A Dream Or A Simple Fantasy Race In America
January 19, 2010 by Brian Jenkins
Filed under Be Risen, Featured
“For those of you who are black – considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible – you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization – black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.” Those were the words of Senator Robert F. Kennedy to a tense all black crowd immediately upon hearing of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination.
The harsh everyday realities of segregation were put out of mind by many who weren’t its victims, both then and now. It was always about small things done by big people that launched a movement for equality amongst all. Whether it was deciding not to give up your seat, or challenging the right to defend yourself, sitting in, or even telling the world about a dream, there was a moving power that the evil of slavery or even “Jim Crow” would not confine a nation.
Was the power structure so good that they just felt it only right legislating equality, after mandating inequality? I don’t know the answer to that, but let’s look at the actions of Abraham Lincoln for example, the man who we honor as being so just, that he would go to war and risk a nation just to free slaves. This same President Lincoln, in 1862 told a group of black leaders invited to the White House: “You and we are different races. It is better for us both to be separated.” Yet, less than three years later, he famously characterized the Civil War as divine punishment for the sin of slavery.
Does that make Lincoln a hypocrite? I don’t think so; I think what we saw was the evolution of a man, similar to the evolution of a country less then 50 years from the announcement of a dream for equality, made by a Baptist preacher on the mall in Washington, DC right in front of where we honor President Lincoln. Then, undeniably, we saw the election of a President with unquestionable dark skin of African decent. But is this the dream of a King or the culmination of those who were beaten by police and bitten by dogs while skin was torn with fire hoses in our recent past? I doubt it. It is another chapter in this evolution of a people, the American people, we are not “free at last” but, we finally see what freedom is.
I am not sure what the election of Barack Obama did for CEO’s as far as hiring more minorities, or for police officers who profile to make an arrest. I would like to think, and do believe that it made a lasting impact. But, above all else, this new chapter in race tore down the walls mentally endured by minorities and poor people alike. Now, we see that we can be anything. No matter where you are from, or what you have been through, the American dream that you may not have recognized before, you now realize.
“Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old,” President Obama said on the night of his election. “She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.” Think about what you have seen in your life if you are under 30: Computers come into existence, and evolve, the internet, apartheid end, and Mandela free to become president, a President Reagan use a black woman to attack “welfare queens”, racial profiling, a Million Man March, the Cosby’s, failures after Hurricane Katrina, a black President, etc. And the dream goes on. With bumpy roads, we have “been to the mountain top.” Not to sing a victory song, but to see what we have been missing. Now we need diversity in PhD’s, professional and college coaches, CEO’s, college graduates in general, and those willing to keep the path clear to get more to this mountain top. We can quote Langston Hughes, and call this a “Dream Deferred,” or we can recognize that it is a dream adopted and evolved into a mission, to turn what was at one time seen as a fantasy, into a humble reality.
- Brian Jenkins
Twitter: @Brian_Jenkins
As long as we keep moving forward making constant strides towards progression in racial understanding, equality and erradicating racial ignorance, we most certainly will be the true product of Dr. King’s dream and those who walked with him. I pray my daughters realize the struggles their grandparents and generations before them had to endure. Unfortunately many younger generation blacks do take their liberties for granted. We have come to far, I hope the generation after ours continues to close the gap.
We should remember our past, but not alowe it to take our future hostage.
There’s so much I could say here. Our society is so much more complicated than just black and white, yet media and even corporate institutions make it seem like those are the only issues we struggle with. Yes, we’ve made progress in race relations, some of us live in diverse communities, living in harmony….but a lot of us face the stark realities everyday. Some of us have not made progress, some of us are carrying the torch our parents carried. Mix that up with the haves and the have nots and you’ve got a bomb ready to explode. This race is not about color (for the most part) it’s about who has the most power. Some of us won’t realize the American Dream or even see a mountain, we’re not even playing the game…
A great reflective view of the past and a clear and positive mission for the future. I will use this blog as a kick-off for our school’s Black History celebration. Thanks.
Yet another great blog. I don’t think its a fantasy, I beleive we are getting there. Its not going to be an over-night thing as people somehow thought it would be once President Obama came into office. Its going to take work on all sides to create this change we all want and need. As Black people we need to do our part in trying to correct the problems we are having in our communities. We can’t expect other races to just abandon negative stereotypes of us if so many of us are doing things that allow us to fit these stereotypes. And we also have to have an open mind about other races as well. We can’t say that we won’t tolerate prejudice or discrimination against us while subjecting others to the same treament.
Thanks Tam, I cant help but to agree with u on this…