Every Dr, Martin Luther King Day should be a day of self-improvement. It is a National Holiday, take your well deserved time off, but don’t let the day go to waste. It is a day that all Americans should use to improve their Cultural Health.
Did Dr. King exhibit symptoms of Cultural Poisoning? The answer is yes.
If you listen to Dr. King's speeches you will note that he uses the word "Negro" often. This was common among most Americans of the sixties. “Negro” is a DoubleSpeak word (not reality based). It is both a symptom of Cultural Poisoning and the means of transmitting the dis-ease. King suffered from this strain of Cultural Poisoning known as Name AIDS.
Cultural Literacy Minute: Cultural AIDS = Acquired Information Deficiency Syndrome.
How have we done since the 1960's regarding Name AIDS? We have done well in some respects and terrible in others. African Americans and as a result most Americans in general have cured the "Negro" strain of Name AIDS, even though they did not have Cultural Health terminology to describe the dis-ease. The Culturally Healthy result of their actions is that few Americans call anyone a "Negro" in 2010 (African year 12010).
That is, except the Democratic leader of the Senate Harry Reid, and even he knows better now, after all the flack the use of this Culturally Poisoned term brought him.
Our honored ancestor James Brown helped move us from “Negros” to I’m Black and I’m Proud. Malcolm X helped move us to African American, along side Asian American and European American.
On the other hand the pejorative "n" word form of Name AIDS has grown to epidemic proportions among African American youth and is threatening to spread to the larger American population. This back sliding trend of youthful N-word crack must be stopped. We must restore the Cultural Health of our youth. I am sure Dr. King would be standing next to us in this 21st century challenge. Our honorable ancestor Dr. King was also anti-Kamitic. That is, he from his religious training was on occasion heard to refer to our honorable ancestors the Kametans (Egyptians) negatively. This was another symptom of Cultural Poisoning that sometimes results from Cultural Illiteracy. Raising Cultural Literacy regarding Classical African Civilization, Kemit, (ancient Egypt) remains a 21st century challenge.
Now, Dr. King no doubt was a great American leader. Cultural Poisoning (CP) does not keep you or I from functioning. Despite CP, King did more then his share of good for humankind. I am not Dr. King bashing. I point out King’s symptoms to raise a Cultural Health Flag regarding who can suffer from Cultural Poisoning. In my DoubleSpeak book, I assert that 90% of all Americans suffer from some degree of Cultural Poisoning including Dr. King, and you and I.
The term Cultural Poisoning and the concept of Cultural Health did not exist in King’s time. Happily his moral motor was strong enough to drive the non-violence 18-wheeler of Civil Rights onto the main highways in America. If the Cultural Health concept came forward in his time, I am confident that he would have looked into it and incorporated raising Cultural Literacy and the reduction of Cultural Poisoning into his non-violent approach to America’s "race" problem.
King like Gandhi and others before them worked against the odds. Non-violent civil rights, was not as popular then as it is today. But King stayed focused, seeing the light of the future at the end of the tunnel. And so in our time, we understand that Cultural Health is not as popular today as it will be tomorrow. And so all of us, who have started this journey especially on this day, need to be reminded by our honored ancestor, to stay focused on the power of language and keep our eyes on the prize.
Truth crushed to earth will rise again. The concept of Cultural Health is on the move. As we transition from the Civil Rights Movement of the nineteenth century, to the Cultural Health Movement of the Twenty First Century, we must make NuuSpeak phrases like Cultural Poisoning and Cultural Literacy household words in America and around the world.
Every MLK day should be utilized as an opportunity to remind Americans, that the very best of our citizens can suffer from some strains of Cultural Poisoning. This does not make a person a racist. There is a middle ground between humanism and racism; the middle ground is Cultural Poisoning. It is not a disgrace to suffer from Cultural Poisoning; it is disgraceful not to do anything about it.
Cultural Health requires action to gain traction. Now that you know better, you must do better. Your mission, should you decide to accept, is to identify one symptom of Cultural Poisoning that you suffer from and cure it.
I wish you Cultural Health, Wealth and Wisdom.
Happy MLK Day
Aunk
See Video Clip of Dr. Kings speech against the war 2 minutes
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