The March On Washington - Forty Years Later

Today is the fortieth anniversary of the civil rights march on Washingtron at which Dr. Martin Luther King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech. Guess what - I don't give a damn. Exactly why do people romanticize this moment in American history - especially when Dr. King's version of a color-blind society hasn't come true? Excuse me if I repeat what I said back in January on Dr. King's birthday, but. . .dig this! We still have black people who are caught in a pathological urban ghetto culture, the level of segregation in our society has never been worse, and we still need affirmative action to ensure a fair shake for all. We have white folks and black folks in the middle class segregating themselves from each other in different suburban areas. Black people are still more likely to get sent to prison, more likely to get railroaded by an elitist judicial system, and more likely to be victimized by violent crime. So why do Americans think that one speech magically solved America's racial problems?

Of course, the media will only present a sanitized version of Dr. King in their silly anniversarial retrospectives. Left out are Dr. King's charges of corporate exploitation of the Third World, his opposition to the Vietnam War (which Ronald Reagan declared "a noble cause" - in 1980!) , and his critiques of American attitudes toward the poor, who have really been in dire straits since the Republicans dismantled the Great Society. The celebration of Dr. King's speech is an empty one. The whole thing reeks.