For whites, it’s easy to write off the significance of today’s 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights March on Washington. NOW SHOWING in a theater near you is the movie “The Butler.” IN A POLL by the Pew Research Center, the majority of blacks think Martin Luther King’s “Dream” remains an elusive goal.
That’s because in our lifetimes, we have never been denied the right to vote.
For whites, the anniversary can seem “overblown.”
That’s because we have never been knocked over by the forceful spray of a firehose, attacked by snarling dogs, or humiliated at a lunch counter or bus.
“Enough already,” we say of the blanket coverage by media of the Civil Rights movement.
That’s because on today’s streets, whites aren’t randomly pulled over by metropolitan police officers.
So yes, the Movement, by necessity, remains current, as does that for every minority.
That’s not to say progress has not been made.
In our lifetimes, blacks have won the same privileges of all Americans. No more separate drinking fountains, rest rooms, schools, or places to sit on a bus on in a restaurant. No more lynchings.
Seems barbaric, doesn’t it.
See it.
The storyline is of a black youth raised in the cotton fields who escapes slavery to work as a butler during eight presidential administrations over the course of 30 years at our nation’s White House.
The butler’s mantra is to see, hear and say no evil as he waits on his white “superiors.”
So when his son joins the Civil Rights Movement it’s to his father’s horror — mostly out of fear.
Spoil alert: There’s a lesson here for everyone.
Remember, the dream is that African Americans have a right to “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness,” just as much as anyone else.
“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.”
Lofty talk for just wanting to walk down a street without the cops looking crosswise at you. Today’s jails and prisons incarcerate one of every 10 black men. For whites males, the ratio is one to 61.
Fair or not, the onus is on blacks to rise above racial stereotypes and social prejudices and prove they can graduate from high school and college at the same rate as other ethnicities. That they can wait until marriage to have children and be two-parent families. And that they can hold down full-time jobs.
On the flip side, law enforcement officers and the prison system should examine their anti-discrimination policies and punish inside acts of racial bias.
And each us, in our quiet moments, need to reflect on King’s words, “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last,” and feel the joy that came from so much pain.
— Susan Lynn
