Colorblindness and MLK

With a renewed attack against affirmative action in progress, advocates of "colorblindness" are rolling out Martin Luther King's "content of our character" remark every chance they can get.

Well, I'm just about sick of it. To head them off at the pass, I offer Tim Wise's essay, "Misreading the Dream: The Truth About Martin Luther King, Jr. and Affirmative Action." It has somewhat of an academic tone to it, so if you'd like a less rigorous piece, see instead Wise's take on the "True MLK."

Michael Eric Dyson also addressed similar issues in his book on King, I May Not Get There With You. You can read Chapter One of Dyson's book, here.

In short, don't quote King as being against affirmative action. It's likely he would be a staunch defender of it today and, in all probability, would actually criticize it for not going far enough towards addressing the disparities in income, education, healthcare access, etc. that are still very much encoded by race in the United States.