Welcome to Destee Astro...well to the forums anyway, and excellent post.
I think the bottom line in this discussion is respect. Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Walter White, Stokely Carmichael, Fannie Lou Hamer, Thurgood Marshall, and countless others during the civil rights era, even Jesse Jackson (who is also has been unfairly tarnished in recent years). All these people made sacrificies which made it possible today for African Americans to live whereever they wished, go to practically any school they want, to vote in elections, to work for any company they are qualified (well technically), even to become CEO of white controlled companies. We can NEVER do enough to honor them.
The second part of this issue is understanding, because if you understood the Civil Rights Movement, you couldn't help but respect it. The sacrificies of these individuals made it possible for Cedric to have, and enjoy his current success. Cedric used a public medium to cast negative light not only on Dr. King...but sister Rosa Parks as well. To the average person Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King is all they know of the Civil Rights Movement. They are the Civil Rights Movement, and Cedric not only called to question the integrity of the people leading it (Dr. King's infidelity), but the brillitant planning of it (Sister Parks being tired). The civil rights movement was the result of decades of legal planning: In 1917 Buccanen V. Warley determined that housing discrimination was illegal, this established the legal precident for Brown v. the Board of ED. In the 1930s a series of legal cases brought by the NAACP struck down the all white primaries in Texas, which established precident for the Voting Rights Act, in 1941 A. Phillip Randolph proposed a march on Washington to protest discrimination in the workplace, which served as the inspiration Dr. Kings 1963 march on washington. The NAACP was looking for a case to challenge the 1986 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which established Jim Crow. A young sista named Claudette Clover refused to give up her seat on the bus years before Sister Parks did; however, the conditions weren't favorable to challenge the law. Rosa Park's case was though. Sista Parks did not sit down in the white section (which is popular belief), she was sitting in the COLORED section, and was asked to move because all the white seats were filled. This was a violation of separate but equal, it was the perfect case to bring down Jim Crow. It most certainly was not an accident, which is what Cedric was suggesting (either knowingly or unknowingly). This is view that is championed by many white historians, and segregationist. It takes away from the brilliant planning of the movement. Indeed the Civil Rights Movement was not an accident, but the result of years of brilliant planning.
Even though Africans-Americans have always "pleased" whites with acting a fool. How much joy would Cedric have if he had money, but couldn't live where he wanted or put his children in the school he wished? Whether he knows it or not, Cedric owes a debt to Dr. King & Sister Parks....one that only can be paid with respect....his comment was ignorant. Although he may not be completely at fault, because I don't know if he wrote that comment, also this history is not taught in most schools. Still the comments were ignorant, and I only hope Cedric realizes one day exactly how ignorant they were.