Clinton weaponized King’s legacy to shame poor Black people

Evidence

Eighty percent of African Americans voted for Clinton in 1992; their support was largely responsible for his election to the presidency. But Clinton’s approach of de-fanging those traditionally volatile issues that defined American politics for generations only deepened our national neurosis around racial matters. In 1993, from the pulpit of Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee—the church where King had delivered his “Mountaintop” speech—Clinton appropriated King for his own vision of race. If Reagan used the great civil rights leader’s words to turn the idea of color-blindness inside out, Clinton—the man Toni Morrison had cheekily declared “America’s first black president”—actually used King’s words to shame black people—especially the black poor. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 306

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports the reader’s key thesis: high Black electoral loyalty to Democrats (80% in 1992) delivered no substantive racial justice — the trap the reader needs to explain.