A brief re-visit to a dream...
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. --Dr. Martin Luther King
I really know very little about Dr. King beyond what I read in the papers and heard on the evening news and the occasional biography or expose. Then I read this sentence one more time not too long ago and it finally hit me just how deep and profound his thinking must have been. It's because of the last phrase, "by the content of their character." The civil rights movement, as I have always understood it, seemed to focus almost exclusively on the prior part of the statement and with good reason, I suppose. So many people have been (and still are) judged by the color of their skin, it would seem to be enough--if not a blessing from Heaven--to realize just this much.
As grand as the realization of just this much of the dream would be, I do not believe that this was nearly the whole of Dr. King's point when he said this. I believe that his point was his dream that his children (and by inference, all people) be judged "by the content of their character." Think about this. This was the leader of the Civil Rights Movement talking about his dream for all people, not just "persons of color".
By the best of my thinking, it wasn't necessary to "go this far" to get his point across. By the best of my recollection, no one has ever seemed to focus on these few words and their importance. They seem to have just quietly waited on the sideline, as it were, to be recognized for their profound importance and, I believe, as the next step in the evolution of Civil Rights. I believe that a person who is able to rise to the prominence that Dr. King achieved would be a thoughtful and deliberate person and that such a person would not include words in a speech of this importance without carefully thinking it through. I think these words were not necessary to make his case for civil rights. So, I think their inclusion must have been deliberate and so the sentence was meant to mean exactly what it says.
Look again at the first part of the sentence. It mentions only the children. No hint of a hope that such a thing could occur for the parents. I would agree. Racism, one of the great meaningless terms in human history, will live on for a few generations more and then it will be gone. Why am I so sure? Because it only makes sense.
Anyway, these are the things that went through my head when I finally really read his speech for the first time. It was (and still is) a breath-taking revelation for me. That must have been an awesome, electrifying day. I wish I could have been there. Then again, maybe not...
- posted by Zeeper @ 11:59 PM
