MLK's Speech 45 Years Later: A Dream Deferred Or A Dream Achieved?

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http://www.newsone.com/article/mlks-speech...-dream-deferred

MLK's Speech 45 Years Later: A Dream Deferred or A Dream Achieved?

By Casey Gane-McCalla on August 28, 11:26 AM

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

A Dream Deferred, Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,'Eat in the kitchen,'Then.Besides, They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed--I, too, am AmericaI Too Sing America, Langston Hughes Two score and five years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about a check given to African-Americans by the founders of this country that had bounced, a check that said ‘all men were created equal,’ that was a promissory note to black people that one day we would have our rights, a check that came back marked ‘insufficient funds.’ Forty-five years later, has the check cleared yet?

Today many people would say the same thing that MLK said in '63, that the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity’ In King’s time, the average black family income was 56% of the average white family income, today it's 63%. Today, African-Americans still suffer the sting of poverty: the gap has only been closed by 7% in the past 45 years.

In terms of financial equality, we have a long way to go before we realize King's dream. King would go on about economic prosperity saying ‘We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.’ While there are many prosperous black suburbs, and many African-Americans have managed to move into white and racially mixed suburbs, the overwhelming majority of blacks have to deal with the same prospects of upward mobility that King spoke about in 1963.

King also spoke about the Negro languishing in the corners of society, exiles in their own land. Given the large amount of African-Americans who still live in poverty in the worst parts of American cities -- a reality made all the more clear during hurricane Katrina -- many African Americans are still exiles in their own land.

King said: ‘We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of police brutality.’ So there is no way on earth he’d be satisfied today, with Rodney King, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, and many others being brutality beaten or killed by the police.

Still several parts of King’s dream have become a reality no longer are we robbed of our dignity by ‘white only signs’ and when we are tired with the ‘fatigue of travel’ we can stay at any of the hotels and motels across the highways of America.

King famously said, '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. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’

Judging by the high African-American voter turnout in the South and in cities like New York, this part of King’s dream is a shining reality. In this way, Obama has taken King’s mantle and inspired blacks to achieve one part, a very significant part of America’s dream, as black people finally have a candidate they can truly believe in that will inspire them to come to the polls no matter the odds. The Republican party will undoubtedly try to continue to derail King’s dream like they did in 2000, but they will not derail the spirit that brings them to the polls.

King spoke of sons of slaves and the sons of slave owners meeting at the table of brotherhood. This is another partially achieved dream. The polls in many southern states have showed that blacks and whites have joined at the table of brotherhood in their support of Obama.

In other avenues such as sports and entertainment, African-Americans, have been at the table with their white brothers. The blacks lucky enough to go to college or get jobs in corporate America have joined the table of brotherhood, while the poor in the ghettoes are treated like abandoned step-children.

Conservatives have taken King’s statement about his children living in a nation ‘where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character’ to attack affirmative action. What they fail to recognize is that day has not come because of the legacy of racism. Affirmative action is the only chance many blacks have to ‘sitting at the table of brotherhood.’ As racial profiling and racial discrimination in general are both still harsh realities, we are still judged by the color of our skin. While millions of white people will be voting for Barack Obama because of the content of his character, millions will not vote for him because of the color of his skin.

Barack Obama can learn a lot from Dr. King’s speech. King put his Dream in the context of the broader American dream, referencing the Constituition, the Bill of Rights and "America the Beautiful." Just as King used the abolition of slavery as a reference point, I’m sure Obama will use King’s speech and the civil rights movement as a reference point. Nineteen sixty-three was not the end but the beginning of the civil rights movement, and so is 2008.

As King incorporated whites into his general movement, Obama must do so doubly. King said ‘many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.’

I am a strong believer in not submitting to cynicism and in chasing dreams. While we have not achieved his dream yet, he has put us on the right course to do so. We must continue to fight to make sure that King’s dream is realized. Just like King looked over the mountaintop and saw that he ‘might not get here with us,’ we must fight with the same vision. Although racism will remain a reality for our lives we can fight for progress and equality. Because of Obama's strides, 66% of black parents believe that their children can be president, and while most of them never will, that dream will keep them going, keep them fighting and keep them believing in themselves.

[VIsqo]

Really interesting article, thx bigted..