Stumble It!
Aug 28 2008
Why Dr. King’s Dream Is Not Just a Black Thing
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Forty-five years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave what is arguably one of the most monumental and impassioned speeches in American and world history in the name of human freedom: I Have a Dream. Spoken most appropriately in front of th Lincoln Memorial at was was to be known as the March on Washington, it is the speech many credit with ushering in a time of understanding and hope for a nation, with initiating the Civil Rights Act just one year later, and most more importantly lifting the spirits of disillusioned and despairing Black folks by telling them of one man’s dream for a unified, courageous and resolute people whose contemporaries would one day judge them not for the color of their skin on the outside of them but by the content of their intrinsic character deeply rooted within. He hoped and prayed that a self-respecting people would be able to hold their heads up proudly and affirm their worth as human beings equal to any other on Earth. Yet, there is an element and an aftermath of I Have a Dream that seems to escape the hearts and minds of many. It is the simple truth that I Have a Dream is not just about Black people, but all people.
The Universal message of I Have a Dream has always been a self-evident truth as plain to me as the existence of the Sun. So, one day when I stumbled upon a poster of the speech at a college charity sale, I quickly scooped it up, bought it and placed it on my dorm room wall without the slightest second thought. It stayed on my wall for several weeks without a single significant mention from anyone in my hall.
Then several weeks later, one of my brothers came to visit me and while casually survey all the slackerish glory that was my room, he looked at the poster, turned to me and said, “You know you’re white…right?” to which I replied, Yeah. That’s why I have [the poster]. I continued to explain why I have it by telling that without that Dr. King and speeches such as I Have a Dream, I might not have the best friends I have, several of whom are black, my girlfriend who is Filipino, my My extended families who are Mexican and Puerto Rican, and even my bodily rights as a disabled American. Needless to say, he got the point.
A long while ago, probably around the Fourth Grade, I realized how much of my life would never have unfolded the way it did if not for the diligent work of those who ended slavery, who made segregation a strange and distant thought and who generally for the the rights of all men and women to be created and treated as equal in the eyes of humanity. I challenge each of you who read this to picture your life if racism and inequality had been deemed okay still today. What would happen to the Black doctor who gave you that operation that saved your life? What would have become of those of you who are married to someone of a different race? For those who are disabled, where would your status stand if the country were still so separated by our differences? To hate crime victims of all kinds, would you have any hope of justice in a country that said hate was okay? I say emphatically to all: You would not.
Forty-five years later America stands humbled by the prospect of the first Black man to be elected president in our history, Barack Obama. This is part of the dream. Let us not forget this was preceded by a the first woman to be speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and the first Black and female Secretary of state Condoleeza Rice before her. With all things considered, though it has further to go, America has come so far and I am so, so proud! This is why no one should ever forget the dream!
Until next time… keep wax poetically!
