MLK’s tough truths lesson for Trump era

Time, particularly the time we are in right now, has a very strange and problematic way of reducing people, and the rich, complicated lives they lived, to a meme. Few people have been reduced to quick quotes or a caricature more than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Yes, King said that in a better America, people would not “be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

But just a few sentences later, in that same “I Have a Dream” speech, he spoke of the continued pain caused by police brutality.

That quote rarely makes it onto memes and commercials commemorating the man. Nor does his more poignant illustration, in that same speech, where he says that the check this nation wrote to AfricanAmericans “has come back marked insufficient funds.” Even in his most glorious moments, King spoke hard truths.

In the final years of his short life, King spoke out consistently against the immorality of our nation’s military-industrial complex. He spoke up forcefully for the human and civil rights of everyday people — sanitation workers — and the fact that they deserved a living wage for the hard work they put in, day in and day out.

Many of King’s peers, be they Cicely Tyson or Harry Belafonte, are still alive and active here in New York today. We have no idea what our nation lost when King was killed. Just 39 when he was assassinated, King was younger than rappers Jay Z and Nas. He was younger than Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.

Think of it like this: At age 39, Barack Obama had just lost a congressional race against Bobby Rush and was a virtually unknown figure outside of a small circle in Chicago. Most of what Obama accomplished, that we know of, all happened past the age King was when he was gunned down.

While we don’t have King in our midst today — and were denied his presence and leadership through many pivotal eras — now more than ever, we must stand like he stood and speak like he spoke.

We must call out inequity, and cruelty, and injustice — and we must name names. It is not enough to speak about present-day injustice in a vague manner. Again, let King guide you. He called out particular people, corporations and elected officials when it was necessary.

Sadly, for the many of us who saw the election of Barack Obama as some type of personification of King’s dream, we are now living in a regressive nightmare. A crass, sexist, billionaire bigot is about to take over the Oval Office. Our best glimpse into what King would say or do may very well be found in one of his surviving proteges — Rep. John Lewis — who has called Donald Trump out for what he will soon be. An illegitimate President. If we do as King admonished and refuse to judge Trump by the color of his skin, but choose instead to judge him by the content of his character, he falls far short of someone deserving of our respect.