Good Morning Everyone! Today is the ceremonial, nation-wide celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (prominent Civil Rights leader, who, along with others (white and black), petitioned a much needed change in America). But, honestly, if Dr. King lived on to see today's America, do you think he'd be impressed? I think not!
Why would I say so? After teaching for 13 years in the public education system, I still see the blatant slapping in the face of Brown vs. the Board of Education. I still see white faces in power-making positions, while minorities struggle for funding for their education (public and private) and are bred to be athletic beasts or entertainers, or find it very difficult to move into power-making positions as professional adults, (i.e. not promoted thinkers...not equals, unless it's a "you govern your kind" type of mentality to reference my remark about moving into power-making positions).
American public schools are in such disarray, with some districts still being segregated (i.e. urban schools fenced in, heavily policed and under funded, while suburban schools are more like college campuses with resources abounding and extra-curricular activities flourishing). Racial segregation is still a sore spot playing out in modern-day society (i.e. Trayvon Martin, the fall of famed Southern chef Paula Deen and the American Prison Systems, where African American males outnumber white males 5 to 1 because of the perception that Black males are more violent than white, see "White on White Crime More Prevalent than Black on Black"). All of this present-day strife brings to mind Langston Hughes' poem, "Let America Be America Again." I specifically want to call to mind these stanzas:
O, let my land be a land where Liberty / Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, / But opportunity is real, and life is free, / Equality is in the air we breathe. / (There's never been equality for me, / Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
What's stinging my mind this morning is the part "where liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath." Today, I feel that as cities across the nation, if not the world, celebrate the actions and causes of MLK's dream that it's just ceremonial. He and countless invisible others fought for equality, action, empathy, thought and unity. Yet, where the hell is it visible? Sure, I could acute specific instances to suffice that concern, but nation-wide, have we answered the call, consistently? I think we've become lackadaisical. And for that, Dr. King would roll-over in his grave, asking where he might of gone astray in his plight.
But it's not him that's astray, it's us. When the light of his torch was extinguished, we've yet to pick it up with the vigor and conviction that he and others demonstrated. Sure, laws were passed and tensions have relaxed some between races, but honestly, have we, as America, done much since? We're still celebrating firsts: First Black President, First Hispanic Woman on the Supreme Court, First Openly Female Lesbian Mayor of a major metropolis. And those are all FANTASTIC accomplishments and much needed.
Yet, what the truth is, is that majority of Fortune 500 hundred companies have white men at the helm, as well as white men over the colleges and universities, superintendents of school districts, collegiate athletic directors, owners of professional sports teams and littered all over Congress as "representatives of their constituents." Ha, ha! While Blacks, Hispanics, Middle Easterners and Asians are still accomplishing the "First Ever" titles because they lack the "pale-pigmented privilege." Is that opportunity real? Is it free? Is it equality in the air we breathe? Better still, is it the dream of a King?
No, it's a stalemate. And, frankly my dear, I'm tired of that ceremonial limitation.
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