The Dream Fulfilled?

I like to believe that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a smart man, despite the fact that he hung out with Jesse Jackson. And that's why I can say with all certainty that Barack Obama's election is not the fulfillment of his dream. I'm pretty sure the man was thinking on a broader scale than political office. His speeches were filled with all sorts of talk about equality and "the promised land." I'm proud and happy about the progress we've made in his country as a race and I'm proud and happy that Barack Obama was sworn in today as President. It's truly historic and monumental and whatever glowing platitude that anyone can attach to it. I just can't believe that the "promised land" that MLK was referring to is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. For one, we're not all going to fit inside.

Lots of people have been all over the news today, claiming that Dr. King's dream has been fulfilled and that we have reached the "promised land." All due respect to Dr. King, because he was a stronger and braver man than I'll ever be, but he wouldn't be able stop that talk the way it needed to be stopped if he was here. There's only one time in life that I'll claim that I can say something better than Dr. King and that's right now: Everyone who saying that we've reached the "promised land" needs to cut the fucking shit.

In 2007, we were marching in Jena, LA over trumped up charges against six black teenagers. In 2007, Genarlow Wilson was in jail because he got some head from a classmate two years younger than he was. In 2006, an unarmed Sean Bell was murdered by police on his wedding day and all of the police got off. Three weeks before this very inauguration that we're celebrating, Oscar Grant was laid face down on the floor and shot by a transit cop. Stuff like this doesn't happen in the "promised land," because people are generally happy there and that stuff makes people sad.

When Dr. King was talking about the "promised land," he was talking about a time when electing a Black President won't be any more newsworthy than electing a white one. He was talking about a time when we won't talk about things like "education gaps" or "earning gaps" or "the race card." He was talking about a time when it won't be "us vs. them."

It's not going to be a perfect world, because we'll always have challenges, but the challenges will be more along the lines of repelling the alien armada or trying to reduce speeding violations among jet-pack users, not trying to explain to white people why they can't use the "n-word."

But, large groups of white people did elect a Black President. That's an accomplishment in itself, seeing as how it wasn't that long ago that white people were still lying to pollsters about that sort of thing. A lot of people look at this past election as proof that we've acheived Dr. King's dream. I look at that same election as proof of how far we still have to go. After all, look at the racially based campaigning that the Republicans did. And look at how effective it was. A lot of people bought into it. If we were where we truly needed to be, not only would it not have worked, but they wouldn't have done it to begin with. How quickly folks rely on the divide between the races to win elections is a sign that things just aren't right.

So let's just keep everything in perspective. Big, glowing, historic day that we'll all tell our grandkids about? Yes. They're already partitioning chapters of future history books that contain complete reprints of Obama's books, complete with letters that are actually made of unquenchable fire. The end of the journey for racial equality? Not even close. A proud day, but the struggle continues...