Black people can never have a moment of peace. We get the shortest month of the year for a month to allot to our historical feats, yet we can’t have 28 days of nothing but genuine celebration of our blackness. We have changed the world in countless ways, but we may never get the credit we deserve. We don’t get the chance to revel in our accomplishments and celebrate the hard work done by those among us and who came before us. Why? Because white privilege is allergic to black excellence and must find a way to devalue or diminish it. So it should come as no surprise to any of us that white people are using civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to sell and push their tired agendas.

Three times (and counting) this year, white people have found a way to use the words and image of Dr. King to help them spread their message. First, there was the Dodge Super Bowl commercial that used his “Drum Major Instinct” sermon as the soundtrack. Then, there was Supreme, the clothing company that debuted its new line of hoodies and flannels using Dr. King's likeness. But in true white folk fashion, they didn’t stop there. A white-led Catholic pro-life organization, American Life League, placed an anti-abortion ad in USA Today’s Black History Month edition using Dr. King’s likeness. In capital letters with a photo of him, they had the audacity to say that abortion wasn’t a part of MLK’s dream supported with an abortion statistic on black babies.

There are so many things that can be said about white people using Dr. King as a prop considering they used him as target practice in 1968. That white people comfortably used his ministry and likeness as a tool to push their own story lines is disgusting and disrespectful, to say the least. How are y'all out here using him as a prop as if he wasn’t the point person on a movement that gave us an extra ounce of freedom our ancestors could only dream of? In this month, our month, we are reminded of the bodies burned, bitten and stripped of human dignity and decency. We will never forget the ultimate sacrifice he and so many others have made. So we will not let you sell his legacy when you’re the same ones whose people put a bounty on his head.

I don’t need a hoodie with his face and words of power on it to solidify my dream. Neither does Becky. When she wears it, to what dream, exactly, is she referring? You see, Becky and I can have the same butt, but you can’t buy the same struggle. You don’t get to misconstrue his words to tell women what they can do with their bodies when he supported Planned Parenthood. You don’t get to use his words as the soundtrack to your commercial when his words are the soundtrack to our ‌struggle and the fight to overcome. We are still working to make his dream a reality.

There are so many ways to tell stories for your brand and share your beliefs. But you can't do that with our King. Respect who he was and all his legacy means to us. Respect the 28 days we get to celebrate our story while still mourning all we've lost. Dr. King did so much in his time. I can assure you he didn’t die for this.

american life league

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