The niece of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is blasting liberal leaders such as Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama and Al Sharpton for engaging in race-baiting in order to stir up discontent within the black community.
In an editorial at CNSNews.com, Dr. Alveda King asserts that liberal race-baiting serves only to create unrest as it overlooks – for the purpose of maintaining a mindset of victimization — the true nature of African Americans, who have survived overwhelming oppression “from first slavery and then segregation and racism.”
She writes:
When I hear Mrs. Senator Hillary Clinton or Mrs. Michelle Obama, or Al Sharpton, or other leading speakers stir up memories of racial unrest and oppression, even when they are pointing out the obvious current racial overtones and undertones that Blacks in America are still facing, I don’t hear hope. They don’t offer solutions, only more anger, pain and despair.
As a survivor of the 20th Century Race Wars, my back remains unbent, and I move forward for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all who were created equal in God’s eyes.
In her book, King Rules, the author and pastor reflects on the scripture passage from Acts 17:26 in which the human race is seen as having been born of “one blood,” a theme carried forward by her uncle who said: “We must all learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] or perish as fools.”
“Please, someone, remind speakers like Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Clinton that the answer to racial strife and confusion, in fact to all human issues, will always be love and nonviolent conflict resolution,” King writes. “We still have a dream, The American Dream.”
In a commencement address at Tuskegee University last month, First Lady Michelle Obama complained to students that she has been treated differently because she is the first African-American First Lady.
“My husband and I know how frustrating that experience can be,” she said, and continued:
We’ve both felt the sting of those daily slights throughout our entire lives — the folks who crossed the street in fear of their safety; the clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores; the people at formal events who assumed we were the ‘help’ – and those who have questioned our intelligence, our honesty, even our love of this country.
Continuing in her address to the graduates about the racism that still exists among police officers, employers, and teachers in schools, Michelle Obama said, “As we’ve seen over the past few years, those feelings are real. They’re rooted in decades of structural challenges that have made too many folks feel frustrated and invisible.”
Speaking at Texas Southern University last week, Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called for federal legislation to automatically register Americans to vote when they turn 18 and mandate at least 20 days of early voting throughout the U.S. Clinton said these changes in the nation’s laws were necessary because Republicans and others were attempting to bring about a “sweeping effort to disenfranchise and disempower people of color, poor people, and young people.”
As Breitbart News reported, Orlando Watson, the Republican National Committee’s communications director for black media, said Clinton was “misleading and divisive.”
“Her exploitation of this issue only underscores why voters find her dishonest and untrustworthy,” he added.
In comments to Breitbart News, Dr. Deborah Owens, a leader of the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP) said, “Racism in my opinion is a condition of the heart that only the love of God can heal.”
“While we have a problem with race in America, we should not generalize every white person as racist,” she added. “There are black and Latino racists also.”
Regarding the political race-baiting, Owens said, “Ignorance and the continued inflammatory nature of reporting racial issues only add fuel to the fire, which is burning out of control in many cities across our nation.”
She agrees with King that liberal political leaders who are race baiting are acting without a goal of healing divisiveness, and frequently without any personal knowledge of what the real Civil Rights movement was about.
“Individuals in positions of leadership should be responsible and begin to offer solutions instead of adding insult to injury,” Owens explained.
“Mrs. Clinton can’t speak for the black community because she is not black and didn’t suffer what blacks did during the Civil rights movement,” she continued. “She is disingenuous and I take offense at her attempts to sound black and act black and pretend she can relate to blacks. She can’t. It’s time to offer solutions and bring healing to our nation.”