Originally Posted by RFK1968

"They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. " - Speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia (April 30th, 1967)

"And who are we supporting in Vietnam today? It's a man by the name of General Ky, who fought with the French against his own people, and who said on one occasion that the greatest hero of his life is Hitler. This is who we're supporting in Vietnam today. Oh, our government, and the press generally, won't tell us these things, but God told me to tell you this morning. The truth must be told." - Speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia (April 30th, 1967)

"Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with justice and it seems I can hear God saying to America "you are too arrogant, and if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God. Men will beat their swords into plowshafts and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations shall not rise up against nations, neither shall they study war anymore." I don't know about you, I ain't going to study war anymore."
- Address to the SCLC (August 16th, 1967)

"When the Constitution was written, a strange formula to determine taxes and representation declared that the Negro was sixty percent of a person. Today another curious formula seems to declare that he is fifty percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. of the bad things of life, he has twice those of whites. Thus half of all Negroes live in substandard housing. And Negroes have half the income of whites. When we view the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share. There are twice as many unemployed. The rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites and there are twice as many Negroes dying in Vietnam as whites in proportion to their size in the population." - Address to the SCLC (August 16th, 1967)

Martin Luther King, Jr. said some controversial things in his day. He espoused semi-conspiratorial theories about race relations in this country, and it wouldn't have been surprising to see him say things that resembled the words of Reverend Wright. Martin Luther King Jr. was a much better man than Jeremiah Wright, but not because King avoided conspiracy and controversy in his speeches. King said a number of things that shocked America and caused him to fall out of favor with the mainstream community. After his speech on Vietnam, King fell out of the annual list of 10 most-admired Americans. He was disinvited from attending an event at the White House. If he had been the pastor of a presidential candidate, I have no doubt he would have been given the same treatment that Wright got over the past month.

I know people say the MLK-Wright comparisons are unfair, but that's just a cop-out. The point is that they were both religious leaders whose messages shouldn't be minimized into 30-second clips on YouTube and MSBNC. If we spoke nothing of Dr. King but the quotes cited above, I imagine the public perception of him wouldn't be much different from that of Rev. Wright.