Kevin Fobbs
Has race baiting excuses dashed Martin Luther King Jr's colorblind dream?
By Kevin Fobbs
Fifty years have passed since Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s noble "I Have a Dream" speech bellowed forth down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and into the homes of America. It was not just a speech filled with words to trigger emotions but was a set of guidelines that were meant to lift up a nation of all people to find the better angels in each American.
Each word and each sentence and passage was crafted to remind America about the fierce urgency of now and to hew out a pathway for economic justice and civil rights that would build a bridge of unity across the chasm of America's divergent cultures.
Yet fifty years later it appears that the finger pointing, and the name-calling and the segregation of the mind and of the spirit and even of the black culture in poor urban areas appears to be more separate and isolated now. Are black leaders refusing to acknowledge that the buck stops with them?
Certainly one can point to the many countless examples of African Americans being able to eat, drink, visit and even pay for accommodation in the hotels and motels across the nation as progress. But is that all that Martin Luther King wanted for all Americans?
Unfortunately, it appears that instead of lifting African Americans from poverty, and providing educational freedom and liberty from the conditions that shackled them as former slaves, in many ways the conditions have worsened. Are race-based excuse baiters covering up the real problems?
In 1963, there were more families who were headed by a father and a mother in the black community. According to the 1965 Moynihan Report in 1960 approximately eight percent of black babies were born out of wedlock. Now the percentage is 72.3 percent as of 2008.
Black children are dying in escalating numbers at the hands of young black murdering thugs. There are not being beaten by racists thugs, or by police using hoses or being lynched by the KKK. Instead, black children are being murdered by their own. Where are the marches and the outcry for the hundreds of black children that were murdered?
In the hometown of President Obama, 108 of the 500 plus murder victims were children who were murdered by blacks in Chicago in 2012.
Was that the fault of white people who were engaging in nefarious racist actions? Of course the answer is no. The real question is, have civil rights leaders been making money off of these problems by refusing to confront them? Are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton afraid to march for the black community's freedom from this murderous violence?
Why are the fear mongering and race baiters silent about telling the real truth concerning how King's Dream has gone sideways in the black community, and they are tolerating it.
King's movement of the 1950's and sixties was moved by the stirring voices and songs which uplifted a culture which had been freed from slavery a century before. His dream was played out in songs that were voiced with powerful elegance and moved listeners with poignant truth. Those melodies stirred a feeling of hope and of faith and unity that both blacks and whites and others could come together and link arms to.
Now, fifty years later, reverse racism has been used by race baiters to cover up the failings of black leadership in urban America. These leaders refuse to ask and demand more of each parent, each community leader and each person. Instead, these civil rights leaders continue to make money and profit, by keeping this and past generations mentally, spiritually and culturally shackled to an idea that responsibility for their life belongs with someone else.
Well here is a newsflash!
Responsibility does not belong with the government, nor does it belong with some imaginary white person who should be made to feel guilt ridden into accepting baggage for racism that does not exist in the 21st century. Common sense has to be given a chance to awaken in the black community so that black people can see that like the comic strip Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and it is us!"
Let a new clarion call fill the next 50 years.
Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy that all people are equally created to lift themselves up and reach for the essence of the American Dream.
Now is the time to retreat from blame, from excuses, from finger pointing, and from rap singers that destroy the images of black women and black culture.
Now is the time to call out the thugs who murder and steal the selfhood and decency of black families and black children.
Now is the time to take back Rev. Martin Luther's King Dream that it is God who is in charge of the dream and it is his strength that can help direct the delivery, not the government.
Now is the time to remove the yoke of liberalism which stains the brain of black America with the idea that the injustices of the past control the future destiny of black people. The shadow of a racist past in America is not the nation of 2013.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave an interesting perspective on his feeling about fighting for Civil Rights during the turbulent days of the late 1950's. He said, "I'm tired of being tired."
Well, Americans of all colors are also tired of being tired. America is tired of having its citizens being discounted, diminished, and dismissed because of the sins of the father being placed on the backs of the sons and daughters if they are white.
America is tired of hyphenated Americans, where there is a need to say white, black, Hispanic, Asian, German, Irish American and the list goes on and on. The nation needs to embrace a reset on Rev. King's Dream. This new dream is for the next 50 years and beyond.
"This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father's died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" Martin Luther King Jr.
In 2063 – Let the nation celebrate an American Dream that is colorblind, that is centered on a caring loving God and embraces a nation as Rev. King said so eloquently in his speech, where "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers," as one America.
(What Do You Think? )
© Kevin Fobbs
August 29, 2013
Fifty years have passed since Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s noble "I Have a Dream" speech bellowed forth down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and into the homes of America. It was not just a speech filled with words to trigger emotions but was a set of guidelines that were meant to lift up a nation of all people to find the better angels in each American.
Each word and each sentence and passage was crafted to remind America about the fierce urgency of now and to hew out a pathway for economic justice and civil rights that would build a bridge of unity across the chasm of America's divergent cultures.
Yet fifty years later it appears that the finger pointing, and the name-calling and the segregation of the mind and of the spirit and even of the black culture in poor urban areas appears to be more separate and isolated now. Are black leaders refusing to acknowledge that the buck stops with them?
Certainly one can point to the many countless examples of African Americans being able to eat, drink, visit and even pay for accommodation in the hotels and motels across the nation as progress. But is that all that Martin Luther King wanted for all Americans?
Unfortunately, it appears that instead of lifting African Americans from poverty, and providing educational freedom and liberty from the conditions that shackled them as former slaves, in many ways the conditions have worsened. Are race-based excuse baiters covering up the real problems?
In 1963, there were more families who were headed by a father and a mother in the black community. According to the 1965 Moynihan Report in 1960 approximately eight percent of black babies were born out of wedlock. Now the percentage is 72.3 percent as of 2008.
Black children are dying in escalating numbers at the hands of young black murdering thugs. There are not being beaten by racists thugs, or by police using hoses or being lynched by the KKK. Instead, black children are being murdered by their own. Where are the marches and the outcry for the hundreds of black children that were murdered?
In the hometown of President Obama, 108 of the 500 plus murder victims were children who were murdered by blacks in Chicago in 2012.
Was that the fault of white people who were engaging in nefarious racist actions? Of course the answer is no. The real question is, have civil rights leaders been making money off of these problems by refusing to confront them? Are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton afraid to march for the black community's freedom from this murderous violence?
Why are the fear mongering and race baiters silent about telling the real truth concerning how King's Dream has gone sideways in the black community, and they are tolerating it.
King's movement of the 1950's and sixties was moved by the stirring voices and songs which uplifted a culture which had been freed from slavery a century before. His dream was played out in songs that were voiced with powerful elegance and moved listeners with poignant truth. Those melodies stirred a feeling of hope and of faith and unity that both blacks and whites and others could come together and link arms to.
Now, fifty years later, reverse racism has been used by race baiters to cover up the failings of black leadership in urban America. These leaders refuse to ask and demand more of each parent, each community leader and each person. Instead, these civil rights leaders continue to make money and profit, by keeping this and past generations mentally, spiritually and culturally shackled to an idea that responsibility for their life belongs with someone else.
Well here is a newsflash!
Responsibility does not belong with the government, nor does it belong with some imaginary white person who should be made to feel guilt ridden into accepting baggage for racism that does not exist in the 21st century. Common sense has to be given a chance to awaken in the black community so that black people can see that like the comic strip Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and it is us!"
Let a new clarion call fill the next 50 years.
Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy that all people are equally created to lift themselves up and reach for the essence of the American Dream.
Now is the time to retreat from blame, from excuses, from finger pointing, and from rap singers that destroy the images of black women and black culture.
Now is the time to call out the thugs who murder and steal the selfhood and decency of black families and black children.
Now is the time to take back Rev. Martin Luther's King Dream that it is God who is in charge of the dream and it is his strength that can help direct the delivery, not the government.
Now is the time to remove the yoke of liberalism which stains the brain of black America with the idea that the injustices of the past control the future destiny of black people. The shadow of a racist past in America is not the nation of 2013.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave an interesting perspective on his feeling about fighting for Civil Rights during the turbulent days of the late 1950's. He said, "I'm tired of being tired."
Well, Americans of all colors are also tired of being tired. America is tired of having its citizens being discounted, diminished, and dismissed because of the sins of the father being placed on the backs of the sons and daughters if they are white.
America is tired of hyphenated Americans, where there is a need to say white, black, Hispanic, Asian, German, Irish American and the list goes on and on. The nation needs to embrace a reset on Rev. King's Dream. This new dream is for the next 50 years and beyond.
"This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father's died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" Martin Luther King Jr.
In 2063 – Let the nation celebrate an American Dream that is colorblind, that is centered on a caring loving God and embraces a nation as Rev. King said so eloquently in his speech, where "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers," as one America.
(What Do You Think? )
© Kevin Fobbs
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