# Let's pit Martin Luther King! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 16, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016 "2015-01-16T20:05:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/21 "2015-01-16T21:02:59Z")
> [@Daddypants](#): > > If you’re going to vilify frauds and hypocrites, please cancel President’s Day too. Looking at the list of [federal holidays](http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/snow-dismissal-procedures/federal-holidays/#url=2015), you get your wish. There is no President’s Day. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/22 "2015-01-16T21:04:56Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Well, it’s good to have a hobby. And no sense of perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/23 "2015-01-16T21:10:40Z")
> [@Boogly](#): > > What about Columbus Day? Is Columbus worthy of your middle finger as well? Of course not. He discovered Native Americans. Our culture would be greatly diminished if we didn’t have the wonderful contributions they have given us. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/24 "2015-01-16T21:12:01Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Just another pitting of MLK by the OP. He does this almost every year since he’s been here. You must be thinking of someone else. My search shows 28 eclectic pittings by the OP and this is the only MLK one. ---
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/25 "2015-01-16T21:16:44Z")
Someone woke up in a bad mood. Who trip-trapped across your bridge? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/26 "2015-01-16T21:19:24Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > You must be thinking of someone else. My search shows 28 eclectic pittings by the OP and this is the only MLK one. He has threads in Great Debates and General Questions. That’s using Martin as a keyword and the OP’s username. Haven’t tried other combos. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/27 "2015-01-16T21:39:20Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Of course not. He discovered Native Americans. Our culture would be greatly diminished if we didn’t have the wonderful contributions they have given us. I am indeed fond of corn and potatoes . . . Of tobacco and cocaine and syphilis, less said the better . . . ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/28 "2015-01-16T21:40:48Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone describe a _medical appliance_ as being “politically correct” before. “Short of walking into a conversation, sandblasting the brick and installing track lighting, there is no surer way to announce one is from the 1980s than to mount an assault on ‘political correctness,’ the contemporary phrase for which is ‘not being a jackass.’” [—Tabatha Southey](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Political_correctness) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/29 "2015-01-16T21:43:43Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > If King hadn’t been assassinated, he’d be seen with the same level of skepticism as Jesse Jackson. But, Jackson is seen with skepticism only by idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Donald\_Rump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Donald\_Rump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donald_Rump)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/30 "2015-01-16T21:49:55Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone describe a _medical appliance_ as being “politically correct” before. I see this is more of a “thing” than I thought it was. My in-laws recently came back from their first and only trip to Our Nation’s Capital and all they had to report on was how outraged they were over the FDR memorial showing him in a wheelchair. They, too, called it a capitulation to the PC lobby, or some such nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/31 "2015-01-16T21:53:50Z")
More worthy of pitting are the people who evoke him the most. They’re the ones that are least likely to judge someone by anything other than the color of their skin. But that’s okay because they’re only racist towards white people. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/32 "2015-01-16T22:16:43Z")
> [@FuriousGeorge](#): > > Someone woke up in a bad mood. Who trip-trapped across your bridge? I think he’s pissed off over being banned by Stormfront. Yeah, I just godwinned this thread. Sue me. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/33 "2015-01-16T22:27:30Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > Those moral failings didn’t stop him from, in concert with others, achieving the greatest moral victory of the twentieth century. So why should I care about his failings? Because they make him a hypocrite, negating everything he ever said and sometimes did. Or something. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/34 "2015-01-16T22:46:26Z")
Well, personally I’m shocked that the OP didn’t decide a gold-digging woman was to blame. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/35 "2015-01-16T22:53:32Z")
Hey, at least he talked Nichelle Nichols out of quitting “Star Trek.” ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/36 "2015-01-16T23:00:39Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > hopefully without the political correct wheelchair. What the fuck? What’s a politically correct wheelchair? Did he have a wheelchair with a bumper sticker that said “I don’t shake hands with darkies like that Jess White dude” that you know about? Or do you just think a wheelchair is not politically correct. Anyway, you’re consistent. FDR was so fucking faithful in his marriage, one of your moral hot button issues. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/37 "2015-01-16T23:21:39Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > More worthy of pitting are the people who evoke him the most. They’re the ones that are least likely to judge someone by anything other than the color of their skin. But that’s okay because they’re only racist towards white people. If I’m understanding this correctly, you’re saying that black people who mention MLK the most are racist towards white people. I’m honestly curious. Can you expand on this or give some examples? ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/38 "2015-01-16T23:26:58Z")
Another racist pitting a black guy ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/39 "2015-01-16T23:31:16Z")
I think maybe he’s complaining about his perception that “the race card” is played too frequently, especially when it is played (again, in his perception) without justification, or over (last time, I promise, in his perception) unreasonable interpretations of how equitable the world is/should be. Or maybe not. EtA: in response to post 37. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/40 "2015-01-16T23:32:57Z")
> [@Donald\_Rump](#): > > I see this is more of a “thing” than I thought it was. My in-laws recently came back from their first and only trip to Our Nation’s Capital and all they had to report on was how outraged they were over the FDR memorial showing him in a wheelchair. They, too, called it a capitulation to the PC lobby, or some such nonsense. Pfft, you want political correctness run amok? The official portrait of president Obama portrays him as a Negro! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016.md?page=3)