Attacks on Civil Rights Infrastructure

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Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (1/19/26)

This week on CounterSpin: In 1967, when Martin Luther King came out against the Vietnam War, and called the US the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today,” corporate news had nothing but emphatic condemnation. Life magazine called that speech “demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi.” And the New York Times sniffed in a way today’s readers will recognize, writing that when King argued that the war on Vietnam is “a barrier to social progress in this country,” he fused “two public problems that are distinct and separate. By drawing them together, Dr. King has done a disservice to both.”

The elite press corps that now pretend they honor King show that they never heard, much less understood, him or the totality of his vision—or that of those that share that vision today.

That’s the space that the coalition headed by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is stepping into with their new report: State of the Dream 2026. We’ll hear from Joint Center president Dedrick Asante-Muhammad.

Transcript: ‘There’s an Attack on Racial Equity Analysis Because They Feel It Changes the Conversation’:

Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at recent press coverage of Kalaallit Nunaat.