Reflections on The Dream

It is virtually impossible to talk about race in America without offending someone. To mention statistics on crime, disease, education, income, performance, employment or any number of other factors when sorted by ethnic demographic cohort is to risk labeling as racist. Yet, it is important to face these issues head on and not to shield ourselves from truth.

A few months ago, Bill Cosby had the courage to stand up and challenge African-Americans to take charge of their own destiny. He spoke from the security of his own success and with the obvious qualification of his own ethnicity readily apparent. Yet within days of his comments, he was targeted by Black apologists who denied the truth of his comments. An entire segment of the political spectrum in America is populated by those who cloak every decision in a mantle of racist motivation. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Andrew Young, Sheila Jackson Lee, Eleanor Holmes Norton and a host of others regularly accuse society at large and whites in particular of being responsible for the plight of Blacks in America.

That’s why on the eve of a national holiday to recognize the life and achievements of that great leader of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, it is appropriate to look at some comments made recently on the state of African-Americans in our society. Three weeks ago in an opinion piece in the New York Times, Bob Herbert wrote of the need to recognize the issues and, most importantly, to do something about them. A New Civil Rights Movement

It is undeniable that the statistics tell a story. And if progress is to be made, then blaming is pointless. There is certainly a case to be made that civil rights have been regularly and routinely violated throughout the history of this nation. And, it isn’t difficult to trace the slow progress from the days of slavery through the bitter Civil War to the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments which ostensibly corrected the problem. It took a lot more to progress from “separate but equal” and local Jim Crow laws to the mid-Twentieth Century and Brown v BOE.

We’ve got voting rights and equal opportunity commissions and fair housing practices all enacted into law, but we’ve still got a deep undercurrent of racism in America. Dr. King spoke of a color-blind society, one in which worth was measured by “content of character” and not skin color. Yet, we still have judgments routinely rendered on face value in the most basic meaning of the term. And do not doubt that the color judgment cuts both ways. Take a moment to consider this essay by Roland Fryer: Acting White What a shame that succeeding in education would be viewed as a negative and cause an individual to be shunned by their peers.

There is work to be done. It won’t be done quickly. It will take generations. And, it may not be done at all.