In August 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC , Martin Luther King addressed 250,000 marchers at the culmination of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and gave the greatest speech of his life, one of the greatest in history. Towards the end of the speech Mahalia Jackson shouted out " Tell them about your dream Martin " ,and King departed from his prepared text to proclaim " I have a dream ". What followed was a list of his aspirations for Black America, but by extension, for America itself, each beginning and ending with the cry " I have a dream ". I'll quote a few of those aspirations. " I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their color. I have a dream today. " And finally, " I have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream- one day this nation will rise up and live up to its creed . ' We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal '. I have a dream . "
In the following years some of the goals of the march were enshrined into law as civil rights legislation was passed in Congress making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race. Was King's dream fulfilled when civil rights legislation was signed into law a few years after his speech? Of course not. The process is ongoing. It often comes down to how Black children are treated when they enter a store. It comes down to the respect, or lack of respect, Black citizens are they're accorded by police. It manifests itself in the quality of education their children receive ,which is crucial to future success.
I used to be so naive. I thought I was following the right path toward racial equality by working things out with myself. I don't judge people on the basis of their skin color. I try not to judge anyone at all until I have some idea of the content of their character, something that's never revealed by skin color, sex, or size. If only it were that easy. God has sprinkled among us the good and the bad, the ones you can trust, and the untrustworthy, the stupid and the wise among all populations and nations. There's no color marker for any of that. There are some who think that we are our identity. If you are white you've been surrounded all your life with an invisible ( to you) power structure to protect your interests at the expense of others. It's called whiteness. It's called white supremacy. Undoing whiteness should be our goal. That's what some believe.
It turns out that Martin Luther King was wrong. We should judge people by their skin color afterall. Skin color like other markers such as sex ,sexual identity, and ethnicity, define us in to major categories like oppressors ( who are always cis-gendered white males ) and the vast ranks of the oppressed ( everyone else ). This was once the domain of whacky woke professors teaching gender or race studies at a few brand name colleges. How could anyone take such an obvious con, designed perhaps to ensure their employment and comfortable academic lifestyles, seriously? And then rioters took to the streets after the death of George Floyd. Now we all need to take the social justice\ anti-racism movement seriously. It's no longer a theoretical game played on campus. Those fact free theories have flourished and have consumed institutions outside of Universities; city councils ,district attorney's offices, teacher's unions, foundations, corporate boards, and many others. The deadly deluge is still rising.
It's always seemed strange to me that if our systems has been rigged to ensure white supremacy then why is it doing such a poor job of it ? Why is it that immigrants to this country often prosper far beyond their paler neighbors ? Why are Asian Americans achieving so well that our best Universities are limiting their enrollment? Why have more Africans come here over the last thirty years than were brought here in chains during the era of slavery ? That same group is prospering as well. Do their accents somehow inoculate them from the harmful effects of systemic racism ? I can't think of any other difference between immigrants from Nigeria and Ghana and that earlier forced migration. Oh yeah, there is culture. There's culture that believes in getting ahead and doing what's necessary to secure advancement and there are cultures that promote the opposite. From what I've seen ,self defeating cultures can be found in families, neighborhoods, and counties and they have no ethnic bounds.
There are two visions ,two approaches to social justice. One recommends a colorblind society where everyone is accorded individual agency and responsibilities, the other doesn't believe that's even possible, and asks us to consider our race above all else. Which opposing vision works for you ? Which one benefits everyone?
In the following years some of the goals of the march were enshrined into law as civil rights legislation was passed in Congress making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race. Was King's dream fulfilled when civil rights legislation was signed into law a few years after his speech? Of course not. The process is ongoing. It often comes down to how Black children are treated when they enter a store. It comes down to the respect, or lack of respect, Black citizens are they're accorded by police. It manifests itself in the quality of education their children receive ,which is crucial to future success.
I used to be so naive. I thought I was following the right path toward racial equality by working things out with myself. I don't judge people on the basis of their skin color. I try not to judge anyone at all until I have some idea of the content of their character, something that's never revealed by skin color, sex, or size. If only it were that easy. God has sprinkled among us the good and the bad, the ones you can trust, and the untrustworthy, the stupid and the wise among all populations and nations. There's no color marker for any of that. There are some who think that we are our identity. If you are white you've been surrounded all your life with an invisible ( to you) power structure to protect your interests at the expense of others. It's called whiteness. It's called white supremacy. Undoing whiteness should be our goal. That's what some believe.
It turns out that Martin Luther King was wrong. We should judge people by their skin color afterall. Skin color like other markers such as sex ,sexual identity, and ethnicity, define us in to major categories like oppressors ( who are always cis-gendered white males ) and the vast ranks of the oppressed ( everyone else ). This was once the domain of whacky woke professors teaching gender or race studies at a few brand name colleges. How could anyone take such an obvious con, designed perhaps to ensure their employment and comfortable academic lifestyles, seriously? And then rioters took to the streets after the death of George Floyd. Now we all need to take the social justice\ anti-racism movement seriously. It's no longer a theoretical game played on campus. Those fact free theories have flourished and have consumed institutions outside of Universities; city councils ,district attorney's offices, teacher's unions, foundations, corporate boards, and many others. The deadly deluge is still rising.
It's always seemed strange to me that if our systems has been rigged to ensure white supremacy then why is it doing such a poor job of it ? Why is it that immigrants to this country often prosper far beyond their paler neighbors ? Why are Asian Americans achieving so well that our best Universities are limiting their enrollment? Why have more Africans come here over the last thirty years than were brought here in chains during the era of slavery ? That same group is prospering as well. Do their accents somehow inoculate them from the harmful effects of systemic racism ? I can't think of any other difference between immigrants from Nigeria and Ghana and that earlier forced migration. Oh yeah, there is culture. There's culture that believes in getting ahead and doing what's necessary to secure advancement and there are cultures that promote the opposite. From what I've seen ,self defeating cultures can be found in families, neighborhoods, and counties and they have no ethnic bounds.
There are two visions ,two approaches to social justice. One recommends a colorblind society where everyone is accorded individual agency and responsibilities, the other doesn't believe that's even possible, and asks us to consider our race above all else. Which opposing vision works for you ? Which one benefits everyone?
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