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Profs & Pints: What King Would Say Today

Profs and Pints presents: What King Would Say Today, with Anthony Cook, professor of law at the Georgetown University Law School, community activist, scholar of Martin Luther King Jr., and author of The Least of These: Race, Law and Religion in American Culture.

What would Martin Luther King, Jr. say about America in the era of President Donald Trump?

From the founding of this country to the present time, race has always shaped American politics. The Trump era is no exception, although it has reverted to an overtness reminiscent of bygone eras - bullhorn rather than dog whistle racism. Rather than being universally rebuked for his racist rhetoric, our current president retains an approval rating that often exceeds 40 percent, thanks to the support of many evangelical Christian or working-class white people, white nationalists, black conservatives, and segments of the business community.

King struggled against similar forces during his time: Bull Connor and George Wallace and their klansman-styled racism; the less overt but more systemic and institutionalized racism of northern cities such as Chicago; the complacency and sometimes resistance of white and black Christian churches and moderates; and the inherent conservatism of the business class.

At the core of Kings response to these dark alliances was a bold, progressive vision for America - the Beloved Community. Operating at the theological, secular philosophical, and social-movement levels, the Beloved Community called for a critique of white supremacy and unbridled capitalist ideology, a balancing of promotion of colorblindness and demands for equity in remedying the legacy of American slavery and segregation, a social democracy of more equitably distributed wealth and ownership of natural resources, and a revolution of values that prioritized human beings, relationships, and communities over property and things.

Join Professor Cook, a leading scholar and advocate of Reverend King, for a stirring discussion of the civil-rights icons life and ideas. King still has much to teach us. Are we willing to listen?