January 19, 2026

This edition of Notes from the Wreckage is dedicated to a true Radical King, MLK Jr., and originally appeared on my LinkedIn.

Every year on MLK Day, timelines fill up on schedule. We see quotes cropped into beige squares and black-and-white photos softened with grain filters. Captions speak of “unity” or “kindness” or “how far we’ve come.” Then, like clockwork, nothing changes on Tuesday.

Martin Luther King Jr. is not misunderstood because he was “too subtle” in comparison to Malcolm X; he has been diluted because his actual politics are inconvenient to power still today.

King was not asking white America to “feel inspired” by the Civil Rights Movement; he was demanding structural change and calling up real agitators and allies. He was deeply frustrated with people who preferred comfort and order over disruption and sacrifice. This frustration is well documented, not jist inferred.

If you’ve never read Letter from Birmingham Jail, written in 1963 in response to white moderates telling him to slow down, that’s not a moral failing, but it is a choice. You can read it in full at https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html.

One passage that sticks out so deeply that I’ve committed it to memory over the years is King’s words here:

My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

This was not hyperbole or recommendation, nor even an attempt to justify his leadership; it was a direct call out to allies who think allyship is just a word.

The Cost of Performance

King explicitly warned us about those who claim to support justice in theory while opposing it in practice. He called out performative agreement that refuses to cost the speaker anything. This is the same behavior we now dress up as “raising awareness” while refusing to confront the material realities of American life. Especially when dressed up in the pretend social advocacy of multi-billion dollar corporations who still maintain a embarrassingly small Black workforce at the leadership levels.

King was not being self-righteous; he was being precise about the truth. And today, that truth still allows these systems of white supremacy to remain fully operational:

Housing Segregation: The gap between Black and white homeownership is wider today than it was in 1960. In 2022, the white homeownership rate was 72.3%, while the Black homeownership rate was 44.1%.The Wealth Gap: The median white household holds roughly six times the wealth of the median Black household ($285,000 vs. $44,900 as of recent Federal Reserve data).Mass Incarceration: While making up roughly 13% of the U.S. population, Black Americans represent approximately 37% of the prison population.

If King were alive today, he would not be impressed with your Instagram carousel. He would ask who you are protecting, why you continue to infantalize the enemy, and what you are willing to risk. He would ask why so many people claim to honor him while defending these disparities as “just how things are.”

What Real Solidarity Demands

Posting is not action. Visibility without accountability is not solidarity. Quoting King while ignoring his opposition to militarism and unrestrained capitalism is selective memory. Moving from platitudes to action requires a shift in power. So what can you actually do to move from poser to power?

Resource Black-Led Organizations Consistently: True support means recurring donations that provide stability, not one-time gifts meant to ease temporary guilt. It means trusting Black leadership to define their own needs. I do not donate, volunteer, or help fund organizations currently that do not have Black leadership and focus on Black Liberation because those organizations need our resources now more than even, especially those under threat of being labeled “terrorist organizations” for serving Black communities.

Show Up Locally: Power is exercised close to home. Policy becomes lived reality at school boards, city councils, and zoning meetings. If support for racial justice never leaves the internet, it is merely a hobby. Every local election, every opportunity for justice, you must make the time.

Take Labor Seriously: King was assassinated while supporting sanitation workers in Memphis. He understood that racial justice and economic justice are inseparable. Supporting Black workers means backing unions, opposing wage theft, and challenging workplaces that “talk” diversity while exploiting labor. My absolute favorite way to support Black workers is through donations and service with Workers Center for Racial Justice and their sister organization, Center for Racial and Gender Equity.

Please consider making a donation to their work today, in honor of MLK.

Relinquish the Need for Centering: Solidarity is not an identity; it is a practice. Sometimes that practice looks like following instead of leading and accepting discomfort without retreating into defensiveness. Holding space means holding accountability for where you come from, even if the harm wasn’t yours.

Refusing to Sanitize the Present

Finally, honoring King demands political clarity. King was not neutral.

He didn’t pussyfoot around the truth in case it made him “unpopular with brands”. He didn’t kowtow to mega corporations and government entities with hopes that enough “grace” would create systems change.

He named systems, he named violence, and he named hypocrisy. Honoring him means refusing to sanitize the present. It means opposing policies that harm Black communities even when those policies are popular or framed as “pragmatic.”

MLK Day is not a vibe; it is a reckoning. If your engagement with his legacy ends at a post, you are not honoring him…you are exploiting him, and the movement for Black Liberation. He already told us, in writing, exactly what he thought about that.

xx JJ