Martin Luther King Jr.

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Today we are celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Close to his birthday, (Capricorn, go figure). My son has been slow to understand holidays. He seems to associate them with gift-giving and child-centric activities (Mother's Day was a trainwreck). Last year would have been the first time this day was explained to him in a school setting. He came home and said, "I hate Martin Luther King, because he made us go to school with Black people".
Granted, at 7 years old, he didn't know the meaning of "Black people". I couldn't fathom how he gleaned such a bizarre interpretation of MLK day. But I was used to his distortions of holidays and social norms. I got a book about Dr. King and read it with him. I've read at other times of the year. But it still seems a bit beyond him.
This year he came home with a lecture (to me) about Black people and White people, and that we are "White". I tried to explain my perspective of "color" and he shut down, essentially. I emailed his special ed teacher and asked for the materials used for that particular lesson. I asked her for them because I want to match the materials with his interpretation. He has a language delay and I want to make sure he is able to understand social context. The special ed teacher replied I should look up material on the internet.

Dr. King's messages are as important today as they were 40 years ago. Not as a historical footnote, but a reality that we must conjure up when we see injustice towards the less powerful. Not as a congratulatory memory, "Oh look how much better we are!" but as a reminder that we have to fight sometimes, to demand to be taken seriously. Sometimes being right isn't so popular, comfortable or easy.

The school district I live in currently has declared that the Desegregation orders aren't needed anymore. Bussing is stopping and students are being allowed to choose their schools. Apparently, it's quite alright to segregate the disabled and is done on a regular basis. Are parents of autistic children going to be disobedient? Are we going to argue that our kids deserve an integrated education?

Do you teach your kids that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for Civil Rights for Blacks only? That he's a hero and catalyst for ethnic groups? or that he fought against Oppression in all forms?

Oh boy... this brings back some not so good memories from my youth.

I was like your son once, in a way or two. I was in second or third grade. There was a black girl as a new student one day. She was literally the first black I'd seen in my life. There are several racists in my hometown, so I more or less repeated their words and didn't realize what racism was. Even blurted out the n-word and said "I don't like black people" (but I didn't actually say "black people") one time, in front of this girl. That was echolalia at it's absolute worst.

I didn't really get a firm concept of Dr. King and the civil rights movement until I moved to Arizona. 4th grade was the first time MLK day was celebrated by me, yet I had no idea why we did it.

I don't remember the exact thing that finally got its grasp on me, but all of a sudden I had this new knowledge. I am now forever grateful for whatever it was.

I never understood the old fashioned stereotypes of Black people. I grew up in rural Northern California in a very White community. At that time, we even had few Mexican families (we had seasonal migrant workers until the 80's) But all that "fried chicken and watermelon" banter was really a country thing-we all ate that stuff. And we had lazy workers, welfare families, violent people, child abusers, you name it.
When Black people did come to town, they were promptly ran out.

The funny thing about Arizona is that Phoenix is known for being fairly segregated (Black and White, rich and poor, etc). I've talked to people from Phoenix that think Tucson is some kind of integrated Hell. But Tucson about 12 years ago, didn't have that many Black people either. I had a friend who decided to move to Phoenix, despite the racism. He preferred to be part of a larger group (and accepted among them) rather than the alienated but tolerant group down here.

Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King!

This whole topic upsets me at times. Racial prejudice never made sense to me. And when I saw examples of it, it was as if someone had yanked the rug from under my feet. It sounds insane, unreasonable, and certifiable. As for what the OP asked, I taught my child, and believe, that what he said can apply to all oppressed people. And, like it or not, people on the Spectrum are presently fighting against oppression.

I think the day should be called "National Freedom From Slavery And Oppression Day".

around here, the focus seems to be on black people....not that MLK fought for civil rights for all. i think the focus should be on civil rights vs. the color of people's skin..............my grandfather was very racist, but my parents were not~actually one of the few good things they did was to instill in me the fact that we're all just people looking to be respected because we're people.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Was yesterday the aniversary of his birth, or his death?

the anniversary of his death......his birthday was, ironically, last week.

No, Martin Luther King Day is the 3rd monday of January to commemorate his birthday, which is Jan 15th. Kind of like President's Day to celebrate Presidents Lincoln and Washington in February. Dr. King was killed on April 4th, 1968. Which happens to be my grandma's birthday and my wedding anniversary.

I've never understood racism, I just can't. I've never been able to understand how people can believe such nasty crap. I grew up near an Indian reservation and was always disgusted by the racist prejudices towards Native Americans, Especially since I have relatives that are part Native American in ancestry.

I have a coworker who has these ridiculous fears about Barack Obama becoming president and she claims it's because she's convinced that Obama is going to hand out free money to African-Americans, I thinks she's just racist and is making crap up to avoid admitting it.

My son has really taken an interest in MLK. He, all by himself, rented a Disney movie about how blacks marched, bloody sunday and won the right to vote. And tonight, at the library, he rented Ruby Bridges (first black girl to attend all white school). He recalls watching it in second grade. The topic has been very easy to discuss with him and he grasps it well.

There's not one way to present it. The movie and his amazing speeches present well on their own. Blacks were persecuted because of their skin color. MLK fought for tolerance of everyone--not just blacks--and promoted nonviolence. My son didn't grow up around this kind of blatant racism so it's especially strange to him, that you could be killed and hated because of your skin color. What an awful thing, really.

equinn

My son came home from school one day and said that his friend was black. I knew that, at the time, there were no black kids in his class. Then I finally met his friend. The only thing black about him was his hair.