#24: Part 2: Standard English Grammar is a Tool for White Supremacy

Since the Martin Luther King Jr. quotes are going to start rolling in this weekend with little interrogation behind the posting of whatever aesthetically pleasing quote that calls for peace, I suggest that you read this article about the complexity, difficulty, and nobility of the discipline of nonviolence. 

The recent episode of Democracy Now dedicates the hour to Martin Luther King, Jr. and his speech, "Beyond Vietnam." 

I suggest listening to it. Elements of it are so relevant to the current moment. The segment below rolled through my mind repeatedly on my walk this morning: 

    "It is with such activity that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” [applause] Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on to the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin [applause], we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."