read meaning into it. For me, it evokes Dr. King's
strategic brilliance and ethical commitment to a multiracial society.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe. <[link removed]>
Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter <[link removed]>
[link removed]
The Inevitable Prosecutions of Women Who Obtain Abortions
<[link removed]>
The attorney general of Alabama finally went where the logic of the
anti-abortion movement has long pointed. BY DAVID DAYEN
What Was Behind Last Week's FAA Breakdown?
<[link removed]>
Pete Buttigieg's personnel choices were certainly a factor. BY DYLAN
GYAUCH-LEWIS
The Misleading Reporting on Inflation
<[link removed]>
The coverage overstates the problem, feeding the narrative of a
necessary recession. BY ROBERT KUTTNER
Â
[link removed]
Click to Share this Newsletter
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
<[link removed]>
The American Prospect, Inc.
1225 I Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC xxxxxx
United States
Copyright (c) 2023 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
<[link removed]>.
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
<[link removed]>.
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
<[link removed]>.
