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Most blacks say MLK’s dream came true
Here’s a paradoxical picture of post-Obama racial relations: a poll finds that most blacks think Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision has been fulfilled, but most whites don’t.
A CNN poll found that 69 percent of blacks believe MLK’s dream of racial justice has been fulfilled — double the 34 percent who said the same less than a year ago in March. Only 46 percent of whites believe that MLK’s dream has come true, although that is a jump from the 35 percent in March.
Some of the excitement over Obama’s victory has cooled since November, when a majority of blacks said it signaled a new era of race relations. That number has fallen, although most blacks still predict some improvement in race relations.
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back to top32 Comments to “Most blacks say MLK’s dream came true”
“a poll finds that most blacks think Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision has been fulfilled”
No argument here!
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I’m white, but not sure if MLK’s dream has come true. I don’t remember anything in his “dream” about a black POTUS. We still have strong racial tensions, but I don’t think MLK was dreaming of perfection. We will always have race struggles.
I’m inclined to think that MLK’s overall dream came true a while ago, though I think he would be disappointed with how far the pendulum has swung. He would have never wanted us to lower standards for blacks, quotas, or special treatment.
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I hope, for everyone’s sake, your headline is not only true in opinion, but also in deed.
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If Martin Luther King’s dream has been fulfilled, where is the color blind society?
I see plenty of discrimination from whites and blacks from where I sit.
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I suspect that MLK’s vision included nuclear families where the black mom and dad raised their kids and sent them to school and took them to church.
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Chas, I believe MLK would cry to see lots of the pathologies which afflict black American families. The goal of a color-blind society where you judge folks by their character, by what they do with their lives? These days you judge folks by everything but their character. The emphasis on character/morals has dropped while instead we’ve focussed moreso on credentials.
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I tend to think that his goal was hijacked and twisted by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
Would MLK have EVER wanted African Americans to identify themselves as a victim class and demand gov’t handouts and preferences? Or stoop to extortion (ala J Jackson) in order to enrich themselves?
His noble goal has been lost in the noise of special interest posturing.
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7. And the likes of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers.
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It seems to me that nowadays Dr. King is a mirror into which one can look and see reflected back whatever political position you already hold!
My pastor (who is black & PCA, for anyone curious), talked about this very subject yesterday when he preached on Acts 10. He brought up the following MLK quote (no one on this thread has mentioned any quotes so far, I’ve noticed): “But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community.”
You can find a number of quotes on the idea of beloved community here; I have not studied a lot of Dr. King’s work but this idea of beloved community seems to be a pretty big deal and it was very much one of his goals. Looking around especially at the segregation that still happens on Sunday morning all across the country (as well as the resentment on either side of the racial divide as evidenced by some of these posts), it looks like we’ve still got a ways to go further in fulfilling Dr. King’s dream.
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9. I think the answer is integrated churches. The best way to see each other as brothers ans sisters is to worship together as brothers ans sisters. Our pastors has made a lot of effort to make our church more minority friendly by recruiting black ushers, Sunday School teachers and soloist. It is slowly working.
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Here’s another paradox:
MLK’s dream was that people would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character, a color blind society as MIM says in #4.
Since 95% of all blacks voted for Obama, race was obviously a major factor. And racial guilt accounts for much of the white vote. So then, the election of Obama is precisely the opposite of MLK’s dream. Nevertheless whites are hoping to finally drop their oppressor status. In fact, the opposite is about to happen as racial sensitivity launches into overdrive.
Obama is not referred to as an American, but as a hyphenated American. And the networks are stumbling over them selves to proclaim this as a historic moment, when the first black this and the first black that and on and on. The extravaganza in Washington is a festival celebrating a single race.
What is wrong with having a President from the people for all the people?
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You’ve heard me say that liberals usually accomplish precisely the opposite of what they intend. #11 provides two more examples of this.
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Xion, more than 90% of black people vote for the Democrat, period, so the percentage that voted for Obama says little or nothing. It would be far more telling if a black man were the Republicans’ nominee and got the black vote–and I’m fairly sure he wouldn’t. In other words, I’m fairly sure that given the choice between voting Democratic and voting for a black man, more than half of blacks would still vote Democratic. (Probably the race hustlers would go out of their way to discredit the black candidate.)
Men Like Trees, I’ve recently seen evidence (others’ research) that the Sunday-morning segregation issue has changed greatly in the last decade or so; watch and I think this won’t be a big issue in twenty years.
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Momoffive:
Would MLK have EVER wanted African Americans to identify themselves as a victim class and demand gov’t handouts and preferences?
You better believe it. In my lifetime,in much of this country, Barrack Obama could not have gotten a hamburger, drunk from a fountain, gone to a good school or even just played football for a university. He would have had almost NO chance to get a decent job in even more of this country. If that is not a member of victim class, I don’t know what is.
Yet tomorrow he becomes President.
Millions of people have fought long and hard to shatter the bigotry and economic oppression that infested our country since its origins. They have risked their lives, their freedom and their social status to help those of their race and another race and in so doing have helped America live up to its ideals.
And MLK, a preacher of courage and conviction stood up to be counted for that victim class and then himself became a victim.
As for Obama’s election it is indeed a very big deal for race relations in this country. In millions of living rooms where overt and covert racism thrives, little white kids who are exposed to that vile virus by their parents will be innoculated by the daily vision of a black President. And in those black living rooms where what you call victimization thrives, there will be a vivid daily reminder that in today’s America, both racism and the hopelessness that it creates is on the way out.
Momoffive, CNN is playing MLK’s whole “Dream” speech this evening at 6. If you watch it, you will know that MLK knew that his was indeed a class of victims, and that his was a powerful voice calling it to our attention. Fortunately, men and women of good conscience listened.
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#10 Kbells,
I’m not even certain that we necessarily need “integrated” churches. I go to a multiethnic church and it’s cool, but it’s not necessarily the goal. Neither is having an entirely “colorblind” society– perhaps in terms of race, privilege, and power, yes– but whenever white people talk about having a “colorblind” society, black people usually assume that means that we would have a white society in which black people acted exactly like whites. This is especially painful, I think, in thinking about church situations because there are such good differences between white & black churches, but the interaction between them is so limited that they don’t have the opportunity to encourage & sharpen each other. Instead, a lot of times they just condemn each other’s political viewpoints from the other side of town, unfortunately.
I think it would be fine if, say, there were two churches in a town, one white and one black– because there are real cultural differences between churches that affect leadership, ministry, and community. However, if they were able to work, worship, campaign, eat, do mercy, seek justice, and pray together throughout the rest of the week– that would be the sort of beloved community that would matter most. That kind of work would take humility on both sides and a willingness to work with and support brothers in Christ who you may disagree with politically or theologically.
That being said, I do love multiethnic churches, I’m just not entirely sure that that ought to always be the goal.
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Cheryl D #16,
It’s changing, certainly, but as I discussed just above, oftentimes the “integrated” churches are “colorblind” and everyone submits to the dominant culture of the leadership (often white, but not always.) Again, having every church completely reflect its local demographics is not necessarily the goal (although we certainly need more churches where everyone from around the neighborhood feels comfortable worshiping there)– it’s about being the unified body of Christ in work, worship, mercy, justice, etc.
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In the military communities where I’ve been lucky to live in the USA, integration within families is I feel far greater than in the civilian society overall.
I’m not saying anything about an inter-racial or inter-cultural marriage being somehow more difficult than a same-pigment same-culture marriage. Obviously, the mixed couples found in ea other something that was rare, precious and unique which couldnt be masked behind whiteness or blackness. I suspect many were at least briefly “disowned” by their families for whom they married. But the marriages seem quite stable and as I’ve pointed out, black/white marriages are common enough in the military that it doesnt even raise any controversy. German women with black American husbands were a fixture at Killeen Texas playgrounds/parks.
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15 – I agree. It’s better to have a monoracial church with correct doctrine and worship than a multiethnic church with wrong doctrine and worship.
Believe it or not, it’s not a sin for a church to be monoracial. The Lord brings in who He wants to. If he brings in someone or a lot of folks of another race, fine. Church is about the Royal Race of the Redeemed, not Red and Yellow, Black and White!
If he brings someone or a bunch of folks in of the same race, fine. The Lord will build His Church as He sees fit. He doesn’t need our politically correct minority pandering and seeker-sensitivity. Because if that’s the focus, doctrine and worship goes by the wayside, and humanism becomes paramount. It’s all about keeping the “insert color here” folks happy.
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Correction – actually, it’s not even about the Royal Race of the Redeemed! It’s about the Redeemer!
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Arcadia, you demonstrate the problem so well, it’s as if somebody planted your answer. All the problems you list used to be true. To still act like victims, black people must live in the past. I’d love to hear Oprah Winfrey tell me to my face that she is a victim of a racist society. She should compare my bank account with hers!
I notice that you didn’t comment on the statistics that show that the majority of black people not feel that way.
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There exist no consistent biological or anthropological markers for dividing humans into races apart from the single human one. Skin color, epicanthic eye folds, hair texture, are found in embarassing variety across all commonly accepted racial groupings. We are one or we are hundreds of races. In its most accurate sense, all churches are monoracial, with great variety within that race.
I long for the day when we stop trying to navigate with a map that so poorly reflects the contours of the land in which we live.
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Everyone should, of course, attended the church of their choice, At the same time all churches should make an effort to welcome everyone no matter what the color of their skin. There is nothing wrong with a church that is monoracial by chance, but there is a problem with one that is monoracial by choice.
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but there is a problem with one that is monoracial by choice.
Yes, but that’s fairly difficult to ascertain. And since there are plenty of churches which are monoracial, including Black, Hispanic and various Asian churches, the only way to find out for sure is to cause more problems in the Church and among the faithful.
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Men Like Trees,
The multicultural churches I’m familiar with are not as you describe–in fact, in my experience such churches would have a very hard time managing to be multicultural. It simply takes too much work to make such relationships work well, and churches that aren’t willing to do the work are highly unlikely to have multicultural attendance.
Ideally, churches should represent a range of people, including class and age as well as race and other characteristics. The focus on Jesus Christ is the primary reason for any church, but I do think multicultural (and multi-age) worship has a profoundness that homogeneity lacks.
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With the genocide that is going on among the African American race, Dr. King’s dream is far from being realized.
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This genocide is because of abortion and how the African American community is specifically being targeted.
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kbells #22,
I would posit that the majority of churches in America are monoracial by chance, but they assume that they are “open to anyone” from any race, ethnicity, or culture– when, in fact, they aren’t. And they just don’t realize it. And there’s nothing wrong with that, necessarily, although if you’re in a particularly diverse area and you ought to be reaching out to your entire community it could certainly be problematic.
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Cheryl D. #24,
I’m not exactly sure which “type” of multiracial church you’re talking about in your paragraph #1– I go to a multiracial church that works very, very hard to integrate the cultures & experiences of as many of its members as it can, which is hard work! It’s a lot easier to have a dominant culture that everyone submits to, in my opinion…
And you’re right– multicultural worship reflects different aspects of the glory of God in a really profound way, and that’s one of the things that I really love about my church.
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Bianca:
Believe it or not, it’s not a sin for a church to be monoracial. The Lord brings in who He wants to… He doesn’t need our politically correct minority pandering and seeker-sensitivity. Because if that’s the focus, doctrine and worship goes by the wayside, and humanism becomes paramount
Yeah, that’s right, the lord doesn’t care about people and how they get along, all he wants is to be worshipped.
And no of course it’s not a sin to cross the aisle to welcome a new visitor of your own race, but to turn a cold shoulder to a new visitor of a different race. After all the lord’s in charge of such matters, not little old helpless you.
There are lots of sins, Bianca, some of omission…
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Good point Ken, there is only one race, the human race.
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30 – It’s a nice saying, and it’s true salvifically, but it’s not true anthropologically at all. It is in fact, proof that the Church of Christ has been duped with unitarian and Marxist thinking. If it were true that there’s only one race, there wouldn’t be special medication that only works for Blacks for high blood pressure.
Every time someone says there’s only one race, the human race I like to say there’s only one sex – the human sex. And don’t think that that isn’t exactly what the New World Order wants – a raceless, sexless automoton with no familial or national ties.
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Bianca #31,
I think that you are confusing the terms “race” and “ethnicity.” There is an important distinction between the two that needs to be thought about not just in a biomedical context like you discuss, but also in church culture & practice. In ideal circumstances, churches would be able to integrate the different aspects of the culture & ethnic background of all its members to reflect the different, unique ways that every culture glorifies God. But, as we’ve talked about here, that doesn’t always happen and we don’t always need to freak out about it unless the broader community beyond the church is being neglected somehow.
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