Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Jefferson, and “the Promissory Note”

By N.S.
January 17, 2022
VDARE

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the holiest day of the year.

In Martin Luther King’s (1929-1968) most famous speech, “I Have a Dream,” which he delivered at the Lincoln Monument on August 28, 1963, he said,

“So we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was the promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

“It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’...

King’s speechwriters’ talk of a “promissory note” was a call for racial reparations.

Read the whole thing at VDARE.

You can comment on it at The Unz Review (just copy and paste your comments here, as well).

Enjoy!



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Correct. KKKing was not speaking of the note in figurative terms. To the mostly negro audience they perceived as real cash. Hundred dollar bee-ills falling from the sky in a literal sense.

Anonymous said...

I could take the notion of "all men are CREATED equal" and agree with it--in theory.But after that point of creation,NO ONE is actually equal.The minute you are born,your mental acuity,talent,looks and personality will dictate your fate in life.(So how is Biden president? Good question--I have no answer.)

Stix writes articles,essays and books a thousand times better than I do. George Clooney is better looking than I am and Jim Carrey has more talent.Ken Jennings is a genius.Doctors and scientists have a higher capacity to absorb knowledge--and use it to benefit others--much better than I do.

There are differing levels that every White person falls into--equality is not life's objective in the least.Add blacks to the mix--with lower IQs,sociopathic tendencies and lack of work ethic--and they become an even lower level on life's ladder.

Life is random--to go back to the "shooting craps" analogy--and all it asks of you is to do the best you can--with what you have.

But equality?Absolutely not.

--GRA

Anonymous said...

One more thing--your dream is my dream.

--GRA

Anonymous said...

"I could take the notion of 'all men are CREATED equal' and agree with it--in theory. But after that point of creation, NO ONE is actually equal"

Equal as in the law should be applied equally to everyone. NOT absolute equality in all matters. Tom was only thinking of the law being applied equally and nothing more.