Sunday, August 26, 2007

King supporters fail to get the memo

Compare and contrast

Martin Luther King: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Race row hits memorial for Martin Luther King: "A place has been prepared for a monument to the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr on the most hallowed ground in America. But the nature of that memorial is causing a dispute that threatens to sully the memory of a man renowned for his intent to unite people.

"The rumpus is over the ethnicity of the sculptor who will carve the monument. A Chinese sculptor has been chosen to carve a monument... But a loose-knit and growing group of critics is demanding that a black sculptor, or at least an American, should have been chosen."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't it precisely because Dr King's dream hasn't come about that this is an issue?

Jim Jepps said...

Well Matthew I think if it was an elite white sculptor we could argue about this - but it isn't - the proposed sculptor is Chinese.

The civil rights movement was, surely, about equality and justice and breaking down barriers. At least it seems to me that King's part of it was.

To complain that someone is not American and therefore is alien to the fight against injustice seems to me to write off the fact that King is a figure of inspiration internationally not purely in America, and is a hero for all those who pursue non-violent means for fundamental change, not just Afro-Americans.

weggis said...

As long ago as the 60s I can recall there being "Blacks" and Blacks. Some "Blacks" wore their skin colour printed across their forehead and on their armband. Others didn't and they were the one's that fitted in. It is the same today.

King's dream is that when the colour of your skin, [and expanding it, disability, disfiguration, gender or sexual orientation] are not noticed as being important.

This is an issue that needs to be addressed by "Blacks", not the rest of us, including all those Blacks that I do not perceive as "Black".

You can't have it both ways!!!

Anonymous said...

Black white who really cares. as time goes on and we become more prosperous many racial issues go away

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weggis said...

Frankly I don't care.
If a person presents themself to me as first and foremost a human being then that is the way I will perceive them.

However, if they present themself to me as first and foremost as Black/White, Homosexual/Heterosexual, Female/Male, Disabled/Abled, then that is the way I will perceive them!!!!!

It's their choice, NOT mine.