[img]2033|right|Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.||no_popup[/img]In denouncing the George Zimmerman verdict, civil rights leaders ignore the improved race relations in this country. Instead of telling people the truth of African Americans’ improved lives, opportunities and standing, black leaders like the Rev. Al Sharpton lie bluntly. While the violent Stokely Carmichael and his Black Panther packs have been neutered, the Rev. Jesse Jackson still rages about racism, ignoring the causes that engender the disgraceful pathologies in poor, black communities – unwed motherhood, widespread absence of adult males, orphaned black children, and resistance to reforms like school vouchers and free market principles that would allow African Americans to thrive instead of barely survive.
Thankfully, black ministers are calling out their communities for succumbing to race-based victimization in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict. Pastor Ken Hutcherson of Kirkland, WA, reprimanded blacks for seeing the world “through their black eyes instead of the blood of Jesus” In a more controversial turn, Dr. James David Manning of Harlem, who calls President Obama “pure, unadulterated evil,” believes black people should stop blaming others for their own failures.
Instead of blunt lies, black eyes, and fiery rhetoric, what would Dr. King say? I Imagine Dr. King at the Lincoln Memorial, sharing his insights and indictments toward those who incite racial animus, then recognize how far our country has come.
One month before the golden anniversary of his I Have a Dream speech, here is what I dream Dr. King would deliver today:
Taking a Stand
“I have a dream that African Americans would not jump to conclusions of racism and prejudice when blacks are criminally indicted or victimized. While the national press claims that Florida's Stand Your Ground law is the new segregation and contributed to the murder of young Trayvon, the autopsy and medical reports conclude that Stand Your Ground had no standing in the case. Either Zimmerman was profiling the young man, as prosecutors argued, or Trayvon attacked the neighborhood watchdog enough to bloody his nose and wound the back of his head.
“I have a dream that black people would embrace the present realities compared to yesterday, that African American children will learn the truth about how far we have come, even if Zimmerman had indeed profiled young Trayvon.
“Remember the Scottsboro Boys, nine young African American men who were accused of raping a white slattern with a loose reputation and looser relationship with the truth. A white judge set aside their first guilty verdict, since he knew that the all-white jury was racially motivated to convict them. In the second trial, a white lawyer from New York, Sam Lebowitz, rose to the Scottsboro Boys’ defense. He refused to give up even though the culture and the politics of the time were dead-set against him.
“I have a dream that black children would see that justice eventually has its day, despite blatant wrongdoing and cover-up. The murder of Emmett Till of Mississippi, the fifteen-year old whose whistling induced white supremacists to slay him, would today witness his murderers on trial. ‘Justice delayed is justice denied,’ and ‘ An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.’ At least today young Till is getting the trial that he deserved, and so did Trayvon Martin.
“I have a dream that African Americans would recognize that the death of a black person gets a fair trial today, whereas in years past, lynching a black man, or any minority, was commonplace, almost never prosecuted in the South. I hope that black people will recall that another black man, O.J. Simpson, faced prosecution for murder. He was exonerated despite vocal (non-violent) protests that followed.
Shun Violence
“I have a dream that black people will recall that peaceful protest accomplishes more than virulence or violence. Two boycotts in the early 1900s failed to end segregation on Southern bus lines. But when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, we refused to give up commanding respect. Enacting non-violent measures against de jure segregation in the South, the Southern Baptist Christian League successfully joined forces with white civil rights leaders. The 1955 bus boycott crippled state-sponsored segregation.
“I have a dream that black people would learn the real causes of discrimination, the state, and no longer look to the government to right all the wrongs of the past or to blame the system for our country’s current evils. It was government that promoted Jim Crow. It is the state that today puts blacks in their place, encouraging single parenthood, government welfare, sclerotic public education.
“I have a dream that black children would learn the truth about their past, rather than reading and rehearsing racial grievance, which cannot take a man out of the pit of self and state-sponsored dependence.
“I have a dream that black children will follow the examples of black statesmen, including President Obama. They thrive in spite of prejudice that still is with us, since the evil in men’s hearts cannot be eradicated by laws.”
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A lifelong Southern California resident, he currently lives in Torrance.
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