Why do modern conservatives invoke MLK in response to critiques of racism?

Although
he was widely hated while he was alive?

Before we go into detail, I'd like to by paraphrasing one of my favorite quotes.

During their lives, great revolutionaries were relentlessly pursued by those in

power, who received their ideas with malice and hatred, While also spreading lies
to ruin their reputation. After they die, before their natural time, due to
violence inflicted upon them, steps are taken to turn them into harmless figures
for the comfort of oppressed people while also diluting their theories and blunting
their edge.

An old quote but it stands the test of time and is relevant in this scenario.

First, you gotta understand their position, which is “Racism doesn’t exist
anymore”. Because black people aren’t lynched, because there are wealthy rappers
and basketball players, and because there was a black president, racism doesn’t
exist in the US anymore. And this is especially important; when black people get
upset about their lot in life, it is because they are lazy and want a handout
rather than earning their way like white people do. When a black guy is killed by
cops, he was a criminal and deserved his fate. When a black woman loses her access
to food stamps, it is because she was taking advantage of the system. When black
people get into college, it is because they are given special privilege they didn’t
earn. And when black folks talk about reparations, it is because they want to
punish innocent people so they can be handed their success rather than earn it.

Because there is no racism, and anytime some white person is called a racist it is
likely because they don’t support simply handing success and money over to people
who haven’t earned it, and not at all because they act racist in any way. And the
term “racist” has become toxic in the US lately; people lose their jobs after being
called racists unfairly. Heck, one could suggest minorities call white folks
“racist” in retaliation, knowing there will be social consequences which are
completely unearned. So to combat this unfair and, in their view inaccurate,
narrative they employ a couple tactics;

1) “I’m not racist, you are for even suggesting it”. Since racism is defacto non-
existent, playing the race-card is introducing a factor that doesn’t belong. When a
black person calls a white person racist, they are not only lying, but specifically
targeting someone based on their race and falsely labeling them something socially
toxic with intent to cause harm. And the white person is defacto innocent because
they would see anyone as insert accusation here, not just
black/brown/gay/muslim/female/handicapped/immigrant people.

2) “Black people don’t know how good they have it”. Classic myopic delusion that
assumes the complete lack of racism in the US also means any ongoing hurdles faced
by black/brown/gay/women/etc people are their own fault. The fears behind CRT are
great examples of the struggle to maintain this delusion, and not have people delve
too deeply into history and see how cause/effect resulted in the current socio-
economic imbalance. And since there are successes in the black community, that is
proof that racism is over. Black folks had a black president, now shut up and stop
making waves. There is an attempt to show that any calls of racism are not only
unfounded, but examples of success in the black community disprove systemic racism;
wouldn’t MLK be proud? And not only proud of the success, but would side with the
white folks who are now experiencing reverse-racism as the lazy black folks ask for
more. Racism, they think, is simply targeting another race purposefully, and has
nothing to do with power imbalance.

3) “I earned my success, so black folks need to earn theirs”. And this is the crux
of it all; white folks today don’t believe they are in a position of privilege
because they work hard and their success was difficult. Many of them come from poor
families, struggled to pay for college, don’t have a family history of slaver
ownership. They see any minorities complaining as trying to get privilege unearned.
They assume that, because there is no more racism, there is balance and parity
among the races. Illegal immigrants are trying to circumvent the law, reparations
and affirmative-action programs are unearned handouts, and special months/parades
celebrating a particular group/race is promoting racism by giving them special
attention they don’t deserve. Many white people see themselves as victims because
they don’t receive any overt benefits from being white, meanwhile minorities are
showered with unearned benefits all the time. The Great Replacement Theory is
constantly being reenforced for them as they watch society take the side of
minorities anytime someone attempts to call out this apparent imbalance in their
favor.

But underneath all of this is the undeniable knowledge that they are, indeed,
racist. Whether it is a jealousy, or a fear of socio-economic parity, or
ethnocentricity, they know that society isn’t accepting overt racism anymore. And
because of this, they have to hold back, watch what they say, watch how they treat
people. “Make America Great Again” was a call to return to a time when casual
racism was fun, and didn’t mean anything, and people weren’t so thin-skinned. Being
“Woke” is forcing people to take difficult looks at the fact racism still exists,
which is uncomfortable and threatens to challenge the current socio-economic
stability, so terms like “woke” are being dismantled, misused, redirected into
something that seems illegitimate. There is an active, desperate avoidance of
acknowledging racism still exists, because admitting otherwise means admitting
their world-view is wrong. invoking MLK isn’t done out of malicious intent, but out
of desperate denial of a world that doesn’t fit their assumptions. Many, perhaps
most, white folks in the US have no consciously ill will towards minorities, and
would recoil in distaste at the notion of being considered racist. And they will
spend all day explaining why they are perfectly justified in accepting a racist
position on a topic and how that doesn’t make them racist because the minorities in
question are to blame. Deflection. Denial. Dismissal. And then vote to prevent
change.