April 4th 1968. The bullet killed the dreamer, but is the dream now dead?

On April 4th, 1968 Martin Luther King Was assassinated

Have we made progress toward his dream?

Well: The first thing we should ask is this: Do we really know what the dream was?

Was it Integration?

Somehow I don’t think it was that simple. I think the goal was Elevation.

Think of the times!

We were tired of being in the back of the bus
We were tired of not being able to vote
We were tired of our schools being underfunded
We were tired of our communities not being serviced or destroyed or displaced when trying to show independence!
We were tired of unchecked and unpunished police brutality where those who wore badges had almost god like power over us
We were tired of not being able to eat where we wanted
We were tired of having to be out of some areas before nightfall
We were tired of sending our men to fight in wars and coming home and still be regarded as inferior to the people we we were at war with (or worse, not even being recognized as a hero at all)
We were tired of being……less than everyone else!

THAT is what I think the dream was. What we really wanted (then and now) is to be elevated to be considered fully human.

Integration is a measuring stick of our progress, but integration alone does not tell the whole story.

I actually think the “dream” was more clearly articulated by Malcolm X, who said “We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being”

Stopping there, you would be hard pressed to convince me that MLK would disagree with this line. He likely would have been given pause to the next phrase of the speech “by any means necessary” as his method was being peaceful or non-violent.

(An aside and clarification: Malcolm X was not just “pro violence” as some have made him. He believed that black men should defend themselves and their family/community and forcefully if necessary as opposed to MLK’s approach of always turning the other cheek)

That, to me, was the dream. For this country to view black men, women, boys and girls as fully human and regarded and respected as a full citizens of the country of their birth.

If you really think about it, you could distill the whole “I have a dream speech” to be that sentence by Malcolm X (the part before “by any means necessary).

In that sense: The only real difference between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr was Methodology and Tone.

So lets go back to the dream again: Have we realized the Dream? Are we really Integrated AND Elevated to be fully human?

Not when it is estimated that one in three black men will be incarcerated at one point in their life and we do not view that as a human rights issue (oh and they are roughly 40% of the total prison population)
Not when Inner city Black kids still largely come from poorly funded schools and are expected to compete with kids from schools who are better funded
Not when our family structure is now worse than before the I have a dream speech
Not when we, in 2023, are looking at the possibility that the laws designed to protect our right to vote are under real threat
Not when in 2023. when the forces on the right say that we need to be “tough on crime” and have clearly defined who they see the criminals are.

So the answer is NO: We have not, because as MLK says in the rarely viewed video below, the country will do things about integration (and maybe a little elevation) when it does not cost anything to do it, when it costs something, THEN there is pause.

Integrating lunch counters and public accommodations costs nothing to do, in fact, that is an influx of business for restaurants and hotels
Integrating colleges cost very little to do and now that the athletic programs are integrated, the larger schools make millions with the talent that used to HAVE to go to HBCU’s

I say again: This is not a post against Integration, but rather for Elevation. I am merely pointing out that integration, in and of itself does not really bring us together. It just puts us in the same place at the same time.

Does it FEEL good to be together: Yes!
Does it REALLY bring us (as a whole) closer together: No!

On a personal note: I went to integrated (majority white) schools. I was shocked when someone I had hung out with, considered a friend, had been to each others houses called me a nword (to my face and not in a kind way) after having too many beers at a HS graduation party.

It was clear to me then that being in the same place at the same time does not make us closer, it means that we are willing to tolerate each others presence.

But….let me be clear: I think we have made great progress on the former (integration), but have a LONG way to go to get to the latter (elevation).

Because if we want to do Elevation: This will mean that this nation will have to act to elevate us when it costs them something to do it, either financially, mentally, emotionally or politically!

Or not get in the way when we endeavor to do it ourselves.

Elevation (to me) Means (Not an all inclusive list), but note all of these cost something!

Invest in programs that will stop the prison pipeline that has trapped generations of Black Men in a cycle of irrelevance (BTW: this will cost the country LOTS of well paying jobs)
Change the posture from Law Enforcement to Public Safety. That means to change the context in which they operate. Award police performance based not on the number of arrests and seizures, but on how much safer the community is. (Note: Lots of arrests is not meaning the neighborhoods are safer)
Invest in programs in inner-city schools that expose the kids to different worlds and sports. For example: Why can’t High schools in Detroit have golf teams and tennis teams?
Recruit financial institutions to invest in black-owned businesses in majority black communities. Not only will kids need to see people who look like them succeed and be available to them, but they can make a lot of money doing it.
In ALL classes (everywhere), teach ALL the children everywhere that men and women of all races contributed to making this country great! (This will cost risking the ire and fire of the “anti-woke” crowd.)

This and many other things (and the failure of this country NOT doing this) may have been the catalyst to the dreamer saying this soon after he gave his famous speech!

So the protests that go on today are not as some politicians say “they hate America”, what they are saying is we want to be treated and respecting AS American and have our ancestors respected and honored as the heroes they were, just as YOUR ancestors are!

I am still a fan of the dream and hopeful we will eventually reach to its aims. However, as MLK says, we need to get off the tranquilizing and addictive drug of gradualism.