# Would a MLK Jr figure survive scrutiny today? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 16, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-mlk-jr-figure-survive-scrutiny-today/609721 "2012-01-16T19:26:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-mlk-jr-figure-survive-scrutiny-today/609721/21 "2012-01-18T15:44:06Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > What on earth are you talking about? Nobody thought Clinton hadn’t had sex with any of those women. So you agree that Clinton is guilty of sexual harassment and assault. That’s my point - IOKIADDI. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-mlk-jr-figure-survive-scrutiny-today/609721/22 "2012-01-18T15:47:41Z")
> [@IntelliQ](#): > > So they’re either racist or opportunist? :rolleyes: Well, yeah, I think they are almost all opportunist. I think that about most of the lefty politicians too - but the right is more ballsy. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-mlk-jr-figure-survive-scrutiny-today/609721/23 "2012-01-18T17:17:44Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Slavery had no race based component, the only reason slavery _ever_ had a racial component is because of the Enlightenment. Are you sure you’re not applying a modern concept of race to the ancient world? Because so far as I can tell, many Romans and Greeks thought themselves to be different (i.e. superior) to other people. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-mlk-jr-figure-survive-scrutiny-today/609721/24 "2012-01-18T17:36:12Z")
**Martin Hyde** > [@](#): > > Slavery had no race based component, the only reason slavery ever had a racial component is because of the Enlightenment. During the Enlightenment, American slaveholders who studied and were to a degree part of the Enlightenment found that under Enlightenment principles you could not justify owning slaves. Until they created a self-serving fallacy, namely that blacks “needed” to be enslaved because as a race they were intrinsically unsuited to running their own affairs, so keeping them as slaves was a benevolent act of paternal affection. Race based slavery in English speaking North America was implemented specifically to end the repeated indentured servant flights and rebellions which threatened the political and economic stability of the colonies. The intent was to divide the white peasant class and the black peasant class against each other as a way of keeping both in line. [http://backintyme.com/essays/item/22](http://backintyme.com/essays/item/22) [http://backintyme.com/essays/item/12](http://backintyme.com/essays/item/12) > [@](#): > > the endogamous color line was designed to avert servile insurrection at a unique time and place. It was the only time and place with more forced laborers of European descent than of African descent. Virginia was the only New World colony where such a method of permanently splitting potential insurrectionist allies could have worked. No other colony would have benefited from splitting Europeans from Africans by an endogamous barrier. This is because no other colony, whether British, French, Dutch, Spanish, or Portuguese, had such a high fraction (more than half) of European forced laborers. None could benefit by preventing mixing between Europeans and Africans, and so none had to criminalize intermarriage.Consequently, none ever needed to invent or enforce an endogamous color line ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-mlk-jr-figure-survive-scrutiny-today/609721/25 "2012-01-25T06:29:24Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I think so as long as one isn’t a black Julius Streicher like Al Sharpton. 😕 Is this an apt analogy? I know relatively little about either Streicher or Sharpton but this comment seems wrong enough to be strange. [[QUOTE=villagevoice.com/2001-11-13/news/al-sharpton-s-jewish-problem/](http://QUOTE=villagevoice.com/2001-11-13/news/al-sharpton-s-jewish-problem/)] “I have been with him on numerous times over 15 years, and I have never heard him engage in anti-Semitic actions or words,” says civil libertarian Norman Siegel, who ran for public advocate with Sharpton’s blessing. Even Dov Hikind, a leader of the Orthodox community and a longstanding Sharpton nemesis, prefers to call him a “racist” who has “indulged in anti-Semitism.” Moderate Jewish leaders made this point more decorously. “Having talked to him and looked into his eyes, I feel that he is not an anti-Semite,” says William Rapfogel, executive director of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. [/QUOTE] If opinion’s like Qin’s are common, I’m afraid OP gets a negative answer. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-mlk-jr-figure-survive-scrutiny-today/609721/26 "2012-01-25T16:36:05Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Are you sure you’re not applying a modern concept of race to the ancient world? Because so far as I can tell, many Romans and Greeks thought themselves to be different (i.e. superior) to other people. Romans and Greeks definitely viewed their cultures as superior, but the Romans historically had no issue expanding their definition of “Roman” to encompass even people born in the provinces. Was Rome itself always sort of looking down on the rest of the Empire as “provincial”, sure, but it’s important to note that citizenship in the Roman Empire was expanded to cover people of different cultures/ethnicities. I just don’t think race was a formal concept back then. There was definitely a concept of being “Roman” but not the same thing as race. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-mlk-jr-figure-survive-scrutiny-today/609721/27 "2012-01-25T19:04:44Z")
I mean, both Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have escaped scrutiny for their various criminal dealings. Plus, the FBI wouldn’t be able to bug MLK’s hotel rooms today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-mlk-jr-figure-survive-scrutiny-today/609721.md?page=1)