we’ve cured racism
by Jeremy Skinner
Published: April 11, 2008
Last week, people across the nation commemorated the fortieth anniversary of the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Former aides to Dr. King, reporters and all three presidential candidates spoke about the legacy of the man whose dream continues to inspire us. On the same day, CNN and Essence Magazine released the results of a poll, which asked respondents whether they feel that the U.S. has fulfilled the vision King spelled out in his famous 1963 speech. Apparently, 34% of Americans believe that Dr. King’s dream has been realized. I know Americans are good at denial – “The surge is working! The surge is working!” – but I was stunned. And these people wonder why the Jeremiah Wrights of the world are angry.
April 4, 2008 came barely two weeks after Barack Obama delivered his notable and highly patriotic speech on race. Speaking in Philadelphia, America’s birthplace, Obama reminded us that, although we have come far, we have a long way to go to overcome our nation’s “original sin of slavery.” The speech – which was viewed on YouTube over 3 million times in ten days and the text of which was emailed more times from the New York Times website than was that newspaper’s own story on the speech – has drawn great attention and applause.
Condoleezza Rice, who rarely mentions race, said, “There is a paradox for this country and a contradiction of this country and we still haven’t resolved it.” Even Newt Gingrich acknowledged such, encouraging Obama to “join a dialogue about new solutions.” And in classes across the country, students discussed the speech and how far we still have to go. Despite this, a third of our fellow citizens somehow believe that if Dr. King were alive today, he would be satisfied.
To those people, I’d like to pass on (along with some glasses that are not colored like a certain flower) the words of historian Taylor Branch, who has written extensively about the civil rights movement and Dr. King: “It is time to wake up.”
First, because Dr. King was most devoted to racial integration and we still experience such extensive de facto segregation, he would certainly not be pleased. In his speech, he discussed his dream that his children would not be judged by the color of their skin and that “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” He specifically called for school integration, stating, “Let us be dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools are transformed into bright tomorrows of quality, integrated education.”
Unfortunately, if Dr. King’s children went to public school in any number of cities across the country today, they would likely go to a school with all or almost all black students and a dismal record of achievement. Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, segregation in American schools is rampant. Moreover, America’s Promise Alliance – founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell – just released a report showing that 1 in 2 African-American students don’t graduate high school. In my home of Baltimore, it’s only 1 in 3. Moreover, the gap between the (mostly white) suburban schools and the (mostly black) urban schools is dramatic. Based on graduation rates, which are over 80% in the Baltimore suburbs, the Baltimore area has the biggest achievement gap in the nation. He would surely be dissatisfied.
This dissatisfaction would extend to areas beyond race, given Dr. King’s broader vision of justice. We know that he became a steadfast opponent of the Vietnam War – and war generally. Yet today, we have been engaged in a new Vietnam for over five years. Just this week, General David Petraeus told Congress that we should keep all of our troops in Iraq, even though “the surge” was supposed to be temporary. Senator Jim Webb, a veteran himself, said that we are “bogged down” in Iraq.
Finally, even though Dr. King’s last trip to Memphis was to speak about ending poverty, the official U.S. poverty rate today is almost equal to the poverty rate the day he died. On behalf of the sanitation workers he was trying to help, I say to those who claim Dr. King’s vision has been fulfilled, “Garbage!”
Granted, we have made great progress. Certainly it shows progress that our next president may be an African American or a woman (although, our next president also may be a white man who voted against honoring Dr. King with a holiday). However, the fact that the same CNN/Essence poll had to ask people whether America is “ready” for a black president or a woman president attests to how far we still have to go. Furthermore, the fact that 19% of respondents think fulfilling Dr. King’s vision is impossible speaks about how difficult the task may be.
There is hope, but the first step, I’ve heard, is admitting you have a problem. We need people like Jeremiah Wright, who will call our nation on its lack of conviction to justice, even if they do so by saying, “God damn America!” Dr. King – who, according to Michael Eric Dyson’s new book had titled his next sermon “Why America is Going to Hell” – would surely agree.
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