The Nonsense of the Second Civil Rights Movement

As the day approaches to honor one of America’s true heroes, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., I often become cynical. I think of how the Left has managed to make this day less about the message of King, as the civil rights movement has been prostituted.

I know that’s a powerful word to use to describe what’s happened to the legacy of King and many others who fought alongside him. However, it is the most fitting word.

We are told that America is in the midst of a second civil rights movement, the latest version built around people like Michael Brown Jr. For me, this is an insult to King, as it is an insult to the multitude of blacks who sadly remain quietly outraged.

But far too many other blacks today believe the nonsense of a second civil rights movement. They comment to me that I don’t want to admit the racism that still exists in America.

I could respond back that America has a black president, but that does little to satisfy the bloodlust of the Left.

It does no good to mention the multitude of highly successful blacks in all walks of life, all of whom are a tribute not only to King, but also the great country that America has become.

Those discussions fall on deaf ears.

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I recall one such conversation, while I was in New York doing a segment on Fox News. I finished the segment, and a 30-something cameraman who was black approached me. He introduced himself, then said to me that he agreed with some what I had to say, but that he thinks I’m not seeing the whole picture. He asked if we can chat after his last segment, so he could explain where I am wrong. I agreed.

After the segment we stepped outside, and began to talk. He gave me the standard lines about black oppression, and so on; all things we have heard before, ad nauseam. He then looked up at the tall buildings in Manhattan, and said to me, “Kev, all these rich white men in these buildings, and you (sic) trying to tell me there is no racism …”

I interrupted him. “Whoa, Bro! Why are you about to slap your grandmother?!”

I interrupted him. “Whoa, Bro! Why are you about to slap your grandmother?!”

He looked at me with a surprise look on this face, since he wasn’t sure what I meant. I repeated my question.

I then explained that America was built on the backs of black women, women who put those rich white men in office. I further explained that our black grandmothers are the reason those men are successful, and thus in their own small way, black women are the reason America is the greatest country in the world.

Those white men, I continued, had more respect for our grandmothers than they had for their own mothers many times. Our grandmothers kept many of these men on the straight and narrow, and are the reason they sit on those lofty perches with those amazing panoramic views of Manhattan.

Those men are the people who have built a country that elected its first black president. They are not our enemies; they are our brothers.

I told him that I wished he could talk to some of those men and find out how great an influence our grandmothers had on them. I reminded him that back in the day, the black women who served white women were more trusted than that white woman’s best friend. The woman of the house shared things about her life with her black confidante, our grandmothers, that she not dare tell her most trusted friend. With that information, black women shaped America.

So I ask you again, “Why are you about to slap your grandmother?!”

The young man looked at me with a wry smile and said, “I knew there was a reason I wanted to talk to you.”

The legacy King will indeed last forever. That legacy is not just a black legacy, or a civil rights legacy; it is an American legacy. It’s time black America appreciate the greatest country in the world, and appreciate those who helped to build it.

Kevin Jackson is a Fox News contributor and executive director of The Black Sphere LLC.