On Martin Luther King and Tomi Lahren

On Martin Luther King, and Tomi Lahren

I recently read a collection of speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a book called "A Call to Conscience." Now, there is enough in a paragraph of King’s speaking to warrant a career’s worth of reflection, but there was one anecdote I wanted to raise in the wake of the heartbreaking number of school shootings and the reaction of a particular conservative talking head called Tomi Lahren.

First, as an aside, I think there is a lot to be learned from the juxtaposition of the speaking styles of King and Lahren. Both speak with conviction. Both can incite powerful emotions. But where one gave his life in poetic flights of intellect, interwoven with moral commands all grounded in a magnetic relatability, the other is a walking incarnation of a rage tweet profiting off every controversy, throwing ad hominens like monkeys throw their own dung, and calling the Kapernicks of the world who have inherited the unfinished work of the killed-too-soon-king whiners and thugs.

Anyway…

Everyone knows of the “I have a dream,” speech, but King’s "I have been to the mountaintop” speech is, in my opinion, one of this best. Rich in emotion, confidence, and moral power it turns out it was the final speech he gave before he was killed by a white nationalist with a gun.
In the midst of covering spiritual topics like the good Samaritan parable, and political topics like the lofty ideals we are called to by the demands of justice, Dr. King pauses to drop the brand name, “Sealtest Milk”

I don't know about you, but I haven't heard about Sealtest milk.

Not unlike the kinds of protests Black Lives Matter advocates are organizing, economic disruption was a consistent tool of the Civil Rights Movement. Most people know of the bus boycotts because of the fame of Rosa Parks. People know about the Sit-ins. But people don’t know about sealtest milk. And that is precisely the point.

In an earlier, also underrated speech called "Where Do We Go From Here?" Dr. King describes the events that led to the boycott. He and his colleagues met personally with Mr. Sealtest himself. They recorded the numbers from him about his unfair hiring practices, and demanded he change.

On hearing his refusal, they organized a massive coordinated boycott. With picket signs, leaflets and sermons, they encouraged so many people to avoid stores selling his brand’s product that the brand was pushed into changing. A swift victory came and Sealtest changed his hiring practices. This lead to job creation for vulnerable populations. It lead to reform.

But whatever personal transformation Mr. Sealtest might have gone though, this was not an example of moral persuasion, it was story of people using one their most American powers: consumer choice, money. They forced him to change. Sometimes it isn’t enough to persuade or convince. Sometimes people need money on the line to reconsider. Like King said in some of his last public words, “Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal.”

But we live in a digital age. We don’t go to physical storefronts to pass our leaflets. We are transitioning out of a local physical production economy to a global data and attention economy. There are people whose entire careers are spent trying to get you to watch Netflix longer, scroll through your news feed longer, and find the right Tomi Lahren posts to show you so you rage tweet back at her for longer. All the while collecting data on you so that they can make money from the advertisers who they target to you based on what they know about you based on what you rage tweet about.
Nothing’s changed in that money is ultimately the commodity underneath it all. But everything has changed in that the commodity is not cash in hand so much as attention and influence.

So how do we economically withdraw in an age of the attention economy?

We do this by recognizing that Tomi Lahren, and all the “news” outlets that profit from stoking controversy instead of communicating facts are brands. They sell vitriol and rage in exchange for ad revenue. And if you call in the next 24 hours, righteous indignation will be included in your package for free.

Lahren has a brand just like Mr. Sealtest. Where he profited from unfair hiring practices, she profits by stoking rage in moments of national crisis. And just like the old brand was taken down with economic withdrawl, the new brands can be too. But in the Attention Economy with doesn’t mean leaflets and sermons, it means:
-Unfollow
-Don’t rage retweet
-Comment Elsewhere
-Debate elsewhere.

Certainly, you can read and absorb if you must, but recognize that every time you do these things for a twitter account you are paying them in the currencies in our age. Attention, ad revenue, and priority according to the algorithms that shape our culture. So next time she tweets. Unfollow. If her tweets reappear, scroll past. That, embarrassingly enough, is one way to form a picket line of our age. It may seem like rage re-tweet a brand like hers is a way of getting back at her. But yelling insults at Tomi Lahren underneath her posts doesn’t hurt her, it’s how she buys her blonde hair dye.

So, here's what I hope. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed on March 29th 1968. This March marked 50 years since one of the great moral leaders of our country was killed by a white nationalist with a gun.
In those 50 years, morally corrupt brands like Sealtest milk have faded into obscurity. In another 50 years I want no one to have heard of Tomi Lahren, or any of these “news” outlets that profit from divisiveness.

Should we have frank and honest conversations about politics in our country? Yes. Should we call out people in power who say horrible things? Yes. But We should be mindful to have those discussions in such a way that doesn’t reward the very people we are fighting against.

If you angrily respond to someone online, you’re just paying that person and being played by that person. When you’re a kid in school and you zoned out your teacher says, “pay attention.” There’s a lesson in that. In the age of the attention economy this is literally true. Digital attention is economic power. Here’s to hoping we learn to use it.