I have the day off of School today for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, and this article showed up in my facebook feed today, so I've been thinking about Dr. King, and his legacy for me, as a millenial, white Canadian living in the United States. This speech is possibly one of the best known speeches of the 20th century. Dr. King, and this speech (which from what I have read today, was almost forgotten by the time he died) are intrinsically linked together, inseparable even.
I am white. Specifically, I am a mixture of German, Ukranian, Irish, English, Scottish, and possibly even some Spanish or Portuguese thrown in there somewhere (the cod fishery in Newfoundland drew in a lot of people from a lot of places). But these are not who I am - I am an Eastern Canadian, and that is how I culturally identify. Being from where I am from comes with its hardships, but generally, I have lived a life with many advantages thanks to my parents, who have always done their best to allow me to follow my dreams. As a result of those dreams i have landed here in America to pursue a masters degree.
It is interesting to look at american culture as an outsider, especially as one that can just blend in (I have no real accent). Unlike many of my international student brethren, I can just slip unnoticed into situations and conversations and see Americans act like Americans act with other Americans. I see little things, both small kindnesses and small betrayals that no one thinks will be noticed. I see the doors held open, or the small change given to help with someone else's purchase, and the million other small kindnesses witnessed each day. But I also see ugly things: friends prevented from dating others because of their skin colour, or hearing in between the lines from upper class colleagues that "That's a dangerous neighbourhood" means "there are a lot of black people there".
Maybe it's because I'm in a relatively conservative part of Ohio - Smallish town, working class, pretty religious. But where i'm from, a place that is much the same in many ways, "Whatever the hardships and storms we must weather, we're the people who made it by standing together" as the song goes. It seems so strangely divisive to treat people differently because of their race, skin colour, or socio-economic heritage.
I understand that you can't turn an oil tanker the size of the US on a dime, and that changing cultural direction takes time. Indeed, there are inter-racial relationships on television and in real life, and there's even a black president, but in many ways i don't think Dr. King's "dream" has been achieved. The children of former slaves and the children of former slave owners are welcome to sit down at the table of brotherhood, but not everyone is interested in doing so. People are still judged by the colour of their skin not the content of their character. I compare the racial attitudes of those 'conservative folks" to that of my home country and just don't understand their mentality (though Canada is no less guilty in its own racial problems, I don't understand those decisions either).
As I see it, however, the fact that I don't understand their mindset (nor do most of the people I interact with on a daily basis) is a good thing. The fact that we see a problem with a racist mindset, and that we don't see our life partners or our friend's life partners through the lens of their ancestry is a huge step forward. But I have to be careful with my optimisim. Humanity has a need for an "Other", a Bogeyman onto which we can hang our burdens, our problems and our self-superiority. Be it Irish in Victorian England, or Blacks in the post-Confederate south, or Jews in Pre-WW2 Germany, or the growing racial and religious tension against Muslims in our modern era (even the Hyper-conservative and Hyper-liberal bogeymen apply), we have to stop shoving our problems onto cultural outsiders and visible (or invisible) minorities, and start looking in the mirror for the solutions to our own problems.
I've gotten to a point where I'm not sure if this is cohesive. It's all swirling in my head, and I hope I haven't offended anyone or made any huge social faux pas.
When confronted with thoughts on America's latent racism, I tend to remind whoever I'm talking to that these things take time. For some reason this is generally taken as racism itself -- "you're settling for the way people treat each other when you could be out there fixing it! right now! tomorrow!" -- which it isn't. It's common sense, based on historical perspective. Humans are inherently distrustful of the "Other" that you mention. This caution is biological (and exists for many good reasons), and unfortunately in the so-called civilized age it has manifested as racism and sexism and so on. So, these things take time. Defeating our own biology is a slow, painful process. Of course Dr. King's dream hasn't been realized everywhere, at all times, as an ideal. Only fools fail to understand that. But it's a different sort of fool who thinks that Rome was built in a day, or that reminding others that Rome wasn't built in a day is somehow akin to wishing Rome was a crater.
Absolutely, and I completely agree. That's why I mentioned the progress that I have seen, and the good that I have seen. To build on the discussion in your comment, I'm reading an interview right now with Dr. King published by Playboy in which this very issue comes up: King: No, I do not. I feel that the time is always right to do what is right. Where progress for the Negro in America is concerned, there is a tragic misconception of time among whites. They seem to cherish a strange, irrational notion that something in the very flow of time will cure all ills. In truth, time itself is only neutral. Increasingly, I feel that time has been used destructively by people of ill will much more than it has been used constructively by those of good will. If I were to select a timetable for the equalization of human rights, it would be the intent of the "all deliberate speed" specified in the historic 1954 Supreme Court decision. But what has happened? A Supreme Court decision was met, and balked, with utter defiance. Ten years later, in most areas of the South, less than one percent of the Negro children have been integrated in schools, and in some of the deepest South, not even one tenth of one percent. Approximately 25 percent of employable Negro youth, for another example, are presently unemployed. Though many would prefer not to, we must face the fact that progress for the Negro—to which white "moderates" like to point in justifying gradualism—has been relatively insignificant, particularly in terms of the Negro masses. What little progress has been made—and that includes the Civil Rights Act—has applied primarily to the middle-class Negro. Among the masses, especially in the Northern ghettos, the situation remains about the same, and for some it is worse. Do you think that his view is diametrically opposed to yours? Or do you think King is wishfully thinking here? how does all of this fit together? Thanks for your thoughts flagamuffin.But it's a different sort of fool who thinks that Rome was built in a day, or that reminding others that Rome wasn't built in a day is somehow akin to wishing Rome was a crater.
Playboy: Relatively few dispute the justness of the struggle to eradicate racial injustice, but many whites feel that the Negro should be more patient, that only the passage of time—perhaps generations—will bring about the sweeping changes he demands in traditional attitudes and customs. Do you think this is true?
Thanks for this great comment, and for your perspective. The history stuff was great as well (I'm a big history buff).
Actually, I agree with your general premise. The dream King spoke about doesn't exist within a lot of alleged American culture. More black men and women have degrees, but at the same time still get treated differently when gaining employment. Formerly poor minority neighborhoods have seen improvements in select cities across the country, only to have those minority residents displaced. There are more minority people in media but only portrayed in a certain manner. You can say its great hip-hop & rap are mainstream only the popular ones are glorifying negative aspects of life. We know kids are smoking weed but it seems like law enforcement has preference for enforcing the law on minority youths. It appears that for every supposed progress we've made, there is an opposite action that also seems to negate that gain somewhat. One can't say it is a net-zero effect as a good portion of American youth born post-1985 seem to actually live that dream. However, it is fair to say that those youths definitely have very little presence in American culture at large. We also agree on another point. Western society, from my point of view, is completely lacking in actual self-responsibility. Every ill is the fault of an institution or another person, but never from your lack of personal participation or decisions. My favorite example is how can the government be terrible when we are supposedly the ones electing these individuals? How is it not our personal failure to actively participate in the political sphere with our own minds and thought? How are we not to blame for swallowing the readily available option? So on and so forth.
This is an interesting one, because there has been a weird division in black and white television in the last couple decades. It used to be that whites watched The Cosby Show, and Good Times, and The Jeffersons, etc, and blacks watched All in the Family, Cheers, and Three's Company. But nowadays how many whites do you know that watch The Hugleys or that Daman Wayans show that I don't even know the name of (or, like, any of the 50 Tyler Perry movies that come out each year)? And Seinfeld was barely watched among blacks. It's totally bizarre that our cultures have gotten more separate in terms of the media we consume.There are more minority people in media but only portrayed in a certain manner.
Is it? Marketing and advertising seeks to sell as much product as it can, but not all products are inherently appealing to all people. Furthermore, marketing and advertising seeks to develop groups in such a way that a lot of product can be sold. If the TV viewing public are all watching one show, then that's a problem for other networks, who are also in the business of providing entertainment. It's also a problem for that network's sponsors, who run commercials they've crafted to appeal to the demographic watching the show at that time slot. However, it's easier to appeal to a niche market than it is to the public at large. Thus, we have a million channels and a million different things being sold on those channels. Of course, this is a gross oversimplification, but I definitely think that advertising and marketing has played a role in how people consume media and how media demographics are conceived of.It's totally bizarre that our cultures have gotten more separate in terms of the media we consume.