Almost 42 years after Martin Luther King, we find ourselves farther from his dream than ever. There are still too many in this country, many in political power, who purposely choose NOT to judge a person by the "content of their character", but rather by the "color of their skin". Many of those in political power, or those seeking power, purposely choose to divide us into groups in the name of populism and propaganda. Sadly still, there are many that fall prey to this tactic and allow themselves to be mentally segregated as part of a sub-divided group, be it race, religion, sexuality or class. Yes, Dr. Kings dream is farther away than ever, thanks to the age old tactic of divide and conquer. Yet, maybe one day we can become one nation under God and indivisible.

[Edited on January 17, 2010 at 7:30 PM. Reason : .]

1/17/2010 7:29:28 PM

You think that we were closer to his dream when blacks had their own waterfountains?

1/17/2010 7:35:36 PM

segregation, be it physical, residential, or mental is the same in terms of its overall negative affect

1/17/2010 7:40:09 PM

It's just...it's kinda hard to buy the whole "we've got worse racism than ever" when the president has a name like "Barack Hussein Obama" and is, you know, black and stuff.

1/17/2010 7:55:45 PM

Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton have done more damage to the black race than any white person has in the last 40 years.

1/17/2010 8:03:41 PM

Is this something about affirmative action?

Because...today black and white people can buy houses, aren't barred from businesses, can go to the same schools, can attend any university in the nation...

Yeah, you need to sit down and think this out some more. There's no permanent undercaste of educated white males.

Quote :

"Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton have done more damage to the black race than any white person has in the last 40 years."

http://boingboing.net/2008/10/24/black-man-dragged-to.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Byrd,_Jr.

[Edited on January 17, 2010 at 8:07 PM. Reason : .]

1/17/2010 8:04:41 PM

There is no doubt that race is still more of an issue than any of us would like it to be, but black men aren't lynched because they look at a white woman wrong.

Quote :

"Many of those in political power, or those seeking power, purposely choose to divide us into groups in the name of populism and propaganda."

and gender, and sexual orientation, and religious affiliation, and . . .

1/17/2010 8:05:57 PM

Quote :

"lynching-omaha-nebraska-sept-29-1919.jpg"

Im not a math major but I'm willing to bet everything I own that 1919 is more than 40 years ago...

1/17/2010 8:07:48 PM

Historical records show that MLK also dreamed of proper use of the apostrophe to show possession. Alas, it was not to be.

1/17/2010 8:08:11 PM

^^^what are you basing this on? if it had been hillary as oposed to obama, polls from the dem. primary show that white lower-class support would have been higher.

Quote :

"m not a math major but I'm willing to bet everything I own that 1919 is more than 40 years ago..."

i misread your post. sorry you feel the need to scapegoat affirmative action for causing problems when there's little to no proof that it takes more jobs away from qualified applicants and gives them to unqualified applicants.

Quote :

"Sadly still, there are many that fall prey to this tactic and allow themselves to be mentally segregated as part of a sub-divided group, be it race, religion, sexuality or class. "

I would amend this to say that we are divided mostly on "culture". That's the point of the whole idea of our divisions being a "culture war", which takes many shapes. The class divisions you'd think would be a bigger issue than they are get blurred b/c of this and you see lower class blacks and whites or southerners and northerners or hispanics or what have you on opposing sides.

[Edited on January 17, 2010 at 8:13 PM. Reason : .]

1/17/2010 8:08:58 PM

Ummm reread my post again. I didn't say jack shit about affirmative action.


You were the one trying to make a point about in reference to the last 40 years but using a lynching picture from 1919.

1/17/2010 8:18:03 PM

i misread your post and then amended it, you dong. so what's the big issue you've got a bee up your ass about again?

1/17/2010 8:19:44 PM

Quote :

"BEE UP YOUR ASS"

1/17/2010 8:42:31 PM

Quote :

" http://boingboing.net/2008/10/24/black-man-dragged-to.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Byrd,_Jr."

Compare to the controversies surrounding this guy, for saying things that people didn't want to hear:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ogbu

then there's this sort of stuff:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_sharpton#Controversy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_sharpton#Tawana_Brawley_controversy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_sharpton#Freddie.27s_Fashion_Mart

I think relatively, Sharpton and his ilk do more damage to race relations than do random rednecks in texas.

[Edited on January 17, 2010 at 8:48 PM. Reason : fg]

1/17/2010 8:48:02 PM

one up racism is racism

don't celebrate that shit

[Edited on January 17, 2010 at 9:04 PM. Reason : +]

1/17/2010 9:02:51 PM

instead of celebrating people like martin luther king, a socialist, and al sharpton black people need to celebrate people who improved their situation without the government giving them all they wanted.

why dont classrooms tell the story of SB Fuller? He became wealthy long before the government stepped in. Read 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask to learn more about this man.

why do people try to rewhrite history as if black people needed the government to get them to prosperity? anyone can do it.

equality will come from what you offer.

1/17/2010 9:29:35 PM

hey look at that, red baron 22 being retarded and possibly racist

so... nothing new really

1/17/2010 9:39:36 PM

don't be daft

the 4th of July is too often easily construed into being a celebration of wealthy, slave-owning white men

1/17/2010 9:40:16 PM

Quote :

"It's just...it's kinda hard to buy the whole "we've got worse racism than ever" when the president has a name like "Barack Hussein Obama" and is, you know, black and stuff."

Grumpy, and anyone else that thought this post was about racism, you missed my point completely. My comment was not about racism, but rather the purposeful division and manipulation of groups in this country for political gain. It was about the purposeful viewing everyone as part of some oppressed group, as opposed to viewing everyone as equal. The view that some "groups" are weak and need special help is manipulative and harmful, as opposed to the idea that we are all equal.

1/17/2010 9:40:54 PM

then don't fall victim to it and celebrate and promote the ideal

like the idea of america

an experiment that has yet to be realized

[Edited on January 17, 2010 at 9:43 PM. Reason : l]

1/17/2010 9:43:21 PM

this thread has everything to do with your internal racism boiling over into some kind of ridiculous victim complex

1/17/2010 9:43:29 PM

No, it does not. I do treat and judge people based on who they are. I wish more people actually did that, instead of embracing that we are all minority victims.

Quote :

"hey look at that, red baron 22 being retarded and possibly racist"

thanks pooljobs, I hardly ever post on TWW, but I appreciate your baseless generalization

1/17/2010 9:46:14 PM

your posts in this section are generally in this realm of retarded, enough so for me to notice and recognize your name

1/17/2010 9:47:33 PM

whatever you say dude

1/17/2010 9:48:48 PM

I'm not saying it's perfect, but I'd rather live in a country where we play dumb political games (at times involving racial issues) than in a country where we hang/sick police dogs on/constantly harass people because of a hereditary tan.

Based on that logic, I'd say we're a damn sight closer to MLK's dream now than we were in the 1960's.

1/18/2010 4:35:19 AM

Quote :

"It was about the purposeful viewing everyone as part of some oppressed group, as opposed to viewing everyone as equal. The view that some "groups" are weak and need special help is manipulative and harmful, as opposed to the idea that we are all equal."

This part of your post makes sense, but calling this worse than the way things were 42 years ago makes zero sense.

1/18/2010 9:39:36 AM

Quote :

"“One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were in reality standing up for the best in the American dream and the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, and thusly, carrying our whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.” – Martin Luther King Jr. April 1963"

1/18/2010 11:02:22 AM

I don't agree that we're worse off than we were 42 years ago, with respect to race relations, prejudice, discrimination, etc. Things are obviously better now.

However, I do agree that politicians are pitting one race against the other more than ever. The Democrats have been able to keep an iron grip on the "black vote." A lot of this has to do with upbringing and tradition. People's parents vote Democrat, then they vote Democrat, and the other party is portrayed as the cause for everything terrible in life. That happens in families of all different backgrounds, by the way. Both parties are fairly sinister in my opinion, but the Democrats have done an especially good job at pandering to poor minorities. If you're poor, and a politician says, "See that billionaire white guy? We're going to take a bunch of his money and give it to you!", you're going to support that politician.

Unfortunately, all of this "government assistance" will ultimately be the thing that fucks the poor more than anything. If we had a free market, and the government wasn't actively trying to destroy business in this country (under the guise of "getting back at whitey"), we could have jobs that paid decent wages even for physical labor. People could be saving money, going into business for themselves at some point, banks would be lending to businesses, and we'd have social mobility that you see in a normal economy.

1/18/2010 1:07:23 PM

I could not agree more with the above post. Well said

Quote :

"This part of your post makes sense, but calling this worse than the way things were 42 years ago makes zero sense."

My point was not to imply that things are worse than 42 years ago, but rather that we are still very very far from achieving and actually LIVING the idea that "all men are equal" and "should be judged by the content of their character not by the color of their skin".

[Edited on January 18, 2010 at 2:02 PM. Reason : .]

1/18/2010 2:00:35 PM

I am almost 30 years old...

I have never been to a school that did not allow people in because of their color.

I have never been taught that interracial couples are "bad"

I have never played on a "whites only" sports team

I have never felt out of place walking alongside of a person of a different skintone.

I have never been taught that any race is inherently superior to any other.

I have never been to a restaurant that did not serve people because of their race.


If I were the same age 42 years ago, each of these things would have the "never" removed.

1/18/2010 2:01:51 PM

72 years ago still isnt 1919

1/18/2010 2:21:26 PM

I think that african americans bring out the race card all to often because their parents beat into them that the white man is keeping them down and whenever something isnt fair or they do not get something they dont deserve (promotion), if a white person is involved, it is racism...especially when you got Jesse Jackson and Sharpton as the leaders....

sad to say but the latinos have come further than african americans here lately and have pasted them (dont see latinos complaining about everything).

[Edited on January 18, 2010 at 3:06 PM. Reason : w]

1/18/2010 3:03:34 PM

^^huh?

1/18/2010 3:12:59 PM

1/18/2010 4:02:32 PM

Is this what passes for a Soap Box thread these days? Something that looks like an answer to a short-answer question on a high-school test?

D+, see me after class.

1/18/2010 4:07:37 PM

sup, McDouche?


hahaha. HAVE PASTED THEM!

1/18/2010 4:36:06 PM

Quote :

"The Democrats have been able to keep an iron grip on the "black vote." A lot of this has to do with upbringing and tradition."

A lot of this also has to do with lapses in judgment by republican politicians praising the efforts of Strom Thurmond, or by republicans actually being Strom Thurmond. He didn't leave office/die that long ago. Neither did world-famous friend of the minority, Jesse Helms.

A lot of it also has to do with Republican willingness to play the race card in far more despicable ways than the Democrats do, and in a way that makes black predisposition towards democrats seem all the more well-placed. The shameful and disgusting tactics used against John McCain in South Carolina in the primaries for the 2000 election are a prime example.

The Republican party gave up on black people a long time ago. That's the problem. I can partially see why that happened; the odds seemed insurmountable. But we've had opportunities. I'm not a fan of the religious right, but aspects of that platform had potential to appeal to a largely religious black electorate. We fucked that up. Affirmative action may or may not be shitty, but overall it's not a huge deal with major ramifications. We could have easily leveraged that, but we didn't. When Barack gets elected we respond with Steele, who to my knowledge is still unpalatable to people from every race.

1/19/2010 2:45:58 AM