MLK Day nonsense in my area

[dr.girlfriend]

A regional organization gave this shirt out to all the schoolkids who participated in the MLK Day of Service in our area.  

My town and school Facebook pages went nutso with some parents being all, "How dare they make our kids billboards for anti-police rhetoric!" and "They should just stick to the stuff MLK actually stood for!"

Fortunately, even more parents chimed in with measured, educated responses, but...I was about to break my own fingers to keep myself from bringing the snark full-blast.  I posted a few responses, trying to manage my tone, but people were just.  so.  stuuuupid.  One guy was even like, "I can't believe they called it 'Poor People's Campaign -- whose idea was that?"  I'm like, "It was MARTIN LUTHER KING'S idea, you dumbass!"

[NitaX]

Jan 18, 2018 19:35:24 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

A regional organization gave this shirt out to all the schoolkids who participated in the MLK Day of Service in our area.  

My town and school Facebook pages went nutso with some parents being all, "How dare they make our kids billboards for anti-police rhetoric!" and "They should just stick to the stuff MLK actually stood for!"

Fortunately, even more parents chimed in with measured, educated responses, but...I was about to break my own fingers to keep myself from bringing the snark full-blast.  I posted a few responses, trying to manage my tone, but people were just.  so.  stuuuupid.  One guy was even like, "I can't believe they called it 'Poor People's Campaign -- whose idea was that?"  I'm like, "It was MARTIN LUTHER KING'S idea, you dumbass!"

They didn't know what the Poor People's Campaign was? Lord help.

[bugandbibs]

I can't believe that it's been 50 years.

[dr.girlfriend]

Jan 18, 2018 22:14:50 GMT -5 NitaX said:

Jan 18, 2018 19:35:24 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

A regional organization gave this shirt out to all the schoolkids who participated in the MLK Day of Service in our area.  

My town and school Facebook pages went nutso with some parents being all, "How dare they make our kids billboards for anti-police rhetoric!" and "They should just stick to the stuff MLK actually stood for!"

Fortunately, even more parents chimed in with measured, educated responses, but...I was about to break my own fingers to keep myself from bringing the snark full-blast.  I posted a few responses, trying to manage my tone, but people were just.  so.  stuuuupid.  One guy was even like, "I can't believe they called it 'Poor People's Campaign -- whose idea was that?"  I'm like, "It was MARTIN LUTHER KING'S idea, you dumbass!"

They didn't know what the Poor People's Campaign was? Lord help.

Seriously! It says right on the shirt "50th Anniversary of..." At the very least they could Google it. At one point I had composed a post that was like, "Thank you for illustrating how important it is that our schoolchildren are educated about Martin Luther King Jr. and all that he stood for..." but I managed to restrain myself.  The thread on the page for the town was deleted before I even saw it, and they finally shut the comments down on the Elementary School page when some cop's wife posted that all accusations of police brutality are basically made up.   The PTA met with the principal, Superintendent, and some of the complainy parents and that reportedly went well, but they were having a meeting with the local police later in the day and I haven't heard how that went.  It all seems to have died down.

[meshaliuknits]

This is what happens when you only teach black history out of context in February, I guess.