The problem of racism in the USA and throughout the whole world has always been considered to be central due to its globalism and influence on the sphere of social life and international cooperation. Thousands of people of Afro-American origin suffered injustice and cruelty on the part of other nationalities for centuries. The speech of Martin Luther King, “I have a dream,” is devoted to the problem of racism dominating many countries and bringing international instability to the immigrants and native population.
The major aspects covered by Martin Luther are aimed at highlighting the fact that the American Declaration of Independence provides equality for all the people despite their color of skin or position in the society. The objections are devoted to the concerns as to the current positions of the black people in the USA. He tried to stress the point that obligations of the Americans should be aimed at the development of the new strategies in order to avoid the threats of racism domination as it was not so long time ago. Martin Luther managed to express his beliefs as to the future measures aimed at working out sufficient funds for the Afro-American race’s support. He touched on many aspects of racism being popular nowadays. He talked of racial justice, which can be defined as embodying justice in response to race. During the 1950s, the black community was still being discriminated against by the white majority. The same still happens in many parts of the country. It is a fact that even recently, state studies confirm that Blacks along with Latinos were being stopped for routine traffic violations in excess of their representative demographic size in the populace.
The question of equality and freedom should take the initial position in the modern world. The way to international freedom lies through the path of racial justice development. The lack of need for the granting of citizenship rights to Negroes has been centralized recently, that is, the rights belonging to a person by virtue of being a valid U.S. citizen and more so as guaranteed by the 13th and 14th amendments of the U.S. constitution. This deemed that black men were accorded equal treatment with white men in areas such as employment, land ownership, education, voting rights, legal issues, accommodation, and transport, among other rights. He also advocated the need to avoid bitterness and hatred while pursuing justice. The author asked the black community to reject being taken as inferior or practice violence. These methods include boycotts, marches, and selective buying campaigns. Civil disobedience was also used because of the belief that no one should have to obey laws being considered unjust, though. As a result, they would have to pay for the consequences of their disobedience. This could be viewed in contrast to the violent means used by the whites, including the release of attack dogs in addition to hosing down crowds with powerful jets of water to control them.
Martin Luther also acknowledges the need to work with whites in the fight for black civil rights. He highlighted the presence of whites among the crowd that had come for the march, saying that they realized that their destinies were intertwined. Nowadays, the call is to white people aimed at starting constructive anti-racist groups and movements as well as to translate anti-racist ideas to effective action, and in addition, help educate other whites into embracing the cause in an informed way. The white community should have a vested interest in combating racism since systems of oppression confine not only the oppressed but also oppressors. They should do so because there is a spiritual deterioration that racial animosity brings with it, which would overshadow any physical or material profits achieved.
Martin Luther managed to touch the economic status of the black community, saying: ‘ We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.’
This economic disparity stemmed from the fact that black people came to America as slaves to toil on plantations and produce raw materials such as indigo, tobacco, cotton, and rice. It was on the backs and through the sweat of these slaves that the United States grew to the South and to the North. Unfortunately, once they got their freedom knowing little but to relying on the same skills to earn a living. Racism at the workplace or corporate racism is still an issue today as we have studies showing that over a 45-year employment life, an average white family will earn in the region of $650,000 more than a black family. In addition, barriers to class mobility left children of white-collar professionals being five times more likely to obtain white-collar employment than children of blue-collar workers.
Martin Luther King also managed to disclose the issue of police brutality stating: ‘We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
As a result of the lopsided nature of policing, statistics showed that in 1991 sixty-five percent of state prison inmates belonged to racial or ethnic minorities. We see that while there is an identical distribution of criminal activities amongst all racial groups (and blacks are no more apt to be criminals than whites), African Americans were more liable than other groups to be arrested and convicted. The National Institute of Drug Abuse estimates shows that even if only 12 percent of illegal drug consumers are Black Americans, they make up almost half of all drug possession arrests within the United States.
Evaluating the situation of the black people position, Martin Luther tried to prove the education system impact on their social status. However though 25 years later, desegregation has taken root, but it has not solved the issues of self deprecation, poor educational performance, and overall low quality of life for America’s black people. Racism has undermined the children’s self-esteem in addition to eroding the educational process. Examples of racism in education is research, such as Stamford physiologist who said that dullness seemed to be racial, or The Bell Curve research of 1994 which asserted that blacks do not have equal capacity intelligence than whites; this sort of stereotyping stayed with the black community and contributed to their poor performance in education.
In leadership, race also played a major role over the years. Historically America has always been dominated by white leadership while black political progress has been slow. In 1969 it had only nine black representatives in congress and has never had a black president or vice president. In 1982 race came to the fore in politics in what is nowadays referred to as the Bradley effect. Tom Bradley was an African-American who vied for the California governor seat. Exit polls, taken as voters were leaving the polling stations, as it was shown by Bradley in the lead by a wide margin. Somehow the polls were wrong, and he ended up losing to Republican George Deukmejian. The theory lied in the fact that polling was erroneous because some voters supported Bradley yet they had not to. The unanticipated closeness of the election had also been experienced in selected elections involving African Americans and other minority aspirants where white voters would provide false information as to their support of non-white candidates but actually not voting for them.
The analysis of the racism atmosphere throughout the USA and many other countries of the world, it is important to stress that the position of the black people has been improved since previous centuries; nevertheless, there are some open to discussion issues. While there is no established cure for racism, some steps can be taken to slow it down; one is to stop classifying each other – it means that all people belong to a particular social group despite their color of skin. People are united by the state they live in. The awareness of this fact should begin at home, where children keep being taught to play with every friend rather than that “white boy” or “black girl”. When this attitude flourishes in grade schools, it can lead to global and serious problems in the future when adults became differentiating between races or ethnicities. One more step aimed at changing the situation concerns the silence for the sake of political correctness. Finally, it should be noted that people are to be united under the common idea of the racism avoiding; only in this case the measure developed would make sense in the society.
Thus, as a way of conclusion, one should underline the following: all people are equal according to the Bible. All of us have the same rights for the happiness and prosperity; people can provide successful life for their families and make a perfect career without taking into account their color of skin. Thus, the aspects highlighted by Martin Luther managed to leave a print in the history of the USA that is why the problem of racism would be completely liquidated with time. Everything depends on people!
References
Martin Luther King. I Have a Dream. Web.