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MLK’s “I Have A Dream” Speech And Rejecting Colorblindness for Today’s Children

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When Dr. King famously said “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,” the masses gathered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom understood the context. His "I Have a Dream" speech was premised on the notion that 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, that "the Negro still is not free." Dr. King spoke to the “shameful condition” of the United States defaulting on the promissory note of guaranteeing the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness “insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.” Almost 60 years later, this speech still provides practical guidance about what it will take for the United States to “to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” The “I Have a Dream” speech proscribes a powerful hope for righting injustices facing children today: creating a world where people are not color blind, but color kind.

Dr. King’s line about not judging his children “by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” is too often shamefully applied to argue against affirmative action or any race-based remedy to historical injustice. But the “I Have a Dream” speech itself contradicts this in his bold call for fighting the fight “until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Moreover, his public views before and after this speech included support of the Indian government’s special employment opportunities provided to the caste formally referred to as untouchables as a remedy for these discrimination victims, social reforms for African Americans similar to the G.I. Bill, and a call for “massive” reparations that were bold, but “less expensive than any computation based on two centuries of unpaid wages and accumulated interest." In essence, Dr. King’s argument is not to be color blind, but to be color kind.

Colorblindness is not a solution to righting past wrongs. The fixers must be aware of the need to rectify historical injustices,especially in education. In his 1967 “Where Do We Go From Here” speech, Dr. King highlighted inequity in education, noting that black students “lag one to three years behind whites” and receive far less funding. Over 50 years later, these achievement gaps still persist, rendering foolish any notion that teachers should magically “not see race.”

Being color kind requires that teachers not only see race, but work actively to create conditions to ensure the success of all students. As Ibram X. Kendi notes in How to Be an Antiracist, "The opposite of racist isn't 'not racist.' It is 'anti-racist.'” With The Southern Poverty Law Center reporting 3,265 incidents of hate or bias in schools in the United States in Fall 2018 alone, Dr. King’s “fierce urgency of now” requires educators to embrace anti-racist efforts in their schools.

This is not a simple call to action. Massive inequities in education ranging from unfair disciplinary practices, outrageous race-based gaps in the identification of gifted and talented students, and miserably low expectations for poor students of color are grounded in hundreds of years of injustice. This is why educators cannot put blinders on their eyes become indifferent to the specific ways the color of our children’s skin has and does impact their educational opportunities. We must remain committed to Dr. King’s dream of the bright day of justice he envisioned when we can all celebrate the joy of being “free at last.” But, this requires that we stay equally committed to ensuring the “whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation.”

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