Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. It was a watershed moment in the history of the United States, culminating with Martin Luther King Jr.’s landmark “I Have a Dream” speech. Given all the advancements in civil rights over the last 50 years, many believe Dr. King’s dream is fully realized, but I’m here to tell you, we still have a long way to go.
Sure, you could argue the contrary. “But Joel, we’ve elected an African-American to the White House not once, but twice!”
We have, and while it was a historic moment for our nation, we are far from the equal and just society King called for on that sultry August day.
While millions of Americans see past race and truly judge a person’s character based on the content of his or her character, not color or creed, all one has to do is scour the web to find the lack of acceptance so many still demonstrate.
From tweets to Facebook posts, the never-ending stream of hateful comments on news articles and even remarks from some of our esteemed leaders, one sees a side of the country that doesn’t embrace King’s dream. Fifty years later, far too many express a serious lack of tolerance for those they perceive as “different.”
Call me naive, but it’s time we end intolerance once and for all.
For the sake of argument, let’s look at one current civil rights issue — the fight to reform our broken immigration system and how a different “King” deviates from Martin Luther King Jr.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, one of the more conservative members of the U.S. House of Representatives, is one of the most fervent opponents of reasonable immigration reform and recently took his rhetoric to a new and rather despicable level.
“If you bring people from a violent civilization into a less-violent civilization, you’re going to have more violence right?” Rep. King said. “It’s like pouring hot water into cold water; does it raise the temperature or not?”
In a separate interview with conservative website Newsmax, Rep. King went even further.
“For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds — and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. Those people would be legalized by the same act.”
It’s unfortunate that Rep. King and many other Americans have not collectively learned the lesson from the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. We must overcome our prejudices and the tendency to stereotype a group we choose to vilify rather than express empathy and attempt to understand their struggle.
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., is a civil rights icon and the sole surviving speaker from the March on Washington. He urges us to continue to the fight for civil rights and get into what he calls “good trouble.”
Given the current struggles of far too many groups in our country, it might be time to heed Rep. Lewis’ advice and get into some “good trouble.” Then, and only then, can we achieve universal civil rights in our country.
We must step up not just for African-Americans, but for our Latino friends, the LGBTQ community, Muslim-Americans, the disenfranchised, disillusioned, dissatisfied, those born in the United States and those who came to this country seeking opportunities and the promise of a chance to make it if they work hard.
That was Dr. King’s dream, and it’s up to us — the younger generation — to end the hatred, negativity and scare tactics that divide our country. With hard work and perseverance, we will drown out the noise generated by those like Rep. King and other fearmongers and instead live in a country that is truly the land of the free.
Heck, we may even learn to like each other in the process.
Joel Mendelson is a UF political campaigning graduate student. His column runs on Mondays. A version of this column ran on page 6 on 8/26/2013 under the headline "King’s message of tolerance still applies"
