The Man Who Taught Me To Dream

Martin Luther King was my childhood hero, long before I knew about slavery and race. I must have read about him somewhere because in my memory I had come to associate him with the phrase "l Have A Dream". There was a certain romanticism to that phrase, it spoke about what was possible. It was in a sense a declaration of hope, a promise of something better, because when I mulled it over in my mind, I'd gaze at the skies, and imagine a world beyond that which I knew.

I would write this phrase on the cover of my notebooks to remind me that I had a task to perform for the world. I had to dream, and I had to make that dream come true. And so dream I did. And I dreamed like a child. I dreamed of building airplanes and taking off to Antarctica, of ice glaciers and Igloos, I dreamed of adventures in dangerous Amazon jungles, where I'd build a tent, save a damsel in distress and make animal-skin clothes for her. I dreamed of being the super hero in an action flick, of a big room filled with big round chocolate balls with white milky stripes, I dreamed of so much more that I cannot now recount.

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But what was instructive, was how this fueled my imagination and curiosity about the world. It made books my best friends, and it was in one of them I finally learned about the civil rights movement and Dr Martin Luther King's leadership role in ending the systemic segregation of black people in America.

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To many Black Americans, MLK is not just a cultural icon, or a social justice activist. There is a sense in which many see him as some sort of black messiah, and indeed Martin Luther King was sometimes prophetic. It was no surprise when the emmergence of Barack Obama was hailed as the fulfilment of Martin Luther King's "I See The Promised Land" speech.

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This was his last speech, and as he coasted to the final words he waxed valedictory, as if he knew what was coming. His words evoked the struggle of the Israelites in Egypt. To a largely Christian audience Martin Luther King sounded a lot like Moses when he declared:
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"Like everyone I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I am not bothered about that now. I just want to do God's will. I have been to the mountain top and I have seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I promise you, as a people, we will get there. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming lord!".
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He was murdered the night after the speech.

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Half a century later, as Obamania swept across America, many Black Americans saw him as the fulfillment of the dream of Martin Luther King. But was Obama's election really the fulfillment of Dr King's dream?
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I reckon that the election of a Black man into the highest office in America would amount to a victory for black people, but the problem is many black people do not see Obama as a true black man. Even Obama himself, in his book Dreams From My Father, wrote about his sense of disconnectedness. He was born to a Kenyan father, an American mother and Indonesian grand parents. Obama wrote that he felt like a "divided soul, torn apart by three continents". In trying to resolve this dilemma Obama embraced America and it's founding ideals. He realised it was easier to identify as just American than as Black, White or Hispanic. His campaign rhetoric also hugely mirrowed this way of looking at identity and race when he said:
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"There is no Black America or White America or Latin America, there is the United States Of America!".
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Suffice it to say that if Obama had campaigned as a black president he would not have won. He would have alienated the white people who constituted almost half of his voter base. Before Obama, there had been Jesse Jackson.

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With the emergence of Trump, it is now clear that racism has not ended in America. We have seen the resurgence of white supremacist movements like the KKK endorsing an American president openly.

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What had been layered and subtle, has now become brazen, rearing it’s ugly head and prompting Americans to question once again the state of race relations in America.

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In 2014 a man named Doug Saint Carter contacted me to review a book he wrote on how to improve race relations in America. He said no one had given the book a positive review in America so he needed an outsider to do it. I was curious so I took the job.

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Reading the book made me understand why no one had given it a positive review. He took a hard-line against both blacks and whites, holding both races accountable for the present state of race relations in America.

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I agreed with many of Mr Carter's arguments so I wrote a positive review for his book.

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I agreed with him that it was unproductive to keep blaming present day white people for slavery. The responsibility of improving race relations in today's America should not rest solely on the shoulders of white people, black people also have role to play.

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According to Mr Carter, white people should start from their homes to teach their children to respect people regardless of the color of their skin. It was the family he argued that was responsible for the perpetuation of the racist behaviour of white people. This view reminded me of a quote: No one is born a racist. Racism is a learned behaviour.

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Beyond the emergence of Barack Obama, Martin Luther King's dream was about the relationship between black people and the state, it was about protecting the rights of black people, about black freedom, about the equitable distribution of opportunities across all races. Martin Luther King believed in an egalitarian society.

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Today, while black people continue to face several forms of injustice and discrimination, it is important to acknowledge that some progress has been made. Today black people can vote and be voted for, today many black people are in leadership positions, today black people own business and banks and universities. There is also an increasing number of white people who are humane and who condemn the actions of white supremacists, and it is this collective that blacks need to keep engaging with to keep expanding the conversations about race in America.

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