Screenshot of Apple’s homepage on January 19, 2026.
For the first time in that decade, I’m no longer confident Apple still believes in the teachings of Dr. King. Individuals? Yes. The company writ large? I’m doubtful.
Last MLK Day—which coincided with Donald Trump’s second inauguration—I wrote of Apple’s use of specific MLK quotes:
Education against propaganda, the importance of thinking critically, concern for others, the dangers of selfishness, and using your voice… I can’t definitively say Apple intended these quotes to speak to the challenges this country faces at this moment, but I’m confident they were chosen deliberately.
This year, Apple selected these quotes:
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
“I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world.”
“Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”
Again, I’m confident they were chosen deliberately—but this year I don’t see a message of resistance or solidarity. Instead, they raise uncomfortable questions:
Is banning ICEBlock—which warned citizens of ICE raids that have now turned deadly—what Apple is doing for others?
Dr. King was a radical. Yes, he spoke of peace and nonviolence, and also advocated for dramatic social change and economic justice. Dr. King didn’t encourage passivity, he endorsed disruption. We don’t see Apple sharing these quotes:
“A time comes when silence is betrayal.”
“The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages a cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that inspires men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life.”
“Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.”
“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.”
“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization.”
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
“One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice.”
Any of those would be more relevant to this moment, should be welcome on Apple’s website, and would demonstrate moral courage, steadfast conviction, and principled leadership. But they’re too radical for Apple. Instead, Apple launders its reputation through Dr. King while working against Dr. King’s legacy.