Martin Luther King's Vision

Martin Luther King's Vision

Has Dr. King's vision of a day when his children would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, been fulfilled? Not surprisingly, one group of Americans overwhelmingly believes that it has. But another group of whiners isn't so sure. And you will be surprised to find out which group is which. From January 19, 2009 CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than two-thirds of African-Americans believe Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision for race relations has been fulfilled, a CNN poll found -- a figure up sharply from a survey in early 2008.

he CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey was released Monday, a federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader and a day before Barack Obama is to be sworn in as the first black U.S. president.

The poll found 69 percent of blacks said King's vision has been fulfilled in the more than 45 years since his 1963 "I have a dream" speech -- roughly double the 34 percent who agreed with that assessment in a similar poll taken last March.

But whites remain less optimistic, the survey found.

"Whites don't feel the same way -- a majority of them say that the country has not yet fulfilled King's vision," CNN polling director Keating Holland said. However, the number of whites saying the dream has been fulfilled has also gone up since March, from 35 percent to 46 percent.

I'm pleased to see this, because as near as I can tell, we have pretty well reached Dr. King's vision. Yes, there is still racism out there--but much of it isn't whites against blacks, but blacks against whites. Yes, there is racial discrimination out there, but far less than there used to be, and it is no longer acceptable (except when it it called Affirmative Action).

I can't claim to be surprised that that a majority of whites still doesn't recognize success--after all, universities work very hard at promoting white racial guilt.