MLK Didn't Die For This

MLK Didn't Die For This

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Updated Jan 16, 2017 at 04:03PM EST by Brad.

Added Feb 25, 2015 at 12:23PM EST by Brad.

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About

"MLK Didn't Die For This" is an expression used to denounce an act or display of racial prejudice by implying that it goes against the wishes of Martin Luther King Jr., the renowned American civil rights activist who was assassinated while leading the civil rights movement in the 1960s. On Twitter and Vine, the phrase is more often used in jest to highlight images and videos that can be interpreted as unintentional metaphors for racism against black people, in a similar vein to the use of "that's racist".

Origin

One of the earliest comedic uses of the phrase dates back to a comment posted by LurkerFAQs[1] forum member SADsyn in a thread titled "breasts" on June 22nd, 2011. In the thread, forum member SADsyn wrote:

Why are you guys discriminating against hairy breasts? MLK didn't die for this. For people to have this type of mentality. That hairy breasts shouldn't be accepted along with the hairy breasts. You all ought to be ashamed with yourselves.

On August 29th, 2013, The first notable pairing of the phrase with an image was submitted by Twitter user @ambessadc[4], which featured a photograph of an automatic pencil sharpener with a sticky note that reads "No Colored Pencil" (shown below).


No Colored Pencils

Other Usage

On January 17th, 2013, on the day of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Briana Ford wrote a post titled "MLK Didn't Die For This" on her blog Black And Married With Kids[2], which criticized the trend of commercially exploiting the civil rights activist's images among club promoters. On August 15th, 2013, Bossip[3] published an interview article titled "Scrappy Urges Blacks To Stop Killing Each Other Because Whites Want Us Gone 'MLK Didn’t Die For This!'" featuring a public service announcement against black-on-black violence by rapper Lil' Scrappy.


Presents.... NO SCHOOL NO ID SUNDAYJANUARY20TH2013 DOORS OPEN AT 9.30PM EVERYBODY 2-4-$5 TIL 10PM SATURD ANUARY 19th LADIES FREE ALL NIGHT MUSIC BY LINES WILL BE LONG!!! 013 FOR MCRE INFO CONTAC

Spread

On September 1st, 2013, Redditor PenguinBallZ submitted the image of the pencil sharpener to Imgur[6] and /r/funny[5], where it garnered more than 916,000 views and over 1,660 upvotes prior to its archival. But the phrase didn't see its first major breakout until January 2014, when Twitter users began using the phrase as a caption for "accidentally racist" images. On January 7th, 2014, Redditor TheTrueMuffinMan submitted a screen-captured tweet of two cake batter mix packagings for vanilla and chocolate flavors respectively named "white" and "devil's food" in a /r/teenager[14] post titled "MLK didn't die for his. 2Chainz didn't rap for this. Mandela didn't fight for this," garnering over 1,800 upvotes. On January 20th, American reality TV celebrity Kylie Jenner[8] tweeted a photograph of an ice cream pint with unequal chocolate and vanilla-flavored portions along with the caption (shown below, right), racking up over 3,600 retweets and 6,800 favorites.


Betty Crocker Crocker Earn cash for your school er Earn cash for your schooll uper Most eh Moist Cake Mix Cake Mix White Devil's Food Instrucciones en español NET WT 16.25 02 (461 cans . I . Pudding in the Mix!

Various Examples


WHITE PAPER ONLY $4.50 5.97 2.99 OREO 与OREO OREO 2.49 BLACK WHOTE BLACHK HOU SE MARKET
trifef=br 1 1601 799621-94601 142 %SFencodin UTF8&frontrowse = 1 &aan-e000ALF AZ GIFT REGISTRIES GIFTCARDS WISH LIST TARGET STORES WEEKLY A TARGET Women Men Baby Kids Home Shop by Room Furniture Electronics Sports- Toys Entertainment Can wo help you find something? Search All Products Shop Red Hot Shop Browse Similar Items Black Kid's Computer Desk Deaks web only $79.99 Deska Desks Quantity: 1 ADD TO CART OR Sign-in for 1-Click O ADO TO CLUD WEDO O VIEW LARGER IMAGE Availability: Usually ships within 5 to 7 days FOOTLONG SRT Vipe Polico Cruiser Con Betty Crocker Crocker Earn cash for your school er Earn cash for your schooll uper Most eh Moist Cake Mix Cake Mix White Devil's Food Instrucciones en español NET WT 16.25 02 (461 cans . I . Pudding in the Mix!

Search Interest

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