As Martin Luther King would say, keep marching
OPINION - That dream has not yet been realized. Though America has many victories to celebrate, on this anniversary, let's remember to keep striving...
Yesterday, on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the first black president of the United States praised Americans for how far we have come since 1963.
“Because they kept marching, America changed,” said President Obama, addressing a crowd of thousands on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. “Because they marched, doors of opportunity and education swung open so their daughters and sons could finally imagine a life for themselves beyond washing somebody else’s laundry or shining somebody else’s shoes.”
Still, Obama acknowledged that our work was far from over. For America to realize Dr. King’s dream of true racial equality, we still have a ways to go – and a glance at the day’s headlines was a clear reminder of that.
One story that stands out for me was a “feel good” story that went national about a group of university football players who made a $5 purchase at a store and left their money on the counter, even though the cashier wasn’t there. The young men, who were predominantly black, were lavishly praised for their actions by the national media, and the store, Buddy’s Small Lots, gave each of them a $50 gift card.
“Not only did they leave money on the counter, they counted out the change,” marveled store operations manager Marci Lederman in a News 12 New Jersey report.
The fact that this small act of common human decency was considered news is disturbing to me. I personally don’t find it surprising that four young men would buy something at an unattended store and leave the money on the counter. The students themselves don’t consider it a big deal either. But evidently some people thought this was big news.
Are we to assume that the public considers robbing, looting or ransacking to be the young men’s “expected” action in this case? If the honest shoppers had been, say, a white couple in their fifties, would it have made the evening news? I think not. The visual evidence, which was captured on surveillance camera, of dark-skinned, dread-locked young men behaving in a civilized, honest manner was clearly, in some people’s minds, national headline news.
More disturbing headlines on the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech: a group of black diners was denied service at a South Carolina café when a white customer allegedly complained that she felt “threatened by them.” For me, this story was eerily evocative of 1963.
Despite having a black president in the white house, black politicians face an uphill battle in gaining representation in the U.S. Senate. The glass ceiling still looms, reported NBC news.
Six weeks after white vigilante gunman George Zimmerman was acquitted of the murder of 17-year old black teen Trayvon Martin, his wife admits she lied under oath. Shellie Zimmerman’s admission that she perjured herself about being destitute only adds fuel to the already blazing fire of public opinion that the Zimmerman verdict was, in many people’s eyes, a travesty of justice. In a separate CNN report, Zimmerman announced he wants the state of Florida to reimburse him $200,000 for his court costs.
Yesterday, August 28, 2013, marked fifty years to the day that MLK made a speech that defined the dream of a generation, a world where people would be judged on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.
That dream has not yet been realized. Though America has many victories to celebrate, on this anniversary, let’s remember to keep striving.
