Letter: MLK, Yes — CRT, No: A Response to Christ Church

To the Editor:

As Christians, we are disheartened that people identifying as Christian would so highhandedly misappropriate the words of Doctor Martin Luther King. Perhaps the most famous quote of Doctor King is “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.” This is the message that CRG supports. Nothing in what CRG wrote or stands for embraces racism, disrespect, or unfair behavior of any kind. Nothing we wrote suggested that people are not interconnected. Commenters are entitled to their own opinions. They are not entitled to their own facts.

The world view based on Critical Race Theory (CRT), criticized by Citizens for Responsible Government, judges all individuals based on the color of their skin. It proclaims that white people are oppressors and people of color are victims. According to CRT that’s all you need to know to judge your neighbor. CRG opposes that idea. What could possibly be more racist, more divisive, or more in contradiction to the unifying message of Martin Luther King? In addition, the basic fallacy in the letter from Christ Church members is simple and obvious. The United States of the 2020s is a very different place from the United States of the 1960s. It takes a bit of hubris to suggest that you know where Dr. King would stand today.

Jim Crow is gone. The Civil Rights Act was passed. Schools are no longer segregated. The black and Latino middle class has grown significantly. We have had leaders of color in the Presidency, the Supreme Court, Congress, Governorships, and state and local leadership. More people of color graduate from high school and college. And on and on and on. Our country is certainly not perfect, but it is definitely different.

Perhaps Dr. King would stand with his niece, Alveda King, or with Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson, Tim Scott, Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell, Star Parker, or Candace Owens, to name just a few of our country’s most distinguished conservative leaders of color. Or perhaps he would join the almost one third of Latino voters who supported Donald Trump in 2016. I don’t know that and neither do the members of Christ Church.

We do know this. We will not find unity by walking away from the unifying legacy of Martin Luther King and embracing a world view that divides us by race, indicts us based on whiteness, and forces the label of victim onto people of color.

Sherry L. Harris President Citizens for Responsible Government

June Logie Treasurer Citizens for Responsible Government