By Antonio L. Ingram II, Racial Justice Fellow (2025–26)
The views expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights or Harvard Kennedy School. These perspectives have been presented to encourage debate on important public policy challenges.
In 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. published his book, Where Do We Go from Here?, where he wrote, “Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn.” After the murder of George Floyd, it seemed Dr. King’s critique of white America faced abatement. In that moment a beautiful reckoning occurred, and many white Americans endeavored to critically examine the history of our country and educate themselves about the lived experiences of their Black neighbors, colleagues, and friends. Unfortunately, in 2026, Dr. King’s critique of white America and racial ignorance not only gained a revived salience, but the ignorance he critiqued has metastasized into an epidemic of willful racial misinformation and indoctrination. Today, on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2026, almost one year into the second Trump Administration, grassroots movements of white America to self-educate themselves out of racial ignorance have been replaced by concerted conspiracies by elected officials to racially indoctrinate white America. We face a dangerous project to deepen the racial ignorance Dr. King died trying to dispel.
Unfortunately, in 2026, Dr. King’s critique of white America and racial ignorance not only gained a revived salience, but the ignorance he critiqued has metastasized into an epidemic of willful racial misinformation and indoctrination.
Today political leaders across our country will feign honoring Dr. King while actively disseminating inaccurate narratives about Black history and denying persistent realities of discrimination. Members of the Trump Administration will celebrate Dr. King’s life while directing our National Parks to serve as a tool for revisionist histories about American chattel slavery. The current administration will claim to honor Dr. King’s legacy while forcing the Smithsonian to peddle whitewashed histories and prevent museums from accurately chronicling the realities Dr. King fought all his life to change. State lawmakers whose values stand in direct opposition to Dr. King’s work will misappropriate his “I Have a Dream” speech and justify attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings meant to effectuate Dr. King’s vision for America. Trustees of School Boards will pass resolutions celebrating Dr. King while simultaneously they ban books and cancel Advanced Placement courses about Black History and culture. These efforts all work together to revive and calcify the racial ignorance Dr. King sought to combat.
Yet, we are not without recourse. In this current season one of the most powerful tools to combat racial ignorance will lie in the power of storytelling in the forums that matter. We need voters to use the ballot box to tell their stories through electing officials who understand that an awareness of accurate and inclusive histories at our National Parks and Museums cultivates a more informed electorate and results in better policy decisions for all Americans. We need businesses to tell their stories in state capitals about how diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and trainings do not discriminate against white employees but ensure Black employees experience meritocracy in the workplace. We need parents and students to tell their stories at school board meetings about how learning about Black history creates self-love for Black America and not a hatred for white America.
In this current season one of the most powerful tools to combat racial ignorance will lie in the power of storytelling in the forums that matter.
Though the forces seeking to deepen and calcify racial ignorance in this country are wielding loud microphones, even the most powerful amplification system fails to overwhelm the sound of a coordinated chorus. Dr. King proclaimed that we should not be “satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” On this King Day, may we honor the legacy of Dr. King by making sure that our voices of truth reverberate like the sounds of many waters, roaring louder than any other voice of deceptive indoctrination.
Aevan | Adobe Stock
