Anatomy of a fake quotation.

Posted on May 3, 2011

According to Megan McArdle writing for The Atlantic, a portion of yesterday’s quote (below) is incorrect. You can read her full explaination here, but to summarize: an English teacher named Jessica Dovey originally posted a comment (the first sentence) followed by the MLK, Jr. quote on her Facebook page. Somehow the quotation marks were stripped from the entire piece after it started getting traction across the internet, and the entire paragraph began to be attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have decided to leave the entire quote up as it was posted, because the sentiment still rings true for me—and has helped me to try and understand the mixed feelings I am experiencing. Thank you for understanding.