Almost 40 years have passed since Dr. King was assassinated in a cowardly act of false righteousness and as we prepare to swear in our nation's first black president, a glow of pride may emanate from our faces.
But on such an historic event, we must try not to fall into the trappings of sensationalism and eye-grabbing images of Dr. King and Mr. Obama looking venerable over the type: Dream Realized.
I will never know the joy and surely overwhelming mix of emotions that overcame a portion of the population that has been disenfranchised, terrorized and marginalized by its own countrymen, but a feeling of pride did not elude me as the voting results filled out a clear Obama victory.
The feeling of pride for me stemmed from hope realized as well. Hope that our nation was one that could look past the color of skin and into the content of a candidate's character. Hope that the creed of all men are created equal that has empowered me with so much privilege may be realized for a minority in reality and not only in theory.
However, as a great many are rejoicing over the next president, others are showing their true colors and showing us just how incongruous King's dream is from reality. Racism is still a problem, inequality is still perpetuated through negative stereotypes and images in the media and young black males are still more likely to be incarcerated than be in college.
In Austria, some scenes described by Anne-Catherine Simon of Die Presse sound like the Jim Crow South of 50 years ago - graffiti on Vienna walls saying blacks out
and textbooks that explain differences between whites and nonwhites.
Al-Qaida has also chimed in to prey on the racist fears of its listeners by describing Obama as a house negro who is carrying out the duties of his white masters, according to Cynthia Tucker of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
And in America, as a Republican Party tries to create a new image and recruit diversity, a song called Barack the Magic Negro is circulated as a joke among the party's faithful. The song depicts Barack as a non-threatening black man with which white voters are comfortable.
Certainly Barack's election should be held as a point of pride for all races in the United States, but don't keep the rose-colored glasses on for too long. There is still much work to be done, by all of us. And should a black president be considered a success without some mention of the now-underground racism in this country?
Although Dr. King's focus may have seemed to be on black and white relations, he was a human-rights advocate above all. What would King say about our almost demonization of the Hispanic population, a population that has come into this country to achieve the same satisfaction that our ancestors yearned for as they read the foot of the Statue of Liberty. What would King say about our exclusion of homosexuals into our sacred rite of marriage, a rite that has been honored so greatly in our country as to have been awarded drive-thru status.
A dream realized? Partly, but until we are able to sit down at a table of brotherhood with our fellow humans without precondition and without prejudgment and shed invective stereotypes, we may never be able to let freedom ring.
Joseph Welsh is a senior studying journalism. 4
Opinion
