Today I listened to Dr. Martin Luther King's most famous "dream" speech rebroadcast on CNN this morning. My youngest asked me what we were going to do for Martin Luther King Day and I really didn't have a plan. Just then, my mother called telling me about the broadcast and an impromptu celebration/discussion was underway. Why didn't I have a plan? I should celebrate the history of black America and how, on the eve of Barack Obama's inauguration, King's dream has been realized to some extent. Certainly there are still deep reverberations of racial injustice and inequality throughout America, one only has to look at the electoral map to get an idea of where those areas are; areas that I definitely would not want to move to. Tomorrow, America will inaugurate its first black President and we can all rejoice that steps are being made in the right direciton.
The evidence of Dr. King's speech that speaks most clearly to me when it comes to the election of Barack Obama is the part about being judged by the content of one's character and not by the color of one's skin. This is the part that I hope is applied to myself and my family when we go out into the world and execute all that we are capable of. Every race has those who achieve and those who do not achieve. Sadly, all races have an underclass that is unable or unwilling to capitalize on all that is right with America. The difference is that the black race, despite their heritage or birth including recent immigrants, Caribbean, African, European and others are overburdened by the characters and behaviors associated with those in the black underclass and not by the characters and behaviors associated with those who are achieve.
This is the part that I hope will change with Obama; the notion that all black people act and behave a certain way when those of us who have been struggling and achieving all of these years were marginalized. All Americans have the ability to achieve; some will and some won't but at least, I hope, people of the various black racial groups will finally be judged on their merit as we have judged Obama.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
It has been a long journey for improvements on civil rights and equality, and with Obama being sworn in, the civil rights movement have come full circle since the “I have a dream speech”. I hope Obama can concentrate on increasing jobs, advancing education, and the decreasing of our dependence on fossil fuels.
Post a Comment