ON THIS DAY

One of the things that has struck - and irked - me throughout the discussions of Obama's ascension has been the all-too-frequent invocation of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech. Hey - I get it: it's a touchstone, transcendent moment in American history (or at least, has been made into one). Heck, when I was in 3rd grade, each of my classmates was assigned the task of reciting a great speech from American history and somehow, I ended up with "I Have a Dream" (note: some adult drew MLK's mustache on me but thankfully, no burnt cork!) so it's certainly been part of my life now for nearly 30 years.

However, it wasn't until I was considerably older that I had a better understanding of the context of Dr. King's comments, especially against the backdrop of his life's work. And when you understand that, it's a little hard to stomach when people (*cough cough* Samuel Jackson) say things on the step of the Lincoln Memorial such as "Dr. King's dream has now been realized/come to pass." Some variation on this refrain has been made countless times since election day and every single time, I wonder which "dream" of Dr. King's they were speaking of since I'm fairly certain "getting a Black person elected President" was not mentioned on August 23, 1963.

To quote:

"There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

This is part of what Dr. King meant by his dreams and aspirations for America. Some have come to pass - at least legally (though not necessarily in practice) - such as the desegregation of lodging. But one only needs to look at the murder of Oscar Grant and countless other examples of Black and Brown bodies under assault by police violence to know we haven't reached the promised land yet. The social mobility of African Americans - as a community - is still largely marginalized, even if specific individuals are exceptions to that rule (Obama being the most obvious example). And while the "For Whites Only" signs have come down, it doesn't stand to reason that alone means self-hood and dignity has been restored along with it.

Obviously, I can't speak for Dr. King but I think it's safe to assume that he would have seen Obama's election as a deeply meaningful step forward in the emancipation of a nation; not just for Blacks but for all peoples. However, that would not have been the fulfillment of his dream. Obama's election is symbolic - at least right now. Time will only tell if it's transformative for our nation as a whole and it's that transformation that is absolutely, irrevocably key to the "Dream" speech. So yes, it is a marvel to consider that tomorrow, the day after MLK's birthday, a Black man will be sworn in as President. I revel in that historic moment. But it's a small step in a larger movement that has yet to be fulfilled; that is far, far, far from being fulfilled.

That whole vision of "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers" can't be read into Obama's election. Far from how it's been spun, his election cannot be read as absolute proof of the transcendence of racial attitudes or resistance; as I tried to stress a few months ago, Obama's lost the White vote nationally (as has every Democratic candidate since LBJ). What has fundamentally changed in America since the 1960s isn't necessarily racial attitudes - it's demographics and that has as much to do with Obama's victory as any major shifts in beliefs or prejudices.

But I don't want to dwell on this.

On this day to celebrate MLK's life and work, the speech that comes most to mind isn't Dr. King's "I Have a Speech" but another, strikingly entitled sermon from 1957, "The Birth of a New Nation." He wasn't being merely symbolic but literal; much of the sermon was a condensed history of Ghana, given that it had just declared independence that year. Within that history, Dr. King extracted several allegories that he felt was relevant for Americans to appreciate. To quote a short excerpt that seems especially apropos for our current moment:

"There is a great day ahead. The future is on its side. It’s going now through the wilderness, but the Promised Land is ahead.

And I want to take just a few more minutes as I close to say three or four things that this reminds us of and things that it says to us—things that we must never forget as we ourselves find ourselves breaking aloose from an evil Egypt, trying to move through the wilderness toward the promised land of cultural integration. Ghana has something to say to us. It says to us first that the oppressor never voluntarily gives freedom to the oppressed. You have to work for it. And if Nkrumah and the people of the Gold Coast had not stood up persistently, revolting against the system, it would still be a colony of the British Empire. Freedom is never given to anybody, for the oppressor has you in domination because he plans to keep you there, and he never voluntarily gives it up. And that is where the strong resistance comes. Privileged classes never give up their privileges without strong resistance.

So don’t go out this morning with any illusions. Don’t go back into your homes and around Montgomery thinking that the Montgomery City Commission and that all of the forces in the leadership of the South will eventually work out this thing for Negroes, it’s going to work out; it’s going to roll in on the wheels of inevitability. If we wait for it to work itself out, it will never be worked out. Freedom only comes through persistent revolt, through persistent agitation, through persistently rising up against the system of evil. The bus protest is just the beginning. Buses are integrated in Montgomery, but that is just the beginning. And don’t sit down and do nothing now because the buses are integrated, because, if you stop now, we will be in the dungeons of segregation and discrimination for another hundred years, and our children and our children’s children will suffer all of the bondage that we have lived under for years. It never comes voluntarily. We’ve got to keep on keeping on in order to gain freedom. It never comes like that. It would be fortunate if the people in power had sense enough to go on and give up, but they don’t do it like that. It is not done voluntarily, but it is done through the pressure that comes about from people who are oppressed.."

Lastly, some brief words from Dr. King's "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, delivered days before his assassination in Memphis:

Let us rise up tongith with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge, to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation."

--O.W.