“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Today is Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. I grew up in his world. I was in total agreement with his philosophy and goals. I remember coming out of a movie theater where my dad picked me up to go home. “Martin Luther King was killed,” he told me. It shocked me more than Kennedy’s death.
I was a true believer. Now I feel both King and I have been betrayed. The bigotry of whites he fought against has been replaced with bigotry by blacks.
My experience is that whites do not automatically judge blacks because of their color. I see that the reverse is not true. So, blacks assume whites do the same. Forty years ago they would have been right. And our problems are based in that assumption.
The issue of race relations in this country has merged with the group-think culture so popular with “liberals.” I put quotes there because “liberal” has come to mean something far different in context than it does standing alone. The implication is “anything goes, do your own thing.” In cultural context it means “you can only do things which meet with the approval of your group, and doesn’t offend another group.” Whites, the great assimilators of culture from other groups, are viewed as oppressors. In King’s day, we were. But now, we are judged by the color of our skin.
People like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton love it. It gives them power. It gives them money. It validates their existence. Without bigotry, they have nothing. It makes me sad, and a bit angry, that today, these men will pontificate, and preach their form of hatred to adoring crowds. I think King, man of peace that he was, would slap the shit out of them if he were here.