“We cannot be satisfied as long as:”
- Black Americans are the victims of police brutality
- Black Americans can’t stay in hotels
- Black Americans’ basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one
- There are still “For Whites Only” signs
- Black Americans in Mississippi cannot vote
- Black Americans in New York believe they have nothing for which to vote
That’s the part of the speech I always remember. The specific hotels issue was dealt with in legislation, but anyone who is quoting MLK and who is not speaking out about police brutality is doing it wrong.
(I do have to say that the last one about people feeling they have nothing for which to vote… I get it has a specific historical context and is a racial issue, but there’s a part of me that always thinks… oh boy, that’s a tall order)
People who think Buttigieg could usher in a return to normal are out of their goddamned minds. Not diminishing the important place of racism in the American psyche, but do you think that the people who basically lost their minds and said, “Anything goes now” because the president was black are going to shrug and say, “Okay, all better” when the president is gay?
Remember when Republicans won congress in the mid terms and spent the next six years hellbent to annul Obama’s signature legislation? They are going to spend six years hellbent on annulling Buttigieg’s marriage.
Not that I think a “return to normal” is possible in any event, but seriously people (including Mayor Pete themself) need to get their heads out of their asses.
