"I have a dream that my four little 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." We all know this quote. It's from Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have A Dream" speech. I'd like to briefly say a few words about how this quote is being distorted today by right wing hacks and bigots...
Image by RV1864 - source: Flickr
I think Martin Luther King Jr. would turn in his grave if he heard people like Charlie Kirk or Ben Shapiro use his quote to undermine and shun attempts at creating racial justice, or to shame people who care about racial justice. MLK was in fact a great proponent of policies that would lift up African Americans to the level of their white fellow citizens. Even in that very same speech he speaks of cashing the check that was promised to all Americans, but was never given to black Americans. If MLK were alive today, he would be a proponent of reparations. Not necessarily as a literal check, not as a payment in dollars, but in the form the metaphorical check he spoke of in 1963:
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.
source: Newsweek
So when people from the political far right misconstrue the "content of their character" bit as meaning "color-blindness", they do so out of ignorance or malevolence. On online social media I encounter examples of the latter far more frequently though. In fact, MLK's words are used in bad faith a lot, not just this particular quote. During the BLM protests in response to George Floyd's murder, MLK's words were used by those same right wingers to condemn the riots. As a side-note, those riots were greatly exaggerated in the media, as research shows that 93% of Black Lives Matter Protests Have Been Peaceful, and in the cases they were not the violence originated with the police or right wing counter-protests. MLK preferred peaceful protests as well, but he also said "a riot is a the language of the unheard," and he was of the opinion that one can't condemn riots without also condemning the social conditions, the unjust social conditions that led to the protests in the first place. And that's what the right wingers refuse to do; according to them there's no such thing as systemic racism, according to them "color-blindness" is enough to create the socioeconomic level playing-field MLK dreamed of.
Color-blindness amounts to color-ignorance or color-denial, the very opposite of what MLK propagated. It's stupid to ignore the very real consequences of America's racial history on white AND black people. Racial injustice, systemic racism and white supremacy are real, and it's never wise to close one's eyes to reality. MLK didn't, he dreamt with his eyes wide open. It's my dream that one day we all dream with our eyes AND minds wide open. Linked below is the full speech from August 28, 1963. This was not even 60 years ago, and the man still speaks of segregation; that's how fresh the memories of legal discrimination and codified racial injustice are...
Martin Luther King - I Have A Dream Speech - August 28, 1963
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