Every year, this time comes along: MLK Weekend, where we celebrate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It sickens me – every year. On the one hand, there are those in our Society who water down the message of Dr. King making it some sort of abstract kumbaya thing because he said: “I Have a Dream.”
Yet, fifty years later, that Dream is more like a nightmare: the economic gap still persists. According to the US Census, broad racial disparities still plague our society. I mean, look at what The Sentencing Project has to say about disparities in imprisonment and sentencing. Like the Pew Research Center asserts, “King’s Dream Remains an Elusive Goal.”
So, we remember the “good ‘ol days” of the movement and gather to walk arm in arm and sing: “We Shall Overcome.” And while we sing, the powers that be still rape the poor and the oppressed. Yet, because those who killed Dr. King ordained we keep a holiday we talk about how far we’ve come while ignoring how far things have drawn apart. #MercyLord
[JahBread-optin]
On the other hand, there are those in our Society who could care less about the struggle and see it only as an opportunity to profit. Images of Dr. King pop up with him in “iced-out medallions,” or surrounded by hoochie-mommas. Party promoters organize “Freedom to Twerk” parties, as if the Dream was little more than an opportunity to shake a stanky leg. #GloryHallelujah
The Dream Dr. King shared with us had to be more than this!
Maybe not…maybe Dr. King wasn’t looking for more than opportunity for a few good Negroes? And, maybe Dr. King had a dream that the ig’nant among us could at least profit from pimping his legacy? I don’t know…
But if that ain’t true, then we ain’t there yet! We have yet to arrive at the Promised Land. We have yet to build the Beloved Community for which Dr. King gave his life.
Don’t let them fool ya! Or even try to school ya!
Don’t let them rock you to sleep, thinking we’ve arrived because you can live in a White neighborhood, attend a White school, and don’t have to use “Colored Only” bathrooms.
As it was said of Joseph in the Book of Genesis, they intended to kill the dreamer and see what happened to his dream. So far, the Dream has probably left Dr. King screaming in his grave. But we can change that…
We can still fulfill the Dream. We can still enter the Promised Land. The Biblical Israelites were lost in the wilderness for 40 years. We’re only 10 years behind schedule.
We ain’t there yet…but we AS A PEOPLE can still get to the Promised Land! Let us make our journey!
