“I Have a Dream” 2020

I’m always a bit reluctant to share such personal commentary, but I hope you’ll “hear” my heart in this post. That said…

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech was given at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, two years after I was born. This dream, this speech, has over it’s near 60-year history, become an iconic and indelible part of the historic evolution of civil rights and race relations. The one thing the dream has not become, is fulfilled.

I have watched this speech a few times over my near-60 years of life. Yes, me and the speech are very close in age. It’s extraordinarily dynamic, phenomenally written, and exquisitely orated. Watching Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver this speech to what’s recorded as approximately 250,000 people, you get lost in the indisputable power, weight and magic of the moment. Watching it and reading the transcript of it though, give me totally different thoughts on it. You can read the “I Have a Dream” speech transcript HERE.

When you begin to read the words of the “I Have a Dream” speech, with the exception of “five score years ago”, you are quickly reminded that the sentiments, desires and realities are disturbingly mirrored in society today. And all of a sudden it’s no longer just a historical moment delivered by one of the most influential human beings that ever lived. It didn’t just become the poetic dream of Black Americans of 1963, but it in many ways, is the dream of Black Americans right here and now, in 2020. The discrimination Dr. King so eloquently articulated then, is now systematic, institutionalized and seemingly dismissed with an unfortunate common quip, “well you had a Black President.” As if Barack Obama’s ascent to the highest office of the land as the 44th President of the United States was the culmination and climax to all racial inequality.

I believe it was the tearing open of a massively infested womb formed at the time of the South’s loss to the North during the Civil War. But I’ll save that commentary for a future Black History Month post. Voter suppression, police brutality, unfair housing and business loan practices, are all ways that bias towards people of color are displayed today.

Black people are asked all the time, often times just in an attempt to understand, why we can’t just “let it go,” or as Dr. King referred to it in the question of “when will you be satisfied” in his speech, to which he responds, “We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity“. And while it’s not the “For Whites Only” sign that Dr. King was referring to then, it brought to mind the recent incident where a young Black man was humiliated and degraded, being forced to have his hair cut off before being allowed to participate in his High School wrestling match, or face a team forfeit. More details on that incident HERE.

My sentiment is… until you’ve walked in someone’s shoes with an opened mind to fully understand their struggle and their perspective, you’ll never understand why they can’t “let it go” or “be satisfied”.

My response when I’m asked why we can’t let it go… Because I’m reminded frequently of my blackness through incidences where I’m viewed as different in a “less-than” sort of way, or invisible, creating unequal experiences than that of my Caucasian brothers and sisters. No, it’s not being falsely accused, hand-cuffed and isolated for two hours when I was 13, or being spat on in public and called “nigger bitch” when I was 17 after a High School football game. Those were very obviously racist scenarios. Now, it’s the waiter at the nice restaurant serving everyone but me time and time again; it’s standing and walking around a completely empty Nordstrom counter for several minutes waiting for the sales representative, who addresses the white customer before they could even reach the counter good; or the Staples Copy department associate telling me she has to stop assisting me to take care of the white man who’s just come in to be served; or the salesman following my mother around the upscale boutique shoe store while she held one shoe, waiting for someone to help her, thinking she was trying to steal it; or receiving my early mail-in ballot in just enough time to mail it back because of the zip code I live in; or pre-social media seeking employment… application and resume good? Check; phone interview flawless? check; background check… Check; meeting Swedish and Irish named Black girl for the in-person interview?… “I’m sorry we’ve decided to go with a more qualified candidate.” Or, one of my all-time favs… being told face-to-face that I’m being let go from my job because President Obama has just won a second term. It’s all the things that you know are racially-motivated that you can debate, but you can’t prove. Which makes the gutting of the Voting Rights Act all the more damaging and nerve-racking. You can read about that in an earlier blog post commentary HERE. Dr. King says in his infamous speech, “We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.” Unfortunately, still an issue in a varied form.

I wonder what Dr. King would make of where we are with our quest for all forms of racial equality; social, economic and criminal. In his speech he spoke of the “promissory note of the Declaration of Independence, that all men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” What would he think of how far we’ve regressed? What would he think of the complacency, on each side? It gives me such a depressing feeling to consider that this speech is just as relevant today as it was then, if not more so. If it weren’t for my faith, things would seem hopeless.

And while this speech still applies today, I have to admit, if I hear another six-year old fumble their way through his or her recitation of any parts of this speech at a Black History Month presentation, I think I will reach into my eyeball sockets and pluck them out one at a time!!! If you’re laughing, you probably feel the same way. Maybe I’m just old and I’ve seen too many of these performances. I mean, can we just play the original? Dr. King himself, delivering those very fine words in front of the Lincoln monument?! Please, for the love of all things holy, don’t let little Janey, and little Johnny recite this speech at the next Black History Month Program…. (sigh) But I digress, thank you, and that is all, haha!!!

My dream is that we one day live in a world where we don’t have to designate a month to tell the stories of Black people, simply because it or they are being suppressed. We won’t need a Black History Month because our history, which is American History, will be taught in every school as American History. Sadly, I’m still learning things about our history that I should’ve learned in elementary school. But there are now entire museums and plenty of movies dedicated to disseminating information about our place in American History. My dream is that human beings will begin to first genuinely desire to listen and “hear” each others plights, concerns and dilemmas, and then work together towards mutually agreeable resolutions. My dream is the same as that of Dr. King’s dream, shared in 1963 when I was just two years old…

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ ”