In 2021, I introduced the superficial nature of Pastor Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration pastor. There, service projects were sanitized and photography replaced serious calculations with the fundamental vision of fundamental vision, equity and inclusion that King lived and died.

Things are even more severe when we marked another MLK day on Monday. In Tennessee and across the country, the Ock Lol of Wang Justice was preached by anti-DEI laws, national overreach in the black community, and the revival of far-right extremism. In humiliation to the injury, this year Donald Trump has been launched as president, whose rhetoric and policy oppose King’s legacy – the very day we insist on honoring the King.

King’s radical dreams and Trump’s authoritarian nightmare

This convergence – Trump’s inauguration on MLK Day – highlights the sharp and undeniable contrast in our country’s vision. On the one hand, King’s legacy is rooted in radical love, courageous justice, a ruthless pursuit of fairness and liberation for the oppressed. Meanwhile, Trump’s policies embody division, exclusion and authoritarianism, building on the basis of white hegemony and economic exploitation.

Still, we know the routine. Those who perpetuated these systems of injustice, sarcastically evoked the king’s name, blaming his nature. They cherry-picked his “I have a dream” speech, opposed to everything he fought. They spoke about unity, driving a deep wedge into the heart of the country. King was not a dreamer lost in abstraction. He was a prophetic destroyer and a moral revolutionary who sought the destruction of the system of oppression.

Tennessee: Battlefield for Justice

This hypocrisy is less obvious than in Tennessee. Our state is an academic field that bans critical racial theory education and focuses on systematic connections between race and legal systems, not taught in the Tennessee K-12. It has become a test ground for the academic field of anti-DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) law. Schools – Refund comprehensive education programs and dismantle stock initiatives at every turn. These efforts are no coincidence. They are intentional attempts to whiten history, silence voices, and maintain a system of inequality.

This fair war, coupled with state overreach in cities like Memphis and county states like Shelby, has largely faced oppressive policies, voter oppression and public services rebates. .

Over the past few years, the Tennessee legislature overturned measures from the Memphis City Council and banned the types of traffic stops that led to the death of TyreNichols at the hands of Memphis police. I tried stripping tax revenue From Memphis, a city referendum aimed at regulating gun use and improving safety. They then disband the police supervisory board, simply entrusting Memphis clerks to the recommendation agency, stripping them of their investigative capabilities.

Tennessee’s leadership continues to legislate against the very community the King has tried to free. This is not governance. This is Jim Crow, a modern day dressed in bureaucratic clothing.

Superficial service fake

Meanwhile, the wider public clings to a pleasant “day of service” in which the king failed to confront the structural injustice he had fought through his life. Let me be clear about this. Service without justice is not sufficient. Photography on soup kitchens and park glorification projects does not dismantle systemic racism, economic exploitation, or state-sanctioned violence.

Fakes continue because they are safe. It allows people to feel better about themselves without putting anything at risk. But honoring the king should make us uncomfortable. They should examine accomplices in systems of oppression and challenge us to move us into bold actions. King’s dreams were not sterilized or superficial. It was radical and rooted in the liberation of the oppressed, not in the apology.

Prophetic call

I recall that Trump’s politics are not just political ideology, they constitute a spiritual crisis. It is a heresy that enhances greed, power and exclusion for love, justice, and inclusion. They are theological humiliation of the very nature of God’s justice, and we seek to free the care of those captured and oppressed, and to dismantle the system of exploitation.