Last week, during the segment I host every Friday on NPR's
Tell Me More with Michel Martin, we spent some time putting the
dream of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into perspective. However, we didn't
have time to acknowledge the varied degrees of dream interpretation. How far
you think we've come depends largely on the generational ideologies that make
up your world-view. For my part, I've always looked at the legacy of the civil
rights movement with a certain cynicism—the Civil Rights Generation would rather
wield the baton as a rod
of correction rather than pass it on. They want to re-hash, re-live,
re-package and mass-market The Dream.
The Hip-Hop Generation wants to move forward.
I think The Dream for many white folks is the ability
to do something meaningful with white privilege to nullify disparity in the
social construct and indemnify black folks into alliances of convenience. We
call these white folks "liberals" and while they often have the best
intentions, their dreams make me nervous.
With the black bourgeoisie holed up in the suburbs and
white folks trying to gate themselves in, I'd argue that we've gone backwards:
we know more about each other, and like each other even less. If The
Dream was about making systemic changes and abolishing laws that bolster
discrimination, then I have to say 'mission accomplished'. But if The Dream it
involved changing the attitudes of and behaviors of people in general, I'm
gonna have to say ...dream on.
When you sit back and look at things, how far have we
come, really?
