If you say “WHO?” when I say “Rob Schneider,” then count yourself as one of the luckiest people in the world. I don’t even remember when Rob Schneider was really a thing, but he’s friends with Adam Sandler and that means that Rob will always have a job somewhere (mostly in Adam Sandler’s crappy films). Anyway, Rob Schneider decided to share a special message yesterday, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day here in America.
First, a cursory explanation: MLK Day celebrates the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., his activism, his speeches, his work to end Jim Crow laws, to force the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act and more. MLK had lots of help, from people like John Lewis, Diane Nash, Jesse Douglas, Septima Clark, Rosa Parks, James Forman, Dorothy Height and Ralph Abernathy, amongst many others. Those are the people who marched beside MLK. They were the ones facing down the hoses, being attacked by police dogs, being hit by police batons and more. Rep. John Lewis was barely out of his teens when he began working with MLK, and Lewis literally shed blood in Selma when police officers beat him for marching for voting rights. Last week, John Lewis said Emperor Baby Fists is not a “legitimate” president. Even if you don’t agree with John Lewis about that, you’ve just got to respect the man enough to say, “He has every right to his opinion.” Emperor Baby Fists whined about Rep. Lewis on Twitter though, and as it turns out, Rob Schneider feels the same way:
Rep. Lewis. You are a great person. But Dr. King didn't give in to his anger or his hurt. That is how he accomplished & won Civil Rights.
— Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) January 16, 2017
Like, there’s so much stupidity and offensiveness here, it’s sort of difficult to know where to start. Does Rob Schneider understand that John Lewis literally KNEW Martin Luther King?? Like, they spent a lot of time together. They didn’t always agree. They argued about the best ways to fight for what they believed in and they argued about what the ultimate goals of their movement should be. It’s a complete misreading and whitewashing of MLK’s legacy and work to say that he didn’t “give in to his anger or his hurt” and that’s how “accomplished and won Civil Rights.” And please don’t say MLK “won” Civil Rights, like it’s a trophy and now that it was won, everything’s cool. Racism didn’t end with the Civil Rights Act, just like voter suppression didn’t end with the (now gutted) Voting Rights Act.
Anyway, I enjoyed all of the people going HAM on Rob Schneider. He still hasn’t deleted that stupid f—king tweet either.
@KaraRBrown IMAGINE BEING ROB SCHNEIDER AND THINKING YOU CAN LECTURE JOHN LEWIS ABOUT MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
— KB (@KaraRBrown) January 16, 2017
Rob Schneider trying to give John Lewis advice on MLK is like someone playing call of duty trying to give a navy seal advice on combat.
— Ashley Riggs (@Just1MoreAshley) January 16, 2017
@RobSchneider you shouldn't talk ever again.
— Richard Lawler (@rjcc) January 16, 2017
Trump tomrrw: "TOTALLY agree with Rob Schneider. He is our greatest actor! Much better than old Meryl. Meeting w/ him Wed. to discuss NATO!"
— Justin Harman (@JustinHarman22) January 17, 2017
*Reads about Rob Schneider lecturing Rep. John Lewis about MLK*
*Shakes fist at 2017*
YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE LESS DUMB THAN 2016— Daniel Lin (@DLin71) January 17, 2017
if you're surprised by rob scheider's pontification on racial harmony: pic.twitter.com/KWRxW1WKv1
— INTUITION (@ItsIntuition) January 16, 2017
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I so badly want Rob to respond and show that some introspection. He seems like the kind of person who would realize how dumb his tweet was and acknowledge it…. but I guess we will find out.
dude’s an anti-vaxxer.
he’s NOT introspective.
Too late. Radio station here in NY Hot 97 already gave him the Donkey of the Day.
Yup going to second that he’s an anti vaxxer. That automatically lost me there.
He just gave me the worst second-hand embarrassment. *MASSIVE CRINGE* yes, please lecture someone about MLK who actually KNEW THE MAN IN PERSON AND YOU DIDN’T. UGH I hate that I get second hand embarrassment so easily this is like painful for me.
And now you guys inform me he’s anti-science (that’s what anti-vaxxers are). UGH WHY DUDE WHY!!!!!!!!!!
This is more embarrassing that that stupid/borderline-racist latin sitcom that bombed (that I sadly watched and cringed through)
But Jane, jackasses can’t *show introspection* because they HAVE no introspection to show. Rob Schneider has raised the designation of “jackass” to a vocational level. The dude clearly has a calling.
MLK has become a greatly misunderstood historical figure because a lot of white people really, really, really want black people to stop talking about racism.
Yep, they neutered the true legacies of Nelson Mandela and Mahtma Gandhi too.
Yes, which is so sad because part of what makes these people so incredibly interesting, revolutionary amd inspiring is their radicalism and the fact that they lived a very radical life (though I was saddened to learn about Gandhi and his sexual exploits, the idea that women are also fully human had not gotten through to him).
I read a statistic that in his time the majority white Americans considered MLK an extremist. This idea that he was this benign figure who went out and had tea with white people and made them change their minds is ridiculous. J Edgar Hoover was basically at war with the man and considered him a terrorist. It just makes the bravery more stark to know what he went through.
Side note Gandhi wasn’t always that great. He inspired great people and did great acts but also did/said many awful things.
@Luca76-YES. Did you listen to yesterday’s Fresh Air podcast with Nikole Hannah-Jones talking about systemic segregation in schools?
She touched on this topic very briefly.
@Kitten it’s literally the next podcast on my queue.
@Lucy76, yes the WaPo had a great article yesterday about how whites felt about King in 1965. (Remember, this was a decade after Rosa Parks, and a year after the Civil Rights Act.) 85% — eight five percent! — thought that Dr. King — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, mind you — was NOT “advancing the cause of civil rights.”
So, yeah, I need a bumper sticker that says … “Most of White America: Wrong in 1965, Wrong Today”
Chiming in about yesterday’s Fresh Air. Really good. The phenomenon she described has been playing out in Chicago, too, almost exactly the same way as in her supposedly enlightened Brooklyn neighborhood. It’s extremely depressing.
Also, our local NPR station played some interviews Studs Terkel did in the 60s and the sentiments of people then were eerily aligned with what people today, left and right, are saying.
Malcolm Gladwell’s book David and Goliath has a good chapter about how radical MLK and his congregation were.
Uh. Gandhi not so much a great fello? This on a thread about someone being mocked for not getting another equality warrior’s history and legacy? Irony not your thing eh?
I really want to upvote this comment so much.
me, too!
Unfortunately, for much of white America, MLK is the “but I have a black friend” of civil rights leaders. A safe, non-threatening cuddly toy.
They need to educate themselves.
I’m not sure how that was supposed to come out, but MLKJr. was not a safe, non-threatening, cuddly toy. He was bombed, beaten, thrown in jail, and attacked for his ideas. His belief in peace and justice may make him more palatable to some, but he was a fierce defender of justice and equality, who stood strong through physical attacks and his home being bombed more than once. I think I get your point, but to call a civil rights icon that, even when trying to make said point, isn’t right. It’s as bad as what Rob Schneider said.
So so true and I am so so tired of it. The constant re-writing of history in order to remain in a bubble of comfort divorced from the misdeeds of the past is just flat out wrong.
And isn’t Rob Schneider’s mom Filipino? Why is he such a racially insensitive boob?
@jenn12 That’s what I’m saying-he isn’t and wasn’t but that is how a lot of white Americans regard him, because they only know the bare minimum of who he was.
I have a 5 year old, and there’s a great book series called “Ordinary People Change the World” so I’ve exposed my daughter to Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, Abraham Lincoln, and Jackie Robinson. We’ve discussed racism and civil rights movement, and while I’ve kept in mind that she’s 5, I also try to be as honest as possible. I think we do history and these figures a huge disservice by pretending the fight wasn’t as hard, dangerous and bloody as it was, and still is. Next fall the series is releasing a Ghandi edition. I highly recommend the series. Also, I listened to the Fresh Air broadcast yesterday, and it was really good and extremely informative.
We have a five-year-old and love those books, too. We had our nine-year-old watch Selma yesterday with us. It was a little talky for him, obviously, but I think he was moved by what he saw, none-the-less. The violence and hate; how raw and real it was. When the four little girls just walking in church are blown up in the beginning he was like, ‘Why, are you letting me watch this?’ And my answer was, ‘Because it really happened, and we can’t forget that, no matter how ugly it may be.’
When we watched them try to cross the Edmund Pettus bridge the first time and they draw straws to see who has to walk in front, knowing the violence that awaits them … I showed him pictures of the real John Lewis and compared it to what we were seeing onscreen. How young he was. How brave. How they practiced how not to react — that’s why they had their hands in their pockets; to fight their own natural instincts as human beings to defend themselves. All in order to make the world a better place.
And then we had to talk to him about Donald Trump. It’s heartbreaking.
@S, you made me cry. Keep up y he good work with your child!
seriously, S, you’re doing it right. keep it up.
Ack, appreciated, but I worry. A lot. We live in a Red State, in an upper(ish) middle class area that is, yes, mostly white. My kids’ school is, again, shall we say, lacking in diversity, with its 98% caucasian student body. They are surrounded every day by peers who parrot their parents’ myopic viewpoints on guns (fantastic, necessary and always in danger of being stolen by Obama, or Hilary, or whomever), politics (far right) and religion (anti-choice & pro-death penalty, anti-welfare prosperity gospel Evangelicals who deny climate change and sometimes evolution). I’m not sure I can possibly do enough to keep them — for some reason I worry about my boys, more than my daughter (maybe because I was raised in a similar scenario and turned out to be a Liberal Leftie) — from turning into redneck hicks, short of moving, which isn’t financially or career feasible at the moment.
@Greenbunny. I absolutely think you should expose these wonderful books to your children under the age of 10. I learned about Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela when I was between the ages of 5 and 10. This should start off your children about how to really treat people with dignity and respect. Also make some friends.
Please forgive my all caps but TELL ‘EM AGAIN! So so tired of people throwing out MLK quotes and bleating about how black people should behave all while missing the irony of treating us like a monolith in order to make their point. I am done with the willfully obtuse.
Whats up with all those dumb people? Think before you speak/ tweet for god’s sake
IKR. I’m surprised social media dumbassery hasn’t been recognized in the DSM.
Dumbass is the precise word I was thinking of, too.
If I were a billionaire, I would buy Twitter and immediately shut it down. It has become a cesspool of hate and stupidity.
Not shut it down bcos it does bring awareness to a lot of things going on in the world that the general media won’t/don’t cover when used right… I think people should have to take a tw*t test before they are allowed access to social media , root the idiots out that way!
I’m not on Twitter but I had to laugh yesterday at all the people who had opinions on John Lewis yesterday when the previous day they most likely had no idea who he was. It’s a cesspool of hate and stupidity and also of inflated self-importance. Social media in general is becoming very tiresome.
I honestly think I was better off not knowing how ignorant so many Americans are. That’s what I hate about social media,
Kitten, ha, so true. On a related note, I was showing my friend something my son posted on instagram — it was nothing bad but I thought it exposed him as a little melancholy and vulnerable — and we were marveling at how teens are just putting everything out there rather than just suffering or humiliating themselves (or celebrating, not to leave out the positive) in relative private like we used to!
Kitten, I agree. I don’t need to know everyone’s opinion about everything. Social media has just showed me how ignorant and stupid people can be.
I don’t know….you can’t fix what you don’t know about.
Twitter and other social media has definitely opened my eyes to a lot of things.
This tweet:
Trump tomrrw: “TOTALLY agree with Rob Schneider. He is our greatest actor! Much better than old Meryl. Meeting w/ him Wed. to discuss NATO!”
Amazing and terrifying
Haha yeah I know I must not be the ONLY person who read Trumps tweet with his voice in my head…I wish it would STOP. smh
And I read that in Stephen Colbert’s Trump voice because it is so spot on
we live in a time where you cant tell satire and reality apart.
Yeah, that tweet was dead funny but inexplicable terrifying at the same time.
Wait. Trump tweeted this, or this is a joke? Right? RIGHT?!?*screechy hysterical*
::rubs hands together::: I’ve been waiting for this post since last night-don’t disappoint me, celebitches!
But really, how ELSE is a Z lister like Rob Schneider going to get press? Adam Sandler can’t put him in his sh*tty movies forever. Maybe the big orange splot will make him one of his new ambassadors or something.
Ambassador to Africa.
The whole country!
Maybe he is trying to curry favor with President Baby-fists so he will let him preform at he Inauguration. You know since the E Street tribute band cancelled.
https://youtu.be/RwaUygy_gGY
HA good point!
I really really really wish people who opined
about MLK actually READ what he wrote. I am such an admirer because I see the intellectual development of his ideas across his speeches and publications. There’s such care to how he constructed his approach to achieving civil rights for black Americans, and he advocates with a heightened awareness of American history…in terms of national history and black struggle.
Some random internet stranger once told me that “MLK was wrong.” About what?? What on earth are you arguing about? To me, it is SO offensive when people who have not spent ten seconds learning about something think they belong in a conversation with those who have dedicated their professional and sometimes even personal lives to doing so.
Per your last paragraph: welcome to Modern Day America. In the words of our PEOTUS: Sad!
This. When I actually read his stuff, it was radical. He wasn’t messing around. All of this kumbaya stuff is revisionist history. But he was living during a time when lynchings of black people was still common and segregation was not only tolerated, but celebrated.
Vietnam speech being a case in point.
How is this topic handled in schools across the country these days? Is there a chapter in American History textbooks that gets glossed over, hence whitesplaining? How in depth was the discussion in school of civil rights and MLK for you guys? Did your teachers relate it to your area?
I’m from Birmingham. Our Civil Rights district and museum are local resources steeped in the blood and tears of the struggle. We have our own deep seated issues, obv, but I wonder if it is discussed differently here because of it.
I don’t think it’s glossed over, at least in my and my kids experience in public schools. The social science department seems to have no qualms about covering even the ugliest chapters in our history.
Total whitewashing / whitesplaining. No one knows what COINTELPRO was, no one knows what redlining was, no one knows what the so-called Tulsa race riot was, Texas bought textbooks referring to black people brought over on slave ships as “workers,” and on and on. It is utterly shameful.
ETA: Not aimed at you, Esmom. But that is the experience of most people I know with kids in US public schools.
I learned way more about the Civil Rights movement in college than I did in middle in high school. I would love to see history not be so whitewashed in schools by the time my kindergartener reaches high school.
I didn’t go to school in the US until later so I’m not sure. I think Civil Rights era gets taught in middle school? I used to sub and I learned a ton teaching middle school during Black History month (southern CA). It does seem like MLK speeches belong in an AP English class at least, though. Letter from a Birmingham Jail=great rhetoric and not at all difficult to understand.
Wow, the collage of all (some?) of the different racist stereotypes he’s played really says it all, huh?
Srsly
Wonder if he has ever played a Southeast Asian. I went to a festival where Rob was one of the stand ups, his skit revolved around his relationship with his Filipino Mother similar to Maggie Cho’s.
I always LOL at white people who only know the sanitized version of MLK from history classes. Some of them would be very surprised at what he had to say about them outside of textbooks.
Yup. You know, I don’t even think that a lot of people really grasp the ‘I have a dream’ speech. You can quote it to my mother-in-law and she’ll tear up, but you can’t tell her that MLK would not approve of our local blackface-tradition (that she loves very much), because MLK is about peace and hatmony according to her, not about telling white people what to do.
Holy crap. Who still actively does blackface?
Dutch people, google ‘Black pete netherlands’. He’s the blackfaced ‘helper’ of our version of Santa and originates from the time of slavery, which you probably know we played a huge part in. The Washington Post did a couple of stories on it. You can read the comments from Dutch people under those. Very saddening.
Exactly. While Dr. King was all for non-violent protest, he also repeatedly pointed out the hypocrisy and his disdain for white people.
Not even just white people. I took a class on MLK when I was in college, the class make-up was fairly diverse, and it was amazing how much what students thought about the man differed from the reality.
Imagine being Rob Schneider and…. no. That’s it. Just imagine having to live life as Rob Schneider. It gives me the chills.
He is such a creep, and so far up his own ass. He also is against vaccines… which is kind of ironic because I feel like anyone who comes into contact with him should make sure they’re up to date on their shots.
😍
“Imagine being Rob Schneider and…. no. That’s it. Just imagine having to live life as Rob Schneider.”
LLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL that was the best
Whitesplaining is so amazing to me. Really it is. Plus white people hated MLK too. They only like him know so they can use his legacy as a reason for us to shut up and stop protesting. Nah go read some of his writing and then come back to me.
Yea no. Also stupid yesterday was the tweet from the FBI about MLK. Cause if there’s anyone that loved MLK it’s the FBI *side eye*
Yes, I think most people have only a few lines memorized and use those as some kind of ‘it’s all in the past now’ incantation. I remember that I used to think that MLK was some kind of hippy and when I went to uni (in The Netherlands) to study history I did a three part course on American history and was so thrilled to read his full letters and speeches. Such clarity of thought and such a realistic but radical approach! I also remember reading Malcolm X and realizing that he clearly wasn’t the terrorist he was made out to be. I loved his activist approach and his use of the economy.
its a whitewashed view of both men.
It is. Also, about the FBI: I always feel like people are happy to blame it all on Hoover and leave the organisation as a whole out of it.
I KNEW IT. Whenever we talked about secret Hollywood Trump supporters here, it was always on the tip of my tongue to mention the Adam Sandler crew. And yes, I mean the entire crew. But then I figured that would degenerate with people popping in to say that this guy is half phillipino and Kevin James inexplicably has that stunning Asian wife. Oh and they sometimes drag Chris Rock into their weak shenanigans. All the same, I thought it and now I am saying it. Sandler, Norm Macdonald, Spade, Kevin James, Schneider etc are most def Trump supporters.
Spade has said he is “somewhere in the middle” but has worked closely with Dennis Miller and has also said “Republicans get a bad rap” *eyeroll*
So yeah, I do think you’re right that those dudes are all Trumpsters.
I just looked at Norm Macdonald’s twitter and he seems to be a liberal who supported Justin Trudeau (I guess he’s Canadian?) anyway for whatever reason (I guess I listened to his WTF interview ages ago?) I wouldn’t lump him in with the trump voters.
Trudeau is our Prime Minister
“(I guess he’s Canadian?)”
I think Luca was referring to Norm McDonald 😉
Hopefully she knows that Trudeau is the Canadian Prime Minister.
Yes I know who Trudeau is I just didn’t realize Norm Mccdonald was Canadian.
I don’t think Norm MacDonald would be a Trump supporter. I didn’t get that impression of him from the Live From New York book about SNL. Spade, Sandler, Schneider and James- sure!
I don’t doubt it, honestly. But at the same time – anyone taking that crew seriously as people who know what they’re talking about when it comes to political thoughts should probably check themselves.
Everyone praises The Rock over here – I remember there was whispers about him wanting a political career at one point – but he’s also a Republican.
I’m hijacking this thread to say that, years ago, a friend and I went out to dinner in LA and twice had the misfortune of crossing paths with David Spade. He is a nasty, mean little man and based on those few minutes, I would totally buy that David Spade voted for Trump. He seems like the sort of insecure idiot who would buy into the whole Drumpf schtick.
From MLK’s I Have A Dream Speech:
“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”
I guess I missed the part where MLK said we should just stay silent and do nothing when confronted with injustice.
Yeah, Dr King’s thing was non-violent protest, NOT non-confrontational protest.
And he wasn’t perfect himself, nor did he ever suggest he was. He was a man, and men (in the “species of man” sense, not the genetic sex definition sense) are imperfect, which he freely acknowledged in life.
“There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” – MLK
Did anyone else watch his show on Netflix? Holy moly, was it bad! Pathetically bad: On the first episode he’s whining about not having an assistant. Anything he has to offer up is incredibly tone deaf. His daughter (Elle King) has a burgeoning music career. Maybe he should retire and get out of her way.
from what I understand (and I may be wrong), she is estranged from her father.
a music blogger said that when he was mentioned in conversation with Ms. King, she was like “I’m done” and walked away from the person. (all hearsay, of course, but telling if true.)
She took her mother’s surname as well. He’d probably like to ride her coat tails, to reach a younger audience.
@doofus Eeeeenteresting.
@Christin hahaha, I’ll bet you’re right.
To both: I feel bad for his new wife. All that pretty wasted on this fool.
kumail nanjiani’s thread about how terrible Schneider’s comedy/acting is was so perfect. then again kumail generally hits the nail on the head about most things….
His responses were excellent!
Rob is an idiot. Unfortunately this is not new news.
I just fell down the rabbit hole reading all of his amazing tweets about Trump. Thank you!
easily one of the best comedians out there. and the fact that he and middleditch are real life buds is just icing on the cake.
Someone needs to send this fool the Letter from Birmingham Jail. In fact, I think all of us either need to read it for the first time or re-read it to get a better understand of Dr. King.
Exactly what I was thinking.
When I read this yesterday it sounded like a joke….Rob Schneider scolding John Lewis and whitesplaining MLK Jr. Hope he gets a lot of grief.
MLK was a revolutionary who made (mostly white) people very uncomfortable and often angry. If you are opining about how Colin Kapernick is a dick and Black Lives Matters is a terrorist organization, while posting MLK quotes on your Facebook wall, you are missing the point. Bigly.
And it’s usually the same benign quotes about love and unity.
Here you go, Rob, something MLK said that you might have missed:
http://twitter.com/andyrichter/status/820676360980996096
Martin Luther King Jr was an ENEMY OF THE STATE when he died. The story is not all sunshine and roses and peaceful people of color. J Edgar Hoover was waging a campaign to undermine the civil rights movement and MLK jr himself.
And here we have Rob Schneider telling an ICON of the civil rights movement, “Be quiet, let ME tell you how you should act. I like my black people peaceful.” Oh my god, that is outrageous.
I am a native Atlantian, born and raised, so this is personal for me. When President P*ssygrabber came for Atlanta, I was SO pissed. I saw red. HELL no, Donald Trump, you do not get to talk sh!t about my city. Thankfully the AJC then printed the headline, “Atlanta to Trump: WRONG.”
I love Atlanta. It’s a great, cosmopolitan city. Do you still live there, Shambles?
I live about an hour west of the city, and I’m there all the time. I’ve spent my whole life in metro Atlanta, and I love it as well. So much so that I was almost as offended by Trump’s talking sh!t about it as I was by the P*ssygrabbing. Almost.
Yeah, the FBI was trying to get MLK to kill himself. That’s not exactly something you do to someone who is a toothless cuddlemonster, as Schneider seems to think he was.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html?_r=0
Imagine you’re the guy who depends on Adam Sandler for your “fame” … And that you strongly suspect that he only keeps you around to look like a talented actor by comparison.
I’ve always got the impression, from the few Sandler movies I’ve had the displeasure to see, that “the gang” actually kind of hates Schneider. They are so cruel to him, so often, so publicly; imagine how they treat him privately (shudder)? I have a feeling Rob has heard the phrase: ‘Dance monkey, Dance!’ more than once from his “friend’s” mouth.
Anyway, I had the pleasure of finally seeing Selma yesterday and, oh my goodness, how David Oyelowo didn’t WIN the Oscar for that portrayal, is BEYOND me. That he wasn’t even NOMINATED is a freaking crime. Shame on you, Hollywood. Shame!
I was struck by how truly apt and terrifyingly familiar the terrible events of the film are in today’s America: police murdering young black men and getting away scot free, the harassment and misconstruing peaceful protestors of color as violent “rioters,” and leaders who just want everyone to be quiet and wait for their rights (because rocking the boat is wrong), the flagrant, almost boastful spouting of hate from the powerful, which emboldened the common man … It was chilling.
But, I was most struck by how incredibly relevant King’s speech in Montgomory is in Trumpland USA. How true and insightful and utterly terrifying it is that so little has changed …
“If it may be said of the slavery era that the white man took the world and gave the Negro Jesus, then it may be said of the Reconstruction era that the southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow. He gave him 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. And he ate Jim Crow. And when his undernourished children cried out for the necessities that his low wages could not provide, he showed them the Jim Crow signs on the buses and in the stores, on the streets and in the public buildings. And his children, too, learned to feed upon Jim Crow, their last outpost of psychological oblivion.
“Thus, the threat of the free exercise of the ballot by the Negro and the white masses alike resulted in the establishment of a segregated society. They segregated southern money from the poor whites; … they segregated southern minds from honest thinking; and they segregated the Negro from everything. That’s what happened when the Negro and white masses of the South threatened to unite.”
How did Trump win? Nothing new. Martin Luther King, Jr. called that playbook in 1965. It was written in 1865, and we’re still following it today.
I wish I could thumbs up this comment. People love to forget how much disdain King had for white liberals as well. He also spoke at length about the problem with capitalism, riots being the sounds of the unheard and hypocrisy regarding whites against welfare.
Yes, King had all of the numbers, and the fact that so little has changed in the past 55 years is … disheartening, to say the least.
I’ve seen a lot of this very relevant section in his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail this weekend as well …
“First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.
“Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
I shared those quotes on social media yesterday to counteract the many “hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that” type posts.
I was hoping to reach the “we need to come together” “let’s give Trump a chance” “all lives matter” “I don’t see skin color” type people. I’m sure it fell on deaf ears. Last year I shared a post that was something like “The MLK quotes white people never share.” I don’t think that worked, either. Sad. TM Trump.
Again, how little has changed, but Obama made many of those same points, beautifully I thought, in his farewell address …
“If every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking white middle class and an undeserving minority, then workers of all shades are going to be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves. If we’re unwilling to invest in the children of immigrants, just because they don’t look like us, we will diminish the prospects of our own children — because those brown kids will represent a larger and larger share of America’s workforce.
“… Hearts must change. It won’t change overnight. Social attitudes oftentimes take generations to change. But if our democracy is to work in this increasingly diverse nation, then each one of us need to try to heed the advice of a great character in American fiction — Atticus Finch — who said “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
“So regardless of the station that we occupy, we all have to try harder. We all have to start with the premise that each of our fellow citizens loves this country just as much as we do; that they value hard work and family just like we do; that their children are just as curious and hopeful and worthy of love as our own.”
I’m just afraid it fell on so very many deaf ears that can’t hear the call of hope over their chants of “Lock Her Up” and “Make America Great Again.”
Isn’t Rob like half Jewish and half Filipino? Weird that he would say something like that…
He’s a Republican.
This damn fool.
WOW I thought he was joking,being sarcastic.
I had no idea this idiot was being serious.
Bless his heart.He sounds almost as ignorant as Trump who questioned what Rep. John Lewis has done for his community.
The only thing Rob has ever had to fight for is a seat at Starbucks. Have a seat Rob, have.a.seat.
And Baby Fists is tweeting about John Lewis again. Lesson not learned.
As someone replied to those tweets, it is nearly impossible to detect parody versus reality anymore.
As predicted, he also dismisses the dismal approval rating as bogus.
He must be trying to distract from something big (or bigger).
Not defending the tweet but Rob Schneider is part Filipino and his mixed ethnicity is the subject of a lot of his work. Not sure this qualifies as “whitesplaining.”
If he identifies as white.There are many mixed people who self identify as white.Just like there are many mixed people like POTUS, Halle Berry, Alicia Keyes, Tracee Ellis Ross,etc who identify as Black.Does Rob identify as a Filipino guy ,a Mixed guy or a White guy? IDK
Yeah, I actually met his Mom and shame she is really nice. Rob’s comedic schtick is doing various racial stereotypes so he is enjoying all the racial privileges. He is white passing.
saw this MLK quote and thought it is very fitting.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. — Martin Luther King Jr.
Sooo relevant. He truly was a great, brave man and a spectacular orator.
Using this post to recommend that my fellow Celebitchies read John Lewis’s three-part graphic novel series, March. I read it last fall before the election, and I almost wish I had waited to read it as I think it would have been a nice jolt of optimism after the end of American Democracy.
Also, Testament of Hope is an anthology of MLK’s writing and speeches, and it’s excellent. It sits next to my Constitution on my bookshelf.
This douche canoe should stick to bad comedy.
Rob Schneider lecturing John Lewis on MLK is like Rob Schneider trying to lecture anyone on being funny.
Rob Schneider once complained that he hadn’t made a movie in 7 years because of Democrat-imposed regulations in California. I so desperately wish I could witness the moment he realizes he doesn’t make movies anymore is because he was never that funny.
Aside from Adam Sandler, whos even keeping him relevant??? I mean really
I wish I could be at least 0.01 percent as eloquent as many of you fine, strong CB posters. I revisited Letter from Birmingham Jail and wept anew.
But…words escape me at the moment. All I am capable of at the moment is this:
Martin Luther King, Jr. AMERICAN HERO.
Rob Schneider. AMERICAN DOUCHEBAG.
Wow, I am just so impressed by everybody. Given how so much of this stuff is obscured/erased in the American mass media & educational system of onwards and upwards, we’re #1; your all’s knowledge of history and politics is thrilling.
And for those who say nothing has changed, well a whole lot hasn’t changed enough, but 60 years ago, 50, 40, 30 years ago it so was much worse. People did not have access to genuine information and were slaves to the common wisdom, ie “better dead than red” (now there’s a slogan to give youth hope for the future). And of the few that did, even fewer dared to speak out, because those that did lost their jobs, their families, often their lives, and were hounded for decades. In 1965 when John Lewis was putting his life on the line for democracy and the future of the American people, half the population didn’t call him a hero. He was damned as a terrorist.
All you awesome babes give me hope for the future.
Furthermore, Obama has freed Chelsea Manning. This is pretty wonderful astonishing. In the 1950’s the Rosenbergs were framed, railroaded, and executed for virtually the same thing, allegedly spreading state secrets. Things are better. And you guys are part of the reason why.
does rob schneider just check the white box, like he think he’s just a white man in a white world….because he is clearly ALSO asian as damn well and the civil rights that John Lewis AND MLK spear headed allowed for him and that side of his family to have some decency in america…. dont you ever do it Rob LOL, never again