Mainstreaming MLK Day

Happy MLK Day! Well, I guess you really shouldn't call it happy. It is meant to commemorate a man who was assassinated while pursuing civil rights for all. To most of the white folks I know, this day brings up mixed emotions. There are those who embrace the holiday because they get a day off of work and those who disparage the day because they have to work while other people don't. The animosity towards the holiday has a tendency to leak out inappropriately and manifest as racism. How to help poor working class whitey learn to love MLK Day...

It's a no-brainer. If you look back in history, there was a time when employers seeking workers would take out ads or put up signs advertising it with the words "No Irish". Or they'd just not hire you if you were Irish. But St. Patrick's Day went a long way towards easing those relations. People hated the Irish except that one day a year when everyone would claim to be Irish and drink themselves into oblivion.

Likewise the labor movement in this country is floundering. Yet every Labor Day you'll find Americans being loud and proud and drunk off their asses to celebrate.

MLK needs to become a drinking holiday. Start a tradition of each and every MLK Day downing a 40 or mixing up some gin and juice. This would also be the perfect excuse to smoke a blunt. These things are the common bond between the working class people of all races. Just one day a year let everybody claim to have some African-American heritage, kick it with St. Ides and bitch about whitey keeping a man down. I beseech my white brethren; Their story is our story. Their struggle is our struggle. Let's get loaded together, play some dominoes on the porch and blow some smoke with the P-Funk.

Just trying to do my part in promoting unity, here.