I thought it was for more than just that?
Most blacks say MLK’s vision fulfilled, poll finds
WASHINGTON (CNN) — More than two-thirds of African-Americans believe Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for race relations has been fulfilled, a CNN poll found — a figure up sharply from a survey in early 2008.
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. (more…)
As much as I love and appreciate what MLK and others in the Black civil rights movement did, I am getting real tired of folks making him into an unseen deity that has become the voice for about any cause.
Over the years I have seen how folks manage to interweave the wishes of a Black civil rights leader with various political agendas. If folks would take the time to read King’s actual “I Have a Dream Speech”, you will see NOTHING about making the hopes of Black folks subject to the skin color of who is serving in public office. If this were the case, most of our cities and small to medium-sized cities with Black leadership would be flourishing with hope and great pride. Instead, we see schools that are broken, governments that are corrupt, and a persistent cloud of poverty and crime that forces even Blacks (who have the ability) to flee to the suburbs.
Now again, the election of a Black man to serve as the Commander in Chief is a huge deal from a historical perspective and should be celebrated as such. But symbolism has done NOTHING to minimize the issues I mentioned earlier. Instead, it just added more players to the same political game that has been played since politics first existed.
King wanted an America where White racists no longer stood in the doorway of the American dream. I think that it is safe to say that not only do they no longer hold that position, but pointing them out and subjecting these would-be human barriers to public scrutiny has become a skill that even some Whites have learned to apply to themselves. This CNN poll even reflects some of that.
But whites remain less optimistic, the survey found.
“Whites don’t feel the same way — a majority of them say that the country has not yet fulfilled King’s vision,” CNN polling director Keating Holland said. However, the number of whites saying the dream has been fulfilled has also gone up since March, from 35 percent to 46 percent.
So pointing out racists is the easy part. Holding public officials accountable when they fail a city, even when they whip out the race card–now THAT is moving us closer to what King’s dream was about in the first place.
I Didn’t Know That King’s Dream Was For A Black President
by Duane on January 19th, 2009 at 11:14 amI thought it was for more than just that?
As much as I love and appreciate what MLK and others in the Black civil rights movement did, I am getting real tired of folks making him into an unseen deity that has become the voice for about any cause.
Over the years I have seen how folks manage to interweave the wishes of a Black civil rights leader with various political agendas. If folks would take the time to read King’s actual “I Have a Dream Speech”, you will see NOTHING about making the hopes of Black folks subject to the skin color of who is serving in public office. If this were the case, most of our cities and small to medium-sized cities with Black leadership would be flourishing with hope and great pride. Instead, we see schools that are broken, governments that are corrupt, and a persistent cloud of poverty and crime that forces even Blacks (who have the ability) to flee to the suburbs.
Now again, the election of a Black man to serve as the Commander in Chief is a huge deal from a historical perspective and should be celebrated as such. But symbolism has done NOTHING to minimize the issues I mentioned earlier. Instead, it just added more players to the same political game that has been played since politics first existed.
King wanted an America where White racists no longer stood in the doorway of the American dream. I think that it is safe to say that not only do they no longer hold that position, but pointing them out and subjecting these would-be human barriers to public scrutiny has become a skill that even some Whites have learned to apply to themselves. This CNN poll even reflects some of that.
So pointing out racists is the easy part. Holding public officials accountable when they fail a city, even when they whip out the race card–now THAT is moving us closer to what King’s dream was about in the first place.