theroot.com | Article Link | by Danielle C. Belton

Martin Luther King Jr. had more than “a dream,” but you might not notice that on Monday during observances for his birthday.

Somewhere between his assassination and today began an MLK-neutering campaign meant to turn the famed agitator’s holiday into a national Day of Service, a generic mishmash of good feelings that contorts King’s social-justice legacy into a blissful Hallmark card of post-racial nothingness.

This has not gone unnoticed, from scholar Cornel West—who has pushed back against the “Santa Clausification” of King—to the #ReclaimMLK campaign, currently being spearheaded by young activists involved in the Black Lives Matter campaign. Many realize it’s time to stand up for what King actually stood for before his entire legacy is retconned into some “Chicken Soup for the Soul Brother,” feel-good tripe.

“It’s been co-opted,” said Alicia Garza, one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter. “People want to neutralize it.”

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