Okay, I am back. Apologies for the long wait and the abrupt response but life got in the way. So, I will address your statements regarding Martin Luther King here and will address the others separately. Each segment is dedicated to your paragraphed statements in their respective order.

I would not say that I based my whole case on a fragment of his Dream Speech. Rather, I based my argument on the whole thing with particular emphasis on this particular line, because that, to me, is the heart of his speech. It's the heart of his speech, not only regarding the sentimentality of it, but because also it is a stated goal. It is a statement that is an objective, a mission, that lays out the fundamental goal of the Civil Rights Movement. It was to come to a day where people no longer saw color (or that being the first thing a person saw) but their humanity first and foremost.

I do not comprehend your accusation of me attempting to erase the experience of black folks as well as the accusation of attempting to silence them. I am trying to do neither. Nor do I see myself as downplaying their story. But having only my own thoughts and feelings that provide me my first-person experiences and how I see things, of which I have been sharing with you, what is stated is how I have been seeing things...which may amount to nothing compared to the experiences and revelations that fuel your own first-person perspectives. But then again, I don't have access to those on such a personal level as you do, now do I?

Yes, I do believe MLK Jr. was aware that he was a black man. And no, I don't think he despised the notion that he was a black man...just the unfortunate conditions wrought upon just being such. And again, I don't really understand where you're getting the notion that I'm trying to silence black people. If sharing my own feelings and perspectives about something as sensitive as racism in America seems to bring about that effect, then I'm sorry, because then it'd be unintentional. For me though, believing that I am not doing this (and that this accusation is based on a misunderstanding), then I don't see that as being the case. I sometimes get the idea that my status of being a white man automatically disqualifies me from putting forth any meaningful input into the conversation. No doubt, that is indeed the case for some black people who believe this to be so, to which I can only say: "fair enough" (that is unless I agree with them on everything as to how they see things).

I do not question for a second that MLK was a radical man, but with that being said, I don't see that element of him overpowering his reason while conducting himself in important matters. Once again, I don't understand this....which is your statement of me conceptualizing MLK as a negro messiah that he died on the white man's behalf to compensate for his sins of racism. Not that you meant that literally, but even figuratively I do not see that as being the case. No doubt, MLK is one of America's greatest martyrs but I do not think his death was a necessity or an essential act of atonement so that humanity could move forward.

I don't see my condemnation of the 2020 "riots" in line with the protests of MLKs time. First, in just referring to the 2020 protests in general, the only reason that I was upset about those was the incongruency with covid protocol; no one could go to church, no one could go to work, no one could go to the races and yet suddenly, these protests, with people clumped together, screaming and shouting, were permissible. That's the only reason why I have hard feelings to the protests in general.

But then there is the rioting. I read in MLKs Birmingham letter and understand the measures in which he thought talk was no longer going to cut it, so sit-ins and protests were permissible. What I believe he would not have been cool with, and in fact, ashamed of, is people burning businesses down, belonging to people who had nothing to do with the matter. There were some people out in the streets who were decent protestors but there were also a lot of radical, thoughtless bunch who decided that looting and destruction of property would be the way to go. No, sir. MLK would've been ashamed. In doing such acts, people fall for the maxim of justifying a little injustice to secure a greater justice. This, I don't think MLK would've been too keen about.