King, Obama and race

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: January 20, 2009

A lot can happen in a year.

Consider the news CNN reported on Monday as the country marked the 80th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

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 ...

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.

Hmm ... what could have happened over the past 12 months that could change public opinion so much?

Oh, that’s right.

But as I said in my column Saturday, when he told the gathered masses about his dream back in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., didn’t talk about the day when this country would swear in a black president.

I talked about this a little bit a little while ago, but the more we focus on race and emphasize it as a hallmark of what’s going on today, the further away we move from the fulfillment of King’s dream.

I often wonder what King would think of our culture today. Would he support things like Black Entertainment Television and the Miss Black America pageant? Would he subscribe to Jet and Ebony magazines?  Would he approve of how so many aspects of society have remained segregated, even as segregation as a matter of legality is fading into memory?

I like to think that he wouldn’t.

King was all about the person, not the color of the person. I like to think that he would have disapproved of anything that emphasized race, because such race-conscious efforts are antithetical to the dream he so eloquently described that hot summer day 45 years ago.

There’s more to that survey:

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.

This must mean that whites and blacks interpret King’s dream differently. As usual, CNN’s polling folks neglected to ask the question that would have made the most difference: What does King’s dream mean? Knowing their benchmarks would have told us some of why they believe—or don’t believe—it’s been fulfilled.

Does this mean that since most blacks believe they are no longer being judged by the color of their skin, we can get rid of things like affirmative action and hate crimes laws, which are counterproductive to efforts to minimize race as a determinant in society?

I hope so.