What dream

On Monday, January 21, we celebrated the national observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King. What was supposed to be a day of reflection on the life and legacy of this great man, many of us chose to treat it like any other three-day holiday.
How many of us can truly say that we participated in any festivities that uplifted us as a people (extra credit does not count!)?
It is a sad reality that our society only focuses on the contributions of African Americans on Dr. King’s Birthday and during Black History Month. It is even sadder that so often many complain that black history is not taught in schools, but we do little to try to make the situation better. Instead of reading and doing independent research on our history so that we can teach others, we rely too heavily on television and film. Mainstream media and Hollywood distort and glamorize our history to ease the consciousness of White America.
BET (Black Entertainment Television) rarely shows programming that teaches us of our history. For MLK Day they only showed a 1978 mini series on the life of the civil rights leader. That’s “Black” Entertainment Television for you. We can laugh at Comic View and Hits all day long, but we cannot pick up a book outside of the classroom to broaden our minds.
Across town at LSU there are two weeks of activities surrounding the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday that focuses on diversity and bridging the gaps in race relations. At SU we only had one major event. I believe that we should acknowledge his legacy everyday and not just on a federal holiday. Although we attend a historically black institution, we still have people who are ignorant when it comes to our heritage.
There are many issues that we need to take a stand on. During the Civil Rights Movement, hundreds of thousands of people marched, fought, and some even died so that we can have the civil liberties we take for granted today. We are so caught up in thinking that racism today does not exist as much as it did in the past. We feel that since we share the same privileges as whites we have nothing to really fight for. It is time for us to open up our eyes and stand up and fight America’s new war on racism. So many of our brothers and sisters are shackled in mental slavery consumed by alcohol, drugs, poverty, crime, and AIDS. Young black men cannot drive nice cars without being stopped by the police. It’s funny that all black men seem to fit the same general description when police use racial profiling. Our children are falling into the cracks of a failing education system that is quick to label them as a behavior problem.
Wake up people; this is our struggle! We are the generation that can change our future as a race. The white man does not owe us anything. We owe it to ourselves to dispel the myths and notions about us that we have been bombarded with for so many years. It is time to turn off BET and turn to the Hallmark Channel and watch Roots because some of us have forgotten where we have come from. Let’s live Dr. King’s dream and wake up from this great American lie.