Opinion: It is shameful J.D. Vance spoke at Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in Columbus
Aaron Alsop lives in Columbus. He enjoys writing about society, sports, and other topics that catch his interest.
I can’t tell if inviting U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance to speak at this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Breakfast was intended as an insult to those who still remember Dr. King’s mission, a surrender to the many ways that mission has been diluted over time, or an intricate attempt at absurdist humor.
If we’re asking what was achieved by such a move, the answer would have to be ‘all of the above.'
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If you were organizing, say, an event to celebrate the life and mission of Ayn Rand, you probably wouldn’t invite Bernie Sanders to speak.
A debate on the philosophies of Rand? Sure. But not a celebration.
Such an invitation would be a clear indicator that either you haven’t been listening to Bernie, or you don’t understand Ayn Rand.
Unfortunately, the same can be said about the organizers of the MLK breakfast. They have shown us, with this latest decision and a few before it, that they lack basic understanding. Of Vance and modern conservatism? Maybe. Of MLK and his legacy? Definitely.
In J.D. Vance you have a man who says he can’t be racist, and the policies he supports can’t be racist, because he has biracial children. Obviously, this is an airtight argument, just ask Strom Thurmond.
But that hilarity aside, it’s hard to imagine a world where the likes of King and the likes of Vance could have a productive conversation about any public policy.
From minimum income to the Civilian Police Review Board to gun control, it’s hard to find a political stance with any overlap.
The most surface understanding of King shows this. Just listen to the beginning of his most iconic speech, and you’ll see he was determined to cash in on a debt that conservative America won’t even acknowledge.
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None of this is the most shameful aspect of the MLK breakfast.
The truest and deepest shame is to see self-proclaimed keepers of the King legacy fail so deliberately.
MLK was a member of the Black middle class. He was well educated in the traditional sense, but also educated in the workings and language of American power. He used this understanding to amplify the needs of not only middle-class Blacks like himself, but also those worse off.
From bus riders in Montgomery, to red-lined neighborhoods in Chicago, to sanitation workers in Memphis, his aim was to break down barriers that prevented most Blacks from accessing opportunities for self-determination.
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If we’re being honest, a fancy breakfast is already a questionable way to celebrate such a mission. A fancy brunch where Black activists are dragged out in handcuffs is an even worse way. And a fancy breakfast featuring a speaker who is antithetical to King’s core social vision, well now you’re just rubbing it in.
Dr. King once spoke of “a pressing need for a liberalism in the North which is truly liberal.”
Certainly this need persists in Columbus. Anyone actually honoring King’s legacy will be trying to pull local liberals in the direction of justice for the likes of Sinzae Reed.
In the case of this breakfast, however, we see evidence of the opposite. A collection of people who maybe once, long ago, honored MLK day and all it stood for. With this latest decision, however, those same people have proven themselves unable to carry the banner.
There is no MLK day breakfast in Columbus. Instead, we have a breakfast that happens to take place on MLK day.
A holiday named after a man who, through events like these, is increasingly forgotten.
Aaron Alsop lives in Columbus. He enjoys writing about society, sports, and other topics that catch his interest.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Opinion: J.D. Vance's spoke at Martin Luther King Day event in Columbus
