Friday, April 4, 2008
A Dilemma: King's Dream vs. the American Dream
In 1892, Mary Elizabeth Lease a leader in the Populist Party said: "Money rules . . . The parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us!" In 1968, Dr. Martin King, Jr. emphasized that because American political leaders continue to mislead Black America the civil rights movement had " to confront America's domestic crisis, to make everyone "face the fact America is a racist country. . ." (David Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p.609). Mary Lease shouted across the Mid-West, "raise less corn, raise more hell," and King traversed the South shouting that America had given Blacks a bounced check, and that Black people were the conscience of the nation. In socio-political terms both Lease and King were saying the same thing, which is: "The politics of them that rule don't care about the plight of poor farmers, poor blacks or poor Whites. Mary Lease hoped that the People's Party would be the answer, and Martin King hoped that the Poor People's Campaign would be the answer. But the truth is: Money still rules in America, and the political leaders still mislead us, and the parties still lie to us.
Today, White America still owes an "open apology" to Black America. The efforts of Whites who marched, suffered beatings and death to stand with their Black brothers cannot atone for the nation's consistent denial that the racial degradation of an entire ethnic people who worked without compensation to build the fortunes of Southern and Northern Whites.
The forgiveness sought by John Mccain at the National Civil Rights Museum was given to him in the spirit of King who often said that Blacks were the soul of the nation and America's conscience. But McCain's feeble apology of admitting he was wrong to vote "no" on the King's memorial holiday bill, fell flat in the light of the 3 weeks of continual disparaging of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. An "open" apology for slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, and segregation will be the only way of purging the guilt and hatred that still exists.
But what Mary Lease and Martin King both alluded to in their campaigns for justice was that America's political system favors the rich, and the American Dream depends on individualism and opportunity. Yet, what these two different types of leaders understood was that the poor could never take advantage of America's Dream unless some rich benefactor in Washington financed that dream. They articulated America's dilemma-stand on "equality for all" while limiting opportunities to a few that could afford it. In short, march and demonstrate, but raise more hell.
Six years before he was murdered in cold blood, King gave an address to the National Press Club, which served as the basis for a final sermon entitled "Unfulfilled Dreams." In that address, King said: "We feel that we are the conscience of America--we are its troubled soul--we will continue to insist that right be done because both God's will and the heritage of our nation speak through our echoing demands. We are simply seeking to bring into full realization the American dream--a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity . . . a dream of a land where men no longer argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character . . ."
(James Washington, ed., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., p.105)
One of King's sermons entitled "Shattered Dreams" illustrated the frustrations of Black people similar to that of the Apostle Paul as illustrated in Romans 15:28. Anyone who ever faced the "agony of blasted hopes" and longed for freedom but remained oppressed and degraded, could understand Paul's frustration of wanting to preach in Spain only to be disappointed (See Richard Lischer's Preacher King p, 105).
In 1968, King preached his last sermon entitled, "Unfulfilled Dreams," which mirrored the ideas of his "Shattered Dreams." Lischer rightly concerns with the Memphians who attended that last service that King's sermon was not about an individual disappointment or the Negro people's but about "King's own failure to build a kingdom of racial harmony in America" (Lischer, p. 107) King's dream had crumpled; it had meant the hard flinty rock wall of White prejudice, and because his Christian committment gave him no choice of violence, he lamented in no uncertain terms his shattered dreams.
King had come full circle, and the prejudice and injustice of White America had succeeded in creating a non-violent Martin who was drawing closer to the thinking of Malcolm. The half-hearted apology of John McCain, and the rhetoric of "Compassionate Conservatism" of George Bush and Rush Limbaugh, could not and cannot purge the guilt from the conscience of America. And this is what the Whites who support Barack Obama is seeing and experiencing. The catharsis of the mind and spirit and the uplifting of the conscience of Whites who support a Black to become a Presidential nominee is drawing closer to King's Black-White theme.
This movement led by Obama is the ultimate conclusion of a dream that was shattered 40 years ago. And just in case you, the reader, have missed the biblical typology, let me remind you that Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery and in the desert for 40 years; but it took a Joshua, a second Moses to lead them into the promise land. But don't stop there, for there is one who is the New Moses, who will lead God's children into the Heavenly Canaan . . . and that is what King saw from the Mountaintop.
For What it's Worth . . .
BlackProfessor
Today, White America still owes an "open apology" to Black America. The efforts of Whites who marched, suffered beatings and death to stand with their Black brothers cannot atone for the nation's consistent denial that the racial degradation of an entire ethnic people who worked without compensation to build the fortunes of Southern and Northern Whites.
The forgiveness sought by John Mccain at the National Civil Rights Museum was given to him in the spirit of King who often said that Blacks were the soul of the nation and America's conscience. But McCain's feeble apology of admitting he was wrong to vote "no" on the King's memorial holiday bill, fell flat in the light of the 3 weeks of continual disparaging of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. An "open" apology for slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, and segregation will be the only way of purging the guilt and hatred that still exists.
But what Mary Lease and Martin King both alluded to in their campaigns for justice was that America's political system favors the rich, and the American Dream depends on individualism and opportunity. Yet, what these two different types of leaders understood was that the poor could never take advantage of America's Dream unless some rich benefactor in Washington financed that dream. They articulated America's dilemma-stand on "equality for all" while limiting opportunities to a few that could afford it. In short, march and demonstrate, but raise more hell.
Six years before he was murdered in cold blood, King gave an address to the National Press Club, which served as the basis for a final sermon entitled "Unfulfilled Dreams." In that address, King said: "We feel that we are the conscience of America--we are its troubled soul--we will continue to insist that right be done because both God's will and the heritage of our nation speak through our echoing demands. We are simply seeking to bring into full realization the American dream--a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity . . . a dream of a land where men no longer argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character . . ."
(James Washington, ed., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., p.105)
One of King's sermons entitled "Shattered Dreams" illustrated the frustrations of Black people similar to that of the Apostle Paul as illustrated in Romans 15:28. Anyone who ever faced the "agony of blasted hopes" and longed for freedom but remained oppressed and degraded, could understand Paul's frustration of wanting to preach in Spain only to be disappointed (See Richard Lischer's Preacher King p, 105).
In 1968, King preached his last sermon entitled, "Unfulfilled Dreams," which mirrored the ideas of his "Shattered Dreams." Lischer rightly concerns with the Memphians who attended that last service that King's sermon was not about an individual disappointment or the Negro people's but about "King's own failure to build a kingdom of racial harmony in America" (Lischer, p. 107) King's dream had crumpled; it had meant the hard flinty rock wall of White prejudice, and because his Christian committment gave him no choice of violence, he lamented in no uncertain terms his shattered dreams.
King had come full circle, and the prejudice and injustice of White America had succeeded in creating a non-violent Martin who was drawing closer to the thinking of Malcolm. The half-hearted apology of John McCain, and the rhetoric of "Compassionate Conservatism" of George Bush and Rush Limbaugh, could not and cannot purge the guilt from the conscience of America. And this is what the Whites who support Barack Obama is seeing and experiencing. The catharsis of the mind and spirit and the uplifting of the conscience of Whites who support a Black to become a Presidential nominee is drawing closer to King's Black-White theme.
This movement led by Obama is the ultimate conclusion of a dream that was shattered 40 years ago. And just in case you, the reader, have missed the biblical typology, let me remind you that Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery and in the desert for 40 years; but it took a Joshua, a second Moses to lead them into the promise land. But don't stop there, for there is one who is the New Moses, who will lead God's children into the Heavenly Canaan . . . and that is what King saw from the Mountaintop.
For What it's Worth . . .
BlackProfessor
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