Dr. King's Dream realized?
A new CNN poll found that two-thirds of blacks believe Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for race relations has been fulfilled.
"The CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey was released Monday, a federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader and a day before Barack Obama is to be sworn in as the first black U.S. president.
The poll found 69 percent of blacks said King’s vision has been fulfilled in the more than 45 years since his 1963 “I have a dream” speech—roughly double the 34 percent who agreed with that assessment in a similar poll taken last March.
But whites remain less optimistic, the survey found."
But whites remain less optimistic, the survey found."
White people are probably less optimistic because they know how many of their fellow whites are racists...every family seems to have at least one.
I think of King’s Dream as an ongoing journey in America, and I believe tomorrow will signify the biggest step towards the realization of that dream that we’ve seen in my lifetime.
That said, we ain’t there yet. But we have come along way...with each generation, racism gets a little less powerful.
I don’t think anyone believes that racism will disappear entirely, just that racists and racism would become marginalized as the irrational knee-jerks that they are. The marginialization of racism is what many righties have been railing against (PC PC PC!) and explains the resentment when people are called out on certain “jokes” for example...then there's the oh so subtle brand that raises a stink over Obama's birth certificate...
We can work to marginalize them or to quiet them, but we’ll never be rid of them because there is just this certain segment of society that will remain ignorant and foolish. The local yokels will always be looking for someone to blame when they lose a job or their taxes go up....so long as we have misfortune and superstition, we’ll have idiots blaming scapegoats for all their problems.
I'm remembering the Republican women's newsletter of last year that depicted a cartoon version of Barack Obama with bug eyes and big lips surrounded by a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken. I'm remembering the boxes of Obama Waffles that were sold from a booth at a Republican Values Voter Summit, which depicted an Aunt Jemima stereotype Obama dressed as a Muslim, two slams in one nice package. They said it was all in fun and Lou Dobbs even bought a box.
Yes, we’ve made incredible strides on race in this country...but before we go dislocating our shoulders patting ourselves on the back, we also have to recognize just how much farther we have to go.
