The Corruption of #MLK’s Dream

When the Photoshopped image of Martin Luther King in a Trayvon-esque hoodie started to make the rounds on Twitter and other social media the other day, I was appalled.

But it got me to thinking…

If we were to somehow reanimate MLK from some futuristic Cryo-chamber and let him wander the country again, I have a feeling he’d be extremely disheartened by what he saw. First of all, I highly doubt that he would endorse his visage in the hoodie, an impression shared by his niece, Alveda King.

Secondly, Dr. King might sorely be tempted to conclude (in direct contrast to his oft-repeated dream) that racism today was to blame for seemingly every failing of our proud nation. 

The Zimmerman trial alone would have made that crystal clear, especially if he were unlucky enough to be stuck in a hotel that only offered him MSNBC. But the racial circus surrounding the death of Trayvon Martin barely scratches the surface; many more examples abound which would reinforce his initial perception.

For instance, he’d be told that:

• implicit racism is at the heart of the Immigration debate,
• that somehow employer’s background checks are racist,
• that if you allegedly uttered a racial comment two generations ago you should be branded with a Scarlet “R” on your chest,
• that the bulk of our nation’s laws are inherently racist,
• that opponents of Obamacare are obviously racists,
• that selling dried-out asparagus in some neighborhoods (??) is now considered racist,
• and that even requiring a Voter ID is racist.

But if I were sitting with Dr. King in that imaginary hotel room, I’d tell him that race in the U.S.A. has predominantly become a cudgel which one sector of the populace (liberals/Democrats) uses to beat another sector (Conservatives/Tea Partiers/Republicans).

For evidence, please refer to my list above. 

Does racism still exist, both here and around the world? Sadly, yes. But throughout World History it always has and, to one extent or another, it likely always will.

A less obvious observation, and one never even whispered by the MSM, is that despite (or maybe BECAUSE of) the pandering and blathering by many on the Left, it seems that Caucasians are not viewed by the Man On The Street as the ones with the primary problem with race. According to a recent Rasmussen Reports poll, even the black population thinks that blacks are more racist than whites.

From the Washington Times:  

“Rasmussen found in its national telephone survey that 37 percent of U.S. adults believe blacks are racist, compared to 15 percent and 18 percent regarding whites and Hispanics, respectively, as racist. The report stipulated that the respondents were asked about ethnic groups in America, not around the world.

Among black Americans, 31 percent think most blacks are racist, while 24 percent consider most whites racist and 15 percent view most Hispanics that way. Among white adults, 10 percent think most white Americans are racist, 38 percent believe most blacks are racist and 17 percent say most Hispanics are racist.”

Is this true? Who knows? But it certainly puts the lie to the Media’s bleating that day-to-day racism is a “whites-only” issue:

I don’t pretend to hold the answers here. Such a complex, multifaceted issue will not be solved by a single blog post, or even a raft of them. But nor will it be solved or even marginally helped by the constant haranguing by the Race Hustlers in our society for us all to become more “aware” of racism.

Holy heck, sometimes it seems that race is the ONLY thing of which we’re aware.

No, we don’t need more “awareness”. What is needed is more honesty. What we need to do is focus on our commonalities as people, and as Americans. What’s needed is the freedom to IGNORE our racial differences, in order that we might get past them.

Because only when we don’t care what our differences are can we ever truly fulfill Dr. King’s dream of a color-blind society.

Sadly, as we’ve just seen throughout the Zimmerman trial and the predictable pontificating which has followed it, that’s not going to happen anytime soon.