Jonathan Majors' Coretta Scott King kink
What his constant references to MLK's boo says about his bigger themes on women.
Firstly, Martin Luther King Jr.(MLK) cheated on his wife Coretta Scott King. We know this because the FBI wiretapped him religiously for years. Fearing the rise of the Baptist minister and the civil rights era, then FBI director J. Edgar Hoover surveillanced King in hopes of deterring the movement. This surveillance included recordings of King's affairs that were mailed to Coretta Scott King. This story is corroborated by King's colleagues Andrew Young and Chuck Fager. If anyone is reading this, I highly recommend the documentary MLK/FBI which delves into the government's surveillance of MLK and the toil it had on his mental state, especially the increased paranoia.
“Often, I am made to sound like an attachment to a vacuum cleaner: the wife of Martin, then the widow of Martin, all of which I was proud to be. But I was never just a wife, nor a widow. I was always more than a label.” -Coretta Scott King
Secondly, Coretta Scott King is not just MLK's wife. As Barbara Reynolds wrote in her critique of 2014's Selma, "She was more than an accessory to her iconic husband’s story." This constant dwindling of King's story in parallel to her husband is problematic, and reflective of the misogyny many Black women in early civil rights organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) faced. Their legacies are overshadowed by the few men we have come to know and revere.
King was a talented singer and attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston on a scholarship. Her dreams and aspirations were eventually sidelined to support her husband and become a traditional Black Southern wife and mother. Despite this, Corretta was very much Martin's colleague. As much of an activist. But this prescriptive is not the Coretta Scott King Jonathan Majors' prefers. The one he prefers is a doting and obedient partner. Bonnie and Clyde style, down for anything, and most importantly forgiving of all his sinful deeds.
In his ABC News’ interview, Majors described his new (black)girlfriend Meagan Good as “…an angel. She’s held me down like a Coretta. I’m so blessed to have her.” I was instantly appalled. Appalled at how his media strategy keeps getting worse, and how he’s likened his domestic abuse case to that of civil rights leaders Martin and Coretta Scott King. I did a TikTok about this case a while back, and I’m glad my analysis aged well. I just don’t understand why he won't accept blame and apologize, but I guess taking accountability is easier said than done.
“What the hell is wrong with you people? Every famous nigga that gets arrested is not Nelson Mandela! Yes, the government conspires to put a lot of innocent black men in jail on fallacious charges. But R. Kelly is not one of those men! We all know the nigga can sing, but what happened to standards? What happened to bare minimums? Are you a fan of R. Kelly? You wanna help R. Kelly? Get some counselling for R. Kelly! Introduce him to some older women! Hide his camcorder! But don't pretend that the man is a hero!... “