Politics

Lauren Boebert tried to argue that MLK would hate today’s “woke” liberals. It blew up in her face.

"Next time, just a suggestion, I would strongly encourage you to research Dr. King."
By
Rep. Lauren Boebert
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) Photo: Screenshot

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) tried to use Martin Luther King Jr. Day to attack the left by claiming that Dr. King would have actually opposed equity. It didn’t go as planned.

“This Martin Luther King Jr. Day we celebrate the life of a man who led a movement for freedom and prosperity for all,” she wrote on social media. “The fight was for equality, not equity. His dream is the American Dream.”

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Martin Luther King Jr. shows us how to harness the immense power of the queer community

King understood how to change hearts and minds. We must follow in his footsteps.

The distinction between equality and equity is often used by conservatives to attack liberals. Usually, they mean that “equality” refers to people getting equal opportunities, and “equity” means some people get more help than others because not everyone starts in the same position because of, among other things, institutionalized oppression.

On her congressional X account, she called for an “end” to “the woke movement in America in honor of MLK Jr.”

“Woke” refers to, in the words of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R) lawyer, “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.” Michael Harriot of The Grio argues that King’s work to end systemic racism in the U.S. shows that he fits the definition of “woke.”

About her other tweet, conservatives often claim that they support equal opportunity but not equal outcomes, but that’s likely an unfair interpretation of King’s position on the matter.

Marcus Bright writes in Diverse that King “recognized that achieving true equality required intentional efforts to address the specific harms inflicted upon black people throughout the history of the United States.” Bright notes that one of King’s most famous metaphors – that of the “check” the United States gave to Black people but that came back marked “insufficient funds” – “was a demand for redress and corrective action to rectify the economic harm inflicted on Black Americans over centuries.”

On X, people mocked Boebert’s use of King to support her political positions, considering that she often works against racial equality and is a diehard supporter of Donald Trump.

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