One major point that stands out from the I Have A Dream speech is:
1. Equality for all mankind. Black, white, yellow, blue and red - we should all be afforded the same opportunities as everyone else. He wanted there to come a time when no matter what color of skin you are, you received treatment based on your character (how you treat others). You see Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived during one of the most inhumane times known to mankind. African Americans were treated brutally in their community, at the polls and one was even killed for whistling at someone of another color. He was a heroic leader during the Civil Rights Movement, not afraid to speak up about indifference and led a nation of people out of a time of darkness.
It is said that he didn't want to be in the spotlight. He didn't sit in on those meetings initially to become the leader of the Civil Rights Movement, but someone saw a quality in him that surpassed all others. So he answered the call and 44 years later we are working to make sure his dream is realized. However, now the dream takes on a different meaning. Blacks weren't able to sit at the same lunch counters as whites, had to sit at the back of the bus and were looked at as second class citizens. Has much changed? Yes, we can now eat wherever we like without worrying about consequences because of our skin color, we are also able to hold political offices and go to school with our white counterparts. Equal opportunity education for all was a major focus of the Civil Rights Movement.
"One hundred years later, the Negro 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 languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition."
However today I am worried about the meaning of his dream and would like us to take the dream a step further. MLK as well as Malcolm X worked alongside other influential African Americans who didn't use the word "nigger" freely (most didn't use it at all), they fought for a people who took pride in their education and their communities. Here we are in 2012 where a huge number of African Americans look at education as a backup plan. Our communities have been infiltrated with drugs and violence (mostly black on black or police brutality), nigger and bitch is used synonymously with friend/enemy/woman, and the communities we live have trash up and down the street, we don't support black businesses and the village that used to raise a child? Burned down. Now we have leaders such as Cornel West and Tavis Smiley who wish to criticize President Barack Obama for not caring about the poor people in America, in my opinion Smiley and West don't care either. They set out on a Poverty Tour, but what was the result? Did they put a plan in motion to help those who they talked to, did they network with other community leaders to put an end to the issues addressed? We are focusing on the wrong things and need to get back to the dream...
You see Dr. King's "Poor People Campaign" demanded economic aid for the poorest communities in the United States. He didn't go with the intentions of a personal vendetta or act like a child because he wasn't invited over Malcolm X house for dinner one night... (cue Tavis)
"We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality."
So what would his dream be today? As we look around and see the same people of color who worked effortlessly 44 years ago to make sure that we had the same rights as everyone else and were looked at as normal human beings, become complacent with the state of our being. The issue today is still the same -racism and hatred that existed since Africans were first brought over to this country, but now it seems that we inflict a lot of the issues upon ourselves. We don't have to worry about the "enemy" killing us off because gangs now handle that problem. There is no need to sit around and discuss schools not teaching our children because once they go home parents either don't follow up or are busy working and providing for the roof over their head. So I am asking that we take this dream a step further and bring it back home. I am not saying turn a blind eye to the institutionalized racism or the many curve balls that the government seems to throw our way, let's just focus on making ourselves better - OUR PEOPLE, OUR SCHOOLS, OUR HOMES, OUR FAMILIES.
"For some reason I can never be what I ought to be, until you are what you ought to be"
The Civil Rights Movement was a time when there was blatant hatred aims at blacks, 2012 the same problem still exists it's just more covert and we can't seem to understand that. We feel as if we have arrived because we can now join hands and eat at the same table as our white counterparts. So was his dream realized? In that aspect yes. But look at us now and tell me what the dream is....what will you do to protect what we once were and get us back to that? Don't let his dream die with him.
Gil Scot Heron - A Message to the Messengers
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