I have a dream deeply rooted in the American dream

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Let’s talk race, more accurately race relations. This is a hot topic that brings the best and the worst out in people. The majority black perspective is that this country was and still is racist, the majority white perspective would be that we aren’t perfect however we have come such a long way. Now the clash between these two ideas are creating extremes, on the black side it has created the “all white people are racist” extreme. On the white side it has created the “white genocide” extreme. I am not sure if there is a common ground between these two extremes so I wanted to offer a new perspective. I wanted to write a manifesto of sorts that would lay out facts and principles informed by a great past. I think I can say without controversy that the most inspirational and most effective civil rights activist was Martin Luther King Jr. therefore I will use his greatest speech known as “I have a dream” to see if we have reached any progress, also what should our view on other races be.

I have a few stand out quotes I will use to base my argument, these are to me, major thrusts of actionable policy and ideas that transcends the time in which he was speaking. After each quote I will give commentary to highlight some point or another.

"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

"But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

So Rev King starts out his speech highlighting a point in the civil war where the emancipation proclamation was signed as an ending point of slavery. I believe, as He obviously does, that this ends one chapter of human oppression for blacks and starts another chapter. The ending statement is a strong indictment against the current federal government in 1963, saying essentially that even though they won their freedom it has not truly arrived and the Negro is still not free. So what was the problem, they were technically not in slavery so what was Rev King referring to?

“....manacles of segregation....chains of discrimination.” “....lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.”

He uses the imagery of slavery along with the modern problems, segregation, discrimination, and poverty that is not in line with the rest of society. Languishing in the corners of society, not able to be all that God intended them to be, feeling like a non-citizen in the only country they have ever known. This gives a very accurate account of the life of black people under the Jim Crow era of the United State. It lays out the general problems so people could get the 30,000 foot view of life in America.

“In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

I love this appeal, and this use of the idea that they have come to cash a check. Notice that Rev King doesn’t speak begrudgingly of the founders he doesn’t remind his audience that they were white men some of whom owned slaves. He believed, as I do, that the words of the Declaration were a transcendent echo of the Devine. Think about it, Jefferson who penned the words “we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” that he was, in his mind, not referring to blacks, women, Indians, or even non land owning whites. He could have easily wrote that all land owning white men were created equal with certain rights. This divine slip of the quill left an opening for anyone of any race or gender, despite their wealth or poverty, to lay claim to this blank check of liberty. This is the promissory note which King describes. He acknowledges the greatness of our founding documents and uses them as a mirror by which to shame our country with her warts and blemishes.

“This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning..... There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.”

I want to point out Kings use of the term legitimate discontent, it wasn’t trivial or on the margins, it was tangible where anybody could see the problem. If you denied there was a problem it was because you didn’t want to see it. The imagery of the seasons passing is beautiful, when fall comes the leaves change, the weather cools there are visible changes, you can see them and feel them. The changes he says will come, will be freedom and equality. The word freedom is one that describes a state in which one is not restrained by anyone else to do the legal acts which they so desire. The word equality is a tough one, well today it is a tough one. Most of the time when people speak of equality they mean sameness of outcomes or equity meaning equal distribution of the end result. I believe Rev King referred to equality of opportunities and treatment, especially before the law. Then he says this is only the beginning not an end, the fight won’t stop until black people have their equal citizenship rights.

“In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people,”

Rev King in my humble opinion was a prophet and saw the future, or maybe there were black folks back then that wanted revenge and not justice as many today do. Drinking from a cup of bitterness and hatred is not condoned by this great civil rights leader. He says we must forever conduct ourselves on a higher plane of dignity, meaning taking the high ground. I am deeply arrested by his use of the term “creative protest”, being non violent and allowing police and other angry whites to hurt you is very creative and very effective. Notice King says these protest must never degenerate into physical violence, when you begin to cause property damage and bodily harm to people

you lose the high ground morally, and it’s easy to delegitimize your message. Finally he tells his followers not to get into this militancy and mistrust whites. This is so important, nothing will kill a movement that requires love, more than hatred. Jesus told his followers a very similar message and the most effective tool against hate is to love and respect your enemy.

“When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.”

So these are his demands in response to the question "what will make you happy". Rev King describes a small list of demands. I’m not sure if this is an exhaustive list of everything they wanted, but it must represent at least some attainable goals in the minds of the civil rights activists. So I’m going to address these one by one, leaving the police brutality demand for the end. So number two on this list is the idea of being able to lodge in a hotel or motel anywhere. Let me ask this question: has any black person in this modern era let’s say from 1990 to now been denied lodging due to their skin color? I highly doubt it. Number three is the ability to live where you like, I will say other than bad zoning laws, and being priced out of markets, black people have the ability to live anywhere they can afford. I haven’t heard in recent times where a builder or city has restricted anyone from living somewhere. Number four segregated facilities. Other than blacks in colleges segregating themselves and the natural segregation of preference we have no legal segregation. Finally voting rights, notice he said they wanted a black man from Mississippi to have the ability to vote. At that time states had the power to keep certain classes of individuals from voting, so they discriminated against black citizens. Then with regards to black people in New York he is speaking of giving them politicians who actually care about them.

Finally on to the topic of police brutality. This is where I will say it appears we have no progress or do we? If you believe the mainstream of media you would think it is still 1963 but the statistics show the opposite story, so I will say that this dream has been achieved too, if you compare it to open and blatant displays of dogs and hoses. We have come a long way and verifiably so. It seems the real problems lie with the extremes not recognizing true progress, and stoking the fires of hate as opposed to looking towards the common humanity of all Americans.

In conclusion on this day of tribute to a truly great American, I say we need to look to the hopefulness and love of MLK. He struggled on behalf of his people, but never divided his people from fellow Americans. It's time to open our arms to our enemies perceived and real, this country has shown it is capable of overcoming its worst moments. But we can't do it as individuals or as minority classes, we have to do it together. On this day I choose love, I choose unity, I choose the American way and I would hope you would join me in this ongoing struggle against cynicism and division. God bless America and thank God for the great Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.