Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day or, as Seth Meyers describes it, “a day full of Republican politicians who support voter suppression efforts and have spent months fanning a crazed right-wing panic over so-called ‘critical race theory’ deceptively quoting Dr. King out of context.” Among those guilty of this clueless, casual racism is newly elected Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, who Meyers reminded viewers “signed an executive order banning the teaching of critical race theory on his first day in office and then went on Fox News and quoted Dr. King.”
Of course, the quote Youngkin referred to was King’s famous line that “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” Meyers couldn’t help but note that this is possibly “the only MLK line Republicans have ever read,” and as such, regularly take it out of context. But Meyers seemed even more annoyed by Florida senator Marco Rubio who, like so many of his fellow Republicans, “can’t be bothered to read any further than the exact quote they’re looking for.”
Case in point: Rubio, who on Monday tweeted what Meyers described as a “deceptively quoted line from Dr. King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, without any additional context:
“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.”
Dr. Martin Luther King (1963)
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 17, 2022
“Did you read any further than that, or did you just pull up the text in the speech and do a Control+F for ‘Things that make it sound like he agrees with me,’” Meyers wanted to know. “‘Cause, dude, you’ve got to read at least like two more lines.” Of course, had Rubio kept quoting, he would have understood why context matters, as King went on to say:
“This note was a promise that all men—yes, black men as well as white men—would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.”
Meyers spoke for many of his fed-up audiences members when he said “It’s times like these where you really wish that Rubio would just go back to his old job as the picture that comes with the frame.”
You can watch the full clip above.