The Dream NOT Manifested

So there I found myself, at the event of who’s who in the city of St. Louis. Gathered with middle-class blacks for a ball to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday and the second Inauguration of President Barack Obama.  I arrive with my little sister and mother who were in town for the weekend and meet my co-workers. My supervisor grabs me as I walk in to introduce me to some gentlemen I should know.

As conversation carries on, the larger groups break into couples speaking, leaving one gentleman and myself. He leans over and ask “so what whips David cracking across yo’ back this year?” with an ugly grin on his face. To which I replied “I don’t know, I don’t get whips cracked!” and then proceeded to tell him all the great things I’m looking forward to doing this year.

After that disturbance, the night gets worse as the mistress of the ceremony talks and says that she “believes President Obama is the manifestation of Dr. King’s dream!” Is she mad I thought to myself, delusion, or just straight crazy?!? How could one possible think that the inauguration of President Obama is somehow the icing on the cake for the struggle of equality and justice in black America? How could one possibly believe that having a President in the white house who quite frankly refuses to talk about Black America’s issues as to not be labeled as the “black president” except when he gathers a group of black fathers together and tell them to do better is the manifestation? A Black president who has received the fewest amounts of white male votes in the history of the U.S. meaning minorities and women single-handedly re-elected him, but sees that as not merit enough to bring recognition to the thousands of black lives lost in urban America as we do for the victims of Sandy Hook and the many other issues discussed in his inaugural speech. A Black President of who, I must remind myself is also half white, but he himself never forgets.

Personally, I love President Barack Hussein Obama, and I voted for him both times. I believe he was the hope America needed, the politician the GLBTQ community couldn’t have imagined he has become, the man all women have longed for. But he is not the dream realized!

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.”

And as we celebrate the 150th Anniversary now of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, I believe King’s speech to still be true! Dr. King I am sure knew that winning civil rights would benefit all Americans, but still he stood for Black Americans. Dr. King knew that white allies were important in the struggle for equality, and yet he marched with Blacks and whites alike. Dr. King knew that hatred surrounded him everywhere he looked, and yet he still preached love. Dr. King was aware of all the forces, the circumstances around him, but King did not shy away from the vision God had given him, a vision that as integrating as it was and still is, was a vision for the freedom and deliverance of a certain people.

Israel’s deliverance was not for the Egyptians as well, the very people who had enslaved them. Yet, their deliverance spoke to the all encompassing love, passion, and desire for justice God has for all mankind.

I don’t know if President Obama was given a vision from God to become the President of the United States. I don’t know if President Obama used hope as a strategized political platform or if he truly believed in the hope and change he spoke of. Certainly, I would like to think that, like King, President Obama was aware of the forces and circumstances around him. Certainly, I would like to think that President Obama knew he would have a hard time with Congress, getting the change he spoke of to pass. But yet, he sold the dream of hope and change anyhow. And while I appreciate being sold the dream of hope, for hope I believe is the only thing that counters despair, pain, disappointment, proven unfaithfulness, we are not yet able to un-cling hope. And that is reason enough to say that President Obama has neither manifested King’s dream, nor his own. But let me continue…

So as I come back to the event I dreadfully regretted attending, I could not continue to sit and smile and believe that he was the manifestation. I could not believe the dream had been realized when my heart bleeds for my people every morning I wake up. Do not mistake my words or judgment as racist, though they are biased. I simply seek to challenge the thought that one man, however perfect or imperfect he may be is the manifestation of a vast dream, when the majority of my people do not live in that reality.

I cannot, knowingly accept such foolishness, when the question presented to me earlier about “cracking whips and backs” speaks to the still enslaved mind of my people. How dare we address ourselves with such language? Some of you may be thinking that “cracking the whip” is just a phrase used to describe someone who uses there authority harshly, or maybe a horse comes to mind. Fair enough. But both harsh authority and horses are still relevant as we reflect back on the treatment of black slaves as less than human under a harsh rule.

 I cannot believe that the dream has been manifested when as crazy as it sounds, you have a better chance of survival in Iraq than in Chicago to not be shot and killed by a bullet. Where my old neighborhood sparks articles, blog posts, etc. to ask if it is the deadliest neighborhood in Chicago but yet no national attention is given. This is not the dream King had for urban America.

I cannot believe that the dream has been manifested when only 25% of Black males graduate from high school in Buffalo, New York. Nor can I ignore that in a city with a population of 250,000 people, there is an immigrant and refugee community of at least 12,000 people and funding for ESL programs is practically non-existent and the one international school in the city faces threats of closure every single semester. Certainly, that is not the dream King had for public education.

I cannot believe that the dream has been manifested when in the St. Louis region, 40% of children live below the poverty line…40%!!! How dare we be a country with isolated concentrated wealth in the top 1 or even 2% and have so many children going without                                   ? (You fill in the blank!). This is not the dream King had for children.

My dear sister who hosted this event, and those who may also think like you, I regret to inform you that your card has been declined. I cannot swipe it anymore, for each time it reads to me another reason why the dream has not been manifested, and I cannot bear to read what else it may say. But one thing I can tell you is that I will not believe the dream is manifested until words Dr. King wrote are true:

“As long as the mind is enslaved the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self- esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery. No Lincolnian Emancipation Proclamation or Kennedyan or Johnsonian civil rights bill can totally bring this kind of freedom. The Negro will only truly be free when he reaches down to the inner depths of his own being and signs with pen and ink of assertive selfhood his own emancipation proclamation. With a spirit straining toward true self- esteem, the Negro must boldly throw off the manacles of self- abnegation and say to himself and the world: “I am somebody. I am a person. I am a man with dignity and honor. I have a rich and noble history, however painful and exploited that history has been. I am black and comely.” This self- affirmation is the black man’s need made compelling by the white man’s crime against him.”

When this becomes the declaration of my people, then will I believe the dream has been manifested. Until then, “keep hope alive!”

(Excerpts taken from: “I Have A Dream” Speech and Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?  Both by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)