Are we living up to the dream?

It’s been 50 years since one of the greatest speakers to ever walk American soil delivered the speech that changed society.

It’s the speech we’ve studied in English class more than Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. I still have no idea what “four score and seven years” translates into, but I know MLK was a hyperbolizing, metaphor slamming master.

On Aug. 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.

He explained that years after Lincoln’s hard work, African-Americans were still being abused. He told us that blacks were being denied opportunities. We were owed our “unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

We deserved justice. We demanded equality. We wanted acceptance. We want the same respect as the white man! Can I get an amen?

Okay, I got a bit carried away there.

Anyway, King expressed his dreams of justice and equality. He described a world of acceptance and respect between all races. I think it’s time for a progress check.

Fifty years later, has King’s dream come true?

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”

I’m allowed to share a bus seat up front with my white friend. Check.

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

Well, my elementary librarian’s grandparent’s had slaves, but I never minded her reading to me. Does that count?

“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

Ugh — that’s a work in progress.

“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.”

They all became respected leaders of activist groups. Check.

“I have a dream that one day in Alabama ... little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

We don’t hold hands, but I hang out with my white cousins in Alabama twice a year. Check.

“I have a dream that” — I need to paraphrase this one.

King’s final dream is that faith will bind humans together and “with this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

I work with almost all white people. Check.

I’ve prayed with people of other colors. Check.

I struggled through finite with people of all ethnicities. Check.

Prisons don’t segregate anymore. Check.

You see all sorts of different people at gay rights rallies. Check.

Overall, I think we’ve come pretty far. There’s no denying that racism still exists in certain areas. However, the majority of the country has welcomed King’s dream.

We’re always changing, and hopefully in another 50 years, the idea that race was ever such a big deal will be another silly mar in human history.  

­— lnbanks@indiana.edu
You can follow columnist Lexia Banks on Twitter @LexiaBanks