[ForHackernews]

American soldiers committed the Mỹ Lai Massacre.

American soldiers trained their weapons on those Americans to halt the killing.

America has always contained multitudes, but chose to see the best in itself and the world saw it reflected in that light.

One of the most shocking things to me was visiting Vietnam and going to the Museum of American War Crimes in Ho Chi Minh City and almost the first thing you see walking in is the words of the US Declaration of Independence in enormous letters, printed across an entire wall: "We hold these truths to be self-evident..."

They are throwing America's own principles back in its face, castigating America for behaving in a way that is un-American. The world believed in what America claims it believes.

[SidewaysView]

The constitution is a piece of paper written by dead white men.

Principles have never been about that. The world has never been about that. It's never been something anyone who wasn't "that kind of nerd" could believe in. Not even up for debate.

[ForHackernews]

You say that, but pieces of paper written by dead white men have remade the world for good and for ill. All of 20th century history stands in the shadow of Das Kapital.

[AnthonyMouse]

It seems like a specific thing has changed.

It used to be that when the US did something bad, people would point to the constitution and the American ideals and say "this isn't living up to our promise".

Now instead when people point to the constitution and American ideals people say "those were written by dead white men" as if to justify cynically discarding them in favor of something heinous.

[SidewaysView]

The promise of slavers and slavery? The promise of whiteness and empire? The propaganda of the dying and dead so-called enlightenment?

What other promises have you ever had? What did you think justice meant? You losers talking of WW2 and Rome. Now sit back down.

[ForHackernews]

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men — yes, Black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

[SidewaysView]

You think another dead white man quoting King is anything the world hasn't heard before? What rock have you been hiding under these last fifteen years? Dorks and losers all you tech bros.

[AnthonyMouse]

Slavery has been abolished in the US for over 150 years, which is more time than it was between the founding of the US and when it was abolished. There hasn't been a slave owner or slave in generations.

Meanwhile abandoning freedom of speech or due process because of the skin color of the persons who penned the original documents can only be described as some kind of wackadoodle nonsense and evokes suspicions of arguing in bad faith.

[SidewaysView]

Slavery is practiced today in this country. Every generation is born in whiteness and will never be free of the stain. Fuck your "freeze peach." Fuck what you think you're due. Sit! Back! DOWN!