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Missouri Newspaper Criticized for Racist Martin Luther King Jr. ‘I Have a Dream’ Caricature Cartoon

White people (and non-Black people of color for that matter) would do well to just keep

Martin Luther King J’s name out of their mouths. This goes especially for conservatives who only seem to know one excerpt of one speech from one civil rights leader and so they invoke their version of MLK every time they feel a need to wag their fingers at Black people and lecture us about being peaceful—which is ironic since, at the time of his death, most of America disapproved of him and his methods of activism.

A Missouri newspaper is under fire for publishing a cartoon depiction of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech that alters King’s words to address recent riots that have broken out in white people’s favorite boogeyman city: Chicago.

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From NBC News:

The cartoon ran in the Sunday edition of the Southeast Missourian newspaper published in Cape Girardeau, about 115 miles southeast of St. Louis. It depicted King with exaggerated facial features saying, “I have a dream that my four children will one day loot stores in Chicago and call it reparations.”

The newspaper, owned by Rust Communications, published a note to readersThursday by its opinion page management, saying that in response to the cartoon, “The Southeast Missourian has been the recipient of a wave of social media messages, emails and threats.”

It’s difficult figuring out where to start in listing all the ways this cartoon is both condescending and racist.

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First, it implies that Black people are the only ones rioting and looting, even though there’s no evidence that’s even remotely the case in Chicago or anywhere else. Secondly, caricaturing King and his speech while lecturing Black people on respecting his legacy is just peak Caucasity. Third, while Black people do cherish King and his legacy, he is not our Moses and the “I Have a Dream” speech is not our list of holy commandments chiseled on stone tablets and delivered to us as the infallible words of God. Malcolm X, James Baldwin and Kwame Ture are also renowned civil rights icons who have delivered speeches that Black people hold in high esteem—strange that none of them ever get quoted by the white people who insist on choosing a daddy for Black America.

More from NBC:

Two letters to the editor published Thursday slammed the cartoon, with one saying the paper had dishonored King’s legacy.

“I am disappointed, and frankly, disgusted, that you and your editorial board would choose to publish the Ramirez cartoon depicting MLK Jr. scolding protesters along with ridiculing the idea of reparations,” Christine Warren, who said she is a subscriber to the paper, wrote.

“It totally dishonors the civil rights icon and blatantly sends a racist message, ‘Stay in your place, or you will disappoint MLK.’ What fictional nonsense.”

Source: Missouri Newspaper Criticized for Racist Martin Luther King Jr. ‘I Have a Dream’ Caricature Cartoon