Artist Daniel Rarela creates “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” memes to stop people from whitewashing MLK
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My single favorite King quote: “Nothing is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and heartfelt stupidity.”
Daniel Rarela, who put together these images with the text in 2017:
“I saw those same Facebook friends suddenly posting quotes [and] memes about love and peace from Martin Luther King Jr.,” Rarela continued. “My first thought was, ‘Oh, so it’s ok for you to quote MLK and care when police officers die, but not when others die at the hands of police brutality?’ The selective compassion really rubbed me the wrong way, as well as people trying to promote love and peace through Martin Luther King Jr. without talking about the racial and economic justice he championed.”
That drove Rarela to design the memes for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“As a graphic designer, I wanted to shatter this false image of a Martin Luther King who everyone loved, never got arrested, was universally popular and made zero privileged people feel uncomfortable or angry enough to want to kill him.”
