Republicans Mocked for Using Famous MLK Quote

There is one Martin Luther King, Jr. quote that politicians use far more frequently than other important messages and beliefs the civil rights leader advocated. Many are now slamming politicians, namely Republicans, for summarizing King's life and work into one quote pulled from his "I Have A Dream" speech.

King, whose life and achievements were celebrated nationwide Monday, delivered the "I Have A Dream" speech in 1963 in Washington, D.C. On Monday, Republicans were slammed for their common use of one of King's most famous quotes from the speech. King's speech spanned 17 minutes, but the quote often used by politicians is one sentence.

Most of the tweets centered around Republicans' use of the quote: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Writer Judd Legum criticized politicians using the quote to support their agendas and said King's work is taken out of context when used as a standalone sentence.

"Pretty much every right-wing politician will mark MLK Day with the same quote, stripped of all context REMINDER: MLK SAID MORE THAN 35 WORDS," Legum tweeted Sunday as the first tweet in a 16-part Twitter thread addressing the topic.

Legum goes on to say that King's quote is taken out of context by Republican politicians as a message that promotes ignoring race. However, that is not what the civil rights leader worked so hard to change.

"To put it simply: King spoke frequently about racial inequality and the obligation to address racial injustice. King's 'dream' of a society where people could be judged on the 'content of their character' was conditioned on economic justice for Black Americans," Legum tweeted. "The idea that today, MLK would advocate IGNORING racial and economic inequality is absurd."

Others also criticized Republicans for their frequency in using the quote. The Recount, a video journalism website, tweeted a compiled video showing cuts of many Republicans saying the same quote from King on MLK Day.

"Do Republicans know any other MLK quotes?" the tweet said.

"Republicans quoting MLK are 'weaponizing' his words, according to Civil Rights Experts interviewed by Axios," Daily Caller News Foundation editor Ailan Evans tweeted while sharing an Axios article.

The Axios article reports that by "cherry-picking" King's words, politicians are masking systemic racism in the country. The Recount video includes a brief clip of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis repeating King's quote while a "Stop Woke" sign is displayed on the podium. DeSantis' Stop Woke Act bans critical race theory and gender identity lessons in public schools, according to an article by The Hill.

"For most Republicans, Dr King is just the guy who said to forget about skin color; they basically just know one quote of his, out of context, & they repeat it ad nauseam," Mehdi Hasan said during a segment on MSNBC on Sunday.

Hasan goes on to say at the MLK memorial in Washington, D.C., quotes displayed on the memorial don't portray King's radical beliefs.

"In a speech less than a year before he died, MLK referred to the U.S. government as 'the greatest purveyor of violence in the world,'" Hasan tweeted. "Funnily enough that quote isn't one of the quotes on the walls of his memorial, nor is it ever cited by U.S. politicians."

Florida State University professor Davis Houck told Newsweek that typically, conservative politicians are the ones who take King's words out of context. He said politicians twist the words to imply that King believed race didn't matter.

"Race always matters for Dr. King and it will always matter for Dr. King," Houck said. "It will always matter for our country. We are never going to live in raceless country."

William Hall, a professor at Webster University, told Newsweek that he believes King was using the quote as an analogy regarding the nation's Founding Fathers and the basis on which the United States of America was founded on, such as that all men are created equal.

"If you limit it to just those words without thinking about its larger historic context, it can be trivialized," Hall said of King's quote. "Its real importance can only be understood when you look at it in a broader context linking it with what the overall goals and objectives of the founders of our nation were.

"I think that King saw the big picture," Hall added. "I am under no illusion in my interpretation of King that he thought we don't see color or color is not important."