Assessing whether whether Dr. King's dream has come to pass in Barack Obama
November 17th 2008 01:34
So here we are almost two weeks after Mr. Obama won the US general election and white America seems to have already raised the ugly side of its head. Reading online that racial attacks have skyrocketed and people who officially joined racist websites jumped by over 1000% since Mr. Obama won. Someone described racism as a "cancer that isn't curable but was just in remission until Tuesday November 04, 2008".
I find racism to be a rare mental disorder that can cause someone not to think clearly and can be contagious under the right circumstances. Maybe one day, someone in the field of psychiatric disorders might find that racism is actually a disorder of the brain. The cynic in me suggests that it's a little hard to diagnose a brain disorder without a brain to begin with.
People have mentioned that Dr. Martin Luther King's dream has come to pass in Barack Obama. I don't totally agree with that. Yes he was elected as US President, but the dream Dr. King referred to, was the end of the struggle. Mr. Obama is not the fulfillment, as he is yet to fulfilll any of his promises as a candidate. When he rebuilds the US economy and the world is a better, safer place years long after he's gone, then let history judge whether he fulfilled Dr. King's dream or not. When African Americans and other minorities can stand before a court and are judged based purely on merit, then the dream has been fulfilled and not before.
The difference, I find between Dr. King and Mr. Obama is this (and I speak purely as a distant independent non US observer) is that Dr. King was a man driven by his actions. His actions are what have defined him to each generation. His bravery in standing up to the evils that lay in the systematic degradation of African Americans. Mr. Obama speaks of doing great deeds, but has yet to do so. Could or would Mr. Obama have marched into the pits of racist vipers knowing tht every step he took could have been his last, been arrested, spat on, racially abused, or died for the cause of freedom? No. Simply put because Obama is not, nor has ever been a civil rights activist. It hasn't been his line. He was and always has been a smooth talking "community organizer" / lawyer turned politician.
When Dr. King spoke of the "dream" it was the "dream" of being treated equally. Putting Obama into the white house doesn't mean that the dream has been fulfilled. What it does mean though is a step forward for African Americans to dare to believe that it can be done and that equality can someday be achieved. Ask any African American if there is real equality in the US justice system, or in the way the police handle the minorities who live across the length and breadth of the US.
The dream will only come to pass, when the people who still fight against the change that was started by the "elders" of the civil rights movement, and handed down to Mr. Obama (whether he wants it or not), have become distant memories of a past that needs to be left where it is. In the past.
I find racism to be a rare mental disorder that can cause someone not to think clearly and can be contagious under the right circumstances. Maybe one day, someone in the field of psychiatric disorders might find that racism is actually a disorder of the brain. The cynic in me suggests that it's a little hard to diagnose a brain disorder without a brain to begin with.
People have mentioned that Dr. Martin Luther King's dream has come to pass in Barack Obama. I don't totally agree with that. Yes he was elected as US President, but the dream Dr. King referred to, was the end of the struggle. Mr. Obama is not the fulfillment, as he is yet to fulfilll any of his promises as a candidate. When he rebuilds the US economy and the world is a better, safer place years long after he's gone, then let history judge whether he fulfilled Dr. King's dream or not. When African Americans and other minorities can stand before a court and are judged based purely on merit, then the dream has been fulfilled and not before.
The difference, I find between Dr. King and Mr. Obama is this (and I speak purely as a distant independent non US observer) is that Dr. King was a man driven by his actions. His actions are what have defined him to each generation. His bravery in standing up to the evils that lay in the systematic degradation of African Americans. Mr. Obama speaks of doing great deeds, but has yet to do so. Could or would Mr. Obama have marched into the pits of racist vipers knowing tht every step he took could have been his last, been arrested, spat on, racially abused, or died for the cause of freedom? No. Simply put because Obama is not, nor has ever been a civil rights activist. It hasn't been his line. He was and always has been a smooth talking "community organizer" / lawyer turned politician.
When Dr. King spoke of the "dream" it was the "dream" of being treated equally. Putting Obama into the white house doesn't mean that the dream has been fulfilled. What it does mean though is a step forward for African Americans to dare to believe that it can be done and that equality can someday be achieved. Ask any African American if there is real equality in the US justice system, or in the way the police handle the minorities who live across the length and breadth of the US.
The dream will only come to pass, when the people who still fight against the change that was started by the "elders" of the civil rights movement, and handed down to Mr. Obama (whether he wants it or not), have become distant memories of a past that needs to be left where it is. In the past.
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