Lets take a moment to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A man who literally sacrificed his life for a people that were in a time of need.
This is the man responsible for being the face of the Civil Rights Movement. A time where it was okay and basically the law to separate one another based of the pigment of your skin. But it was also a time where Black Americans did not sit around while being treated unjustly.
NOBEL MICHAEL
This was a time where we all shared a dream. A dream to be greater than our oppressors claimed us to be. A dream that Dr. King profoundly described on the steps of Lincoln Memorial. But lets be honest, after over 50 years since this great man’s hard work, does his “dream” exist?
Yes, we may celebrate a day President Ronald Reagan signed into federal law in 1983 to honor of Dr. King after they assassinated him on April 4, 1968, but how do we honor him?
We can vote just like he dreamed, we can walk together side by side just like he said, we can even use the same toilet!!! But how do we celebrate this dream that so called came true?
When we see injustice in the world, do we take the slightest motive to make a change like our grandparents during their prime?
We may make hash tags such as “BlackLivesMatter” and like a few pictures to show support, but that is hardly being aware of the true problem at hand.
We may say “f*** the police” and “Don’t vote for Trump” but what are we truly doing to stop the issue. When we protest and march society views us as nothing more than disgruntled citizens that to many should not be citizens at all.
We must take action to change legislation that allows the police officers and prosecutors to treat us unjustly and get away with it. Instead of complaining about politics, go vote! Because if you did not know, Dr. King fought for your right to vote as well. Or even better set up a proposition that supports your community.
We have the ability to do this. We are all capable of giving ourselves a better life but we are waiting for an MLK or Malcolm X or any other Black Leader to tell us what to do. Have you all forgotten that most of these leaders were in their early twenties.
We are the leaders, we are the change we seek, we are just too lazy and ignorant and cowardly to come together and make real changes in the world. We would rather sit idly by and complain and talk about what we want to do. Because of this we will experience mothers crying over lost children, Black communities being destroyed from corporate control, shady politicians, and what we call today “racism”.
Yes, everything Dr. King and everyone that put an effort in during that time came to pass. Believe it or not we are not as unequal to our “oppressors” as we think.
The quarrel is we like to play the victims instead of taking time out to fix our dilemmas.
So yes, the dream does exist, its well and alive. But the only reason the “dream” still exists is because we refuse to wake up!
Nobel Michael is a senior mass communication major from Lancaster, California.