We all knew at some point someone was going to pull out the race card and blame the whites for the revolting sculpture of Martin Luther King, Jr. unveiled last Friday in Boston. This someone happens to Karen Attiah, a Washington Post columnist.
Attiah decided to start a Twitter thread Monday blaming “White America” for the sculpture and trashing Boston as a racist city. Here is the thread:
It doesn't sit well with me that Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King are reduced to body parts– just their arms. Not their faces- their expressions.
For such a large statue, dismembering MLK and Coretta Scott King is… a choice. A deliberate one. pic.twitter.com/Asi0SCHtPg
— Karen Attiah IS ON INSTAGRAM @karenattiah (@KarenAttiah) January 16, 2023
Boston's Embrace statue perfectly represents how White America loves to butcher MLK.
Cherry-picking quotes about love and non-violence.
While ignoring his radicalism, anti-capitalism, his fierce critiques of white moderates.
MLK- in his fullness– is still too much for them. pic.twitter.com/6yw8pyQgFb
— Karen Attiah IS ON INSTAGRAM @karenattiah (@KarenAttiah) January 16, 2023
There is nothing radical about the disembodied, de-racialized Embrace statue.
It is sending a whitewashed, multi-million dollar message — that MLK and Coretta overcame structural racism and systematic injustice with love– interpersonal, colorblind love.
— Karen Attiah IS ON INSTAGRAM @karenattiah (@KarenAttiah) January 16, 2023
There is nothing radical about the disembodied, de-racialized Embrace statue.
It is sending a whitewashed, multi-million dollar message — that MLK and Coretta overcame structural racism and systematic injustice with love– interpersonal, colorblind love.
— Karen Attiah IS ON INSTAGRAM @karenattiah (@KarenAttiah) January 16, 2023
This is what happens when white America tries to grossly distort what MLK really stood for… and ultimately.. what they murdered him for.
In making MLK a whitewashed symbol of love, the Embrace statue is both safe AND grotesque. Says little about the man, a lot about America.
— Karen Attiah IS ON INSTAGRAM @karenattiah (@KarenAttiah) January 16, 2023
And.
To have a dismembered statue of a Black man and woman, in a country that killed and destroyed so many Black people, will never sit right with me.
MLK Jr. was also murdered by white America.
It's giving -"We are so grateful for Black people's noble sacrifice" – energy🙃
— Karen Attiah IS ON INSTAGRAM @karenattiah (@KarenAttiah) January 16, 2023
Throughout Attiah’s incessant complaining she never once mentioned the artist responsible for designing the grotesque MLK sculpture. She would be shocked to find out he is a black man (h/t Twitchy)
Karen, this is the artist.
He is Black pic.twitter.com/4dlsvlKXtC— StewMama✈ Cari- Radically Moderate (@StewMama71) January 17, 2023
One can safely say nobody has ever accused Hank Willis Thomas, the artist, of being part of a white racist conspiracy to “butcher” MLK. He is, however, responsible for the national ridicule the sculpture has received.
Don’t count on Karen Attiah removing her false tweets, however. She adheres to her own version of truth like the rest of the corporate media.
