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What Would MLK Do?

The King’s words aren’t history. They’re a blueprint.

Ehsan Zaffar's avatar
Ehsan Zaffar
Jan 19, 2026
∙ Paid

📡 On my Radar

One of my greatest dreams- forever unfulfilled - would be to sit with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and ask his advice. What would someone with his moral clarity say about America today?

On economic inequality: King launched the Poor People's Campaign because racism and economic exploitation are inseparable. Today, the top 1% holds 40% of American wealth. He wasn't afraid to say it: "There's something wrong with capitalism." Fifty-eight years later, we're still too timid to fix capitalism. HOW: He'd tell us to build coalitions across race, the poor share more in common with each other than with the wealthy, regardless of skin color.

On AI: 85% of AI hiring tools prefer white-associated names. New walls. Same architects. But King would also see something revolutionary: a child in rural Mississippi accessing the same tutoring as one in Manhattan. He'd demand we fight the bias without maligning the tool. HOW: Get in the room where it's built. Shape it for justice.

On ICE and militarism: King warned that a nation choosing military power over human needs "is approaching spiritual death." We've arrived. A military-centric society eventually turns those weapons inward. He'd see Renee Good's killing not as an aberration, but as a sad inevitability absent reform. HOW: He'd tell us to keep protesting peacefully, even at risk of injury by an unjust regime.

On the progressive left: King's sharpest words weren't for the Klan, they were for "the white moderate, more devoted to order than to justice." Today's progressives have the right values and zero fight. Press conferences while millions lose healthcare. Statements while people die. You don't build movements playing defense. You build them by making injustice impossible to ignore.

King's words aren't history. They're a blueprint.

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11 jobs

JOB | George Aye shares an opportunity to work at Designing Justice + Designing Spaces as Managing Director.

JOB | Dilnaz Waraich is hiring at the WF Fund for a Grantee Partnership & Program Manager.

JOB | Jake Pinholster reshares an Assistant Teaching Professor position in Immersive Media and Games at Northern Arizona University.

JOB | Former government colleague Tuyet Duong is hiring at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum for a Development Coordinator.

JOB (4) | The Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice is hiring for four positions at the intersection of real-world engagement, teaching, and applied research including Associate Directors, Women PeaceMakers Fellow, and Border Peace & Security Fellow.

JOB | Douglas Sylvester shares an opportunity for an experienced trial attorney to join the Beus Chair in Civil Trial Advocacy program at ASU Law.

JOB | Business Executives for National Security (BENS) is hiring a Deputy Chief of Staff.

JOB | Suzanne Rinker is hiring at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington for an Assistant Dean for Advancement & External Relations.

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Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl

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