DR KING ON THE BOOTSTRAP MYTH

Fifty-six years after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Nobel Peace Prize winner's softer remarks on racial equality dominate his legacy more than his anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist perspective, which revolutionaries say led to his assassination.

As King politically matured, he began speaking out on economic matters, advocating for a fairer distribution of wealth and resources. He contended poverty and unemployment weren't merely individual challenges but systemic injustices requiring systemic remedies. One of his final public appearances was alongside striking Black sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.

In a speech given a year before his assassination at the Riverside Church in New York City, titled, 'Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,' the political philosopher and civil-rights icon denounced what he called the 'giant triplets' of US society—militarism, materialism and racism—famously emphasising the urgent need for a 'radical revolution of values,' one that would elevate people above profits.

In numerous speeches, King also debunked the bootstrap philosophy, which says anyone could succeed in the United States by working hard and 'pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.'

Since his assassination, many say the US government has co-opted King's legacy by creating a federal holiday in 1986 to commemorate his birthday. Streets renamed after King can be found in hundreds of US cities, ironically in the poorest and Blackest neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, the corporate media and US public schools only replay his 1963 'I Have a Dream' speech, which focused on racial equality.

What do you think Dr. King would say about today's state of economic relations between Western powers and African people?