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Americans established Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to celebrate the man and his righteous quest for all Americans to have equal justice under the law. MLK Day reminds us that anyone can succeed in America if they have hope and resolve. The day also commemorates the beauty of King's vision of Americans living together in harmony.
But the woke activists now pushing "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) initiatives across the country effectively reach the opposite of every positive belief King held. From encouraging riots to abandoning the vision of a color-blind America, today's woke activists have no legitimate right to act as champions of King's legacy.
Diversity activists today do not want a color-blind America. In fact, they want to stoke racial divisions by embracing the Jim Crow tradition of race-based discrimination.
As King wisely noted, "That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing."
But DEI proponents claim the route to "equity"—a term they have used to supplant genuine equality—requires affirmative racial discrimination in reverse. It is not enough to provide equal opportunity for all Americans; corporations, universities, and other organizations must prioritize race, even if they do so to the detriment of everything else.
At its foundation, DEI does not support the notion that all men are created equal.
DEI proponents assume racial minorities are still placed at an inherent structural disadvantage, and that white America is systemically racist. In turn, they demand corrective intervention by institutions in the form of DEI training.
They also assume that supposed systemic injustice can only be corrected by woke principles, such as giving Blacks affirmative preference over whites in hiring and promotion decisions. They argue it is only possible to fight injustice with equally unjust tactics. In short, they do not believe nonwhite Americans can succeed on an even playing field.
DEI advocates rarely cop to the last presumption explicitly, but their actions speak for themselves.
King's ethos was, at its core, firmly and unequivocally against discrimination. As he once said, "Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them."
It is clear that King opposed all forms of discrimination. He would thus find modern DEI ideological subjugation to be abhorrent. Moreover, King would despise the notion that DEI speaks for all Black Americans—or that Black Americans should be considered as a group, rather than as unique individuals.
As King noted, "I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you."
Equality—not "equity"—is central to King's ethos. Equality, woven into America's Founding via the Declaration of Independence, is the belief that all human beings possess the same fundamental human dignity, regardless of skin color or any other arbitrary distinctions. "Equity," as used by modern DEI and critical race theory ideologues, is the notion that certain groups of people are disadvantaged, and therefore deserve special treatment over more "privileged" groups.
But recall one of King's most famous admonitions: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
DEI initiatives revolt against the Civil Rights Movement's emphasis on genuine equality over "equity." Woke advocates cannot browbeat people with their divisive measures while simultaneously claiming to uphold King's color-blind vision.
"Equity" and equality cannot coexist. Either you believe everyone is an indivisible individual—endowed with moral and legal equality—or you believe we are all parts of different groups in perpetual tension with one another. King's struggle for the former proposition cannot be easily dismissed.
This MLK Day, let us keep the flame of King's dream lit by relegating the sophistry of DEI to the dustbin of history.
Christian Watson is a spokesman for Color Us United, and the host of "Pensive Politics with Christian Watson." Follow him on Twitter: @officialcwatson.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
