“I don’t know, I think I prefer the Civil Rights Leaders from before,” I heard a friend say while comparing the movements of Black Lives Matter to the 1960s Civil Rights Era.
Are you sure?
It’s Martin Luther King Day and while I have no shortage of favorite quotes and anecdotes I typically enjoy sharing, what has my attention is a statistic.
His disapproval rating just before he died.
75%
That’s disapproval. People who were actively opposed to what MLK stood for and his way of communicating them. It’s higher than any disapproval ratings at any point for Barack Obama. Ilhan Omar. Colin Kaepernick. President Johnson totally cut off contact with him- too much of a reputational risk. Many of the people we think of as progressive or open-minded would likely not have supported King.
The idea that today’s voices for equality are “too much” compared to those from the past is only possible because we’re distant enough from MLK’s era that we can convince ourselves that his was a more moderate approach that always merited the same reverence that his name gets now.
No.
Would I have supported King? Would I not have talked about him much to keep the peace? My heart wants to believe I would’ve been an ally, but the pure stats make me question that assumption. Maybe I wouldn’t have been a hater. But one of the quiet ones?
After all, three in four of us would’ve been among the 75% back in 1968. Is our attitude towards today’s less controversial voices, ideas, or movements any indicator?
MLK's Approval
