MLK Day Reflection: Are we living the Dream?
MLK Day Reflection: Are we Living his Dream?
MLK Day is a day we celebrate the legacy and inspiration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a Civil Rights leader that used non-violent approaches in attempts to eradicate racism in the United States of America. Today we use this day to reflect, strategize, and work the changes for all humans. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was more than this beloved character, token standard, and activist that made White liberals feel safe to finally say shit to challenge the status quo. He was portrayed as a communist & trader, criticized for his methods & actions, and beaten, imprisoned, and then assassinated for his achievements. To me he was a “Savage” genius of a leader attacking the mind with facts, tenacity, and relentless action to change then present-day times & futures. Many people only find the content of the famed I Have A Dream speech to quote and live by as it spoke to the figments of a reality that could be. Only to use it to antagonize and compare to other leaders (then & now) that spoke of the reality they could not deny. He had other works and led more movements inspired more. In this article you are being permissed to read my reflections, opinions, and challenges.
Dr. King wrote a response to critics titled Letters from Birmingham Jail (which was written in margins of a newspaper) reaming the clergy and others that dared to criticize reasoning, ‘it is not the right time for these movements.’ Their intent was to be held in regards as heroes to their parishioners without execution to challenge, awaken, or guide them of their faults and conduction/acceptance of inhuman treatment of others that will lead to damnation.
Dr. King knew that the Civil Rights Movements were only winning the fictitious awards of integration and not the liberation that was truly desired by the people. He knew the power that he exudes was needed in the capacity of the next movement which was economic and would lead to his assassination; the Poor People’s Campaign (goals of full employment, guaranteed income, and decent housing). He had the following, attention, and proven strategies that will disfigure, dismember, dismantle, the taught mastery of everything (as some believed they had/have because of wealth, race, lineage, and other factors that weren’t/aren’t earned), because of that he was not only a threat but a promise that change was going to deliberately be obtained.
Dr. King was not alone; they tokenized some leaders, excommunicated, & assassinated others. No wonder why the movements ceased, and dream deferred occurred. It was systematic and deliberate acts pushed and terrorized the momentum and progress. Dr. King’s Dream that he spoke of is not achieved. White guilt and serving in the inner-city does not mean you’ve ascended to making the dream true, nor does you gentrifying and placing the value of convenience above the lives of the people that live their whole life in those communities. To speak bluntly that is the nightmare and evolution of the reality that time. You cannot just throw money at a non-profit and sleep thinking you’ve done your part. You cannot deny that existence of the non-profit exemplifies capitalizing on deficits, disenfranchisement, and undereducation just as much as all other entities that aren’t built and supported by the tenants & residents that live there. You ain’t shit if all you’ve done is create or settle for a narrative that produces micro acts as the surroundings crumble even further.
When I’m asked about reflecting on MLK Day I can only respond; that many treat it as a bullshit Holliday where they go serve hand in hand with other races and nationalities all the while they’ll return to MAGAist privileged communities feeling better because for a solitary moment they felt they released prejudice, fell into anti-racism, and fellowshipped in CONTENT and CHRACTER. Unbenounced their shadow bares imagery of those watching that strange fruit hanging from those poplar trees, or those that persecuted Dr. King because they didn’t like the reflection looking back at them from merely hearing his words. That conclusion is made because many refuses to entertain dialogue about Race as if its existence disappears by ignoring it. We must put the needle back on to the playing record and finish hearing the song play. The aspect when it is left unfinished it then we miss the best part (its totality). As humans’ mistakes, decisions, and failures all have atonements that must be made.
For those that want to argue or want to placate that I am wrong for challenging the narrative that we are post racial and are living the Dream shared I welcome you to. Before you respond ask yourself about; the last 12years and its resurgence of OVERT racism, in 2020 the passage of the Crown Act/ Protesting the lack of prosecution of murders wearing a badge/ protestors being assaulted, captured, rights infringed upon, labeled as rioter/ Declaration of Civil War on the premise of election result made by bigoted people/ Surge of deaths in communities of minorities because healthcare could not meet the demands, and 2021 terrorist insurgence of the Capitol with minute casualties; its access to the Capitol; allowed comparison to Black Lives Matter protest to justify its existence? Here we are five plus decades later two-three generations later fighting the same fight. If you cannot refute those then please do me a favor and fight harder for us all.
Dr. King, youth of the time, and many other leaders made the blueprint with a non-physical violent approach that conducted movements; that were televised to the world and showed USA’s truth, all the while giving tokens and glimpse to a Dream that won’t happen until every system is dismantled and built lifetimes away from now. Those giants whose shoulders I stand on, I honor and appreciate you. Thank You. The present leaders in the USA: If you really want what’s professed then give land back to the Indigenous as promised in treaties, reparations to Blacks for the holocaust of enslavement, welcome immigrants with opportunity NOT Cages, and end poverty: by employment, cost of living wages, and quality housing. “The opposition of poverty is not wealth but justice. We must use justice to dismantle this system that allows poverty to exist. (Bryan Stevenson CY (City Year) Summer Academy ‘17).” This Justice is achieved through reflection and action. Reflecting on our part within the system whether it be complacency or comfort. Acting deliberately to dismantle it as we must bring harmony to unity and peace we long to achieve. Let today be the catalyst. Give me liberty or give me death; we are all dying so can we get that liberty?
