I was given a report to do in my US History II class, and it was over Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech. The paper was supposed to tell what I thought -- Had Dr. King's "dream" become a reality in today's age, or had it not?

At first I said that it hadn't. In my old school, it seemed like the kids -wanted- to be segregated. In the lunch room there was only one table with mixed races, all the rest were divided. There are still hate groups floating around such as the musical artists 'Prussian Blue' and the rapper 'Apache'. Both harvesting some, in my opinion, sick lyrics. There are still injustices done based on race and there is always the media - dividing us up by using stereotypes.

Then I thought: No, wait. There has been a lot of progress made. When I went to lunch at the school, I sat with friends of different races. I went to class with people of different races. Oh, and while there are still hate groups and members of say, the neo-nazis and the KKK, the numbers have been declining drastically and they seem to be a thing of the past. His dream was to have us coexist and have the same rights and everything, right?

I talked to my teacher about this, and I came up with a conclusion: I have no idea what I'm going to do about this report.

He said: Just go one way or the other. Make sure you can back it up.

Now, I have my opinions and thoughts... I kind of wanted to see what some other people thought.

Has Martin Luther King JR's dream become a reality? Why or why not?

Here's a copy of his speech: http://www.mecca.org/~crights/dream.html

First of all, why the hell aren't you guys studying American history? Well, I guess since most oppressive and unjust policy today results from the "civil rights" era, there is some relevence to it.

You have to take a look at the substance of that speech. There really isn't much, since so most is delusional imagery designed to confused and conjure emotional response.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

If you can find such people, you can ask them if they ever eat together.

I have a dream that my four 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.

As a result of the "civil rights" policies, people are judged by the "color of their skin" and this makes it unfair in regards to things like admission to college.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama...will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

Do the ghetto street gangs take Whites nowaday? You will have to investigate that, but I doubt it.

Snouter, what the heck are you talking about? Do you read the paper? Schools aren't allowed to have seperate admissions processes for minorities, so no one gets any special advantage simply on the basis of the color of their skin.

They're only allowed to use race as a factor among equally qualified candidates to ensure representative admissions. If one group is underrepresented among equally qualified candidates, what explanation could there be besides discrimination?

Schools aren't allowed to have seperate admissions processes for minorities, so no one gets any special advantage simply on the basis of the color of their skin.

Thanks to civil rights activists like Ward Connerly, but I have no doubt they try everything they can to skirt the laws for their favored minorities.

If one group is underrepresented among equally qualified candidates, what explanation could there be besides discrimination?

That your premise is incorrect? :shrug:

Bad assumption #1 - that colleges "favor" minorities, when history indicates exactly the otherwise.

Bad assumption #2 - that AA could possibly explain underrepresenation of MINORITIES.

School is still expensive and the Blacks are still poorer than the Whites.
MLK got some of what he wanted-but there's been an awesome backlash so he lost some of the ground he made.

while I believe there has been real progress and openly racist acts do not happen nearly as much there is still a very long way to go.
everybody has their own idea of what constitutes a just society. You can't define for everyone. You need to define a just society for yourself. put that in your paper

School is still expensive and the Blacks are still poorer than the Whites.
MLK got some of what he wanted-but there's been an awesome backlash so he lost some of the ground he made.

Explain the backlash? The hate groups and stuff?

Explain the backlash? The hate groups and stuff?

With Reagan,the white middle class was fed up and rebelled-it started with proposition 13 in California-many white people felt that the welfare state was the handmaiden of the minority races and most particularly the blacks.
Inflation was way out of hand and the middle class had some just cause for complaint-as often happens though there were a few who wanted to take it a whole lot farther. They started survivalist groups and militias and distributed paranoid and seditious anti-American propaganda and basically watered down the white vote with their extremism,enabling the far right to seize control of the Republican party.There's a start...

With Reagan,the white middle class was fed up and rebelled-it started with proposition 13 in California-many white people felt that the welfare state was the handmaiden of the minority races and most particularly the blacks.
Inflation was way out of hand and the middle class had some just cause for complaint-as often happens though there were a few who wanted to take it a whole lot farther. They started survivalist groups and militias and distributed paranoid and seditious anti-American propaganda and basically watered down the white vote with their extremism,enabling the far right to seize control of the Republican party.There's a start...

WHAT???

Do you even listen to what you're saying?

First you paint the whole "white-middle class" as disgruntled, then you say their were a "few" paranoids.....and then you claim that these few paranoids "watered down the white vote"

Sorry sir, but this doesn't stand a chance in the no spin zone!

Here's a good information resource:

http://www.martinlutherking.org/

:rofl: From the libel-proof plaintiffs that brought you Stormfront comes www.martinlutherking.org.

WHAT???

Do you even listen to what you're saying?

First you paint the whole "white-middle class" as disgruntled, then you say their were a "few" paranoids.....and then you claim that these few paranoids "watered down the white vote"

Sorry sir, but this doesn't stand a chance in the no spin zone!

The whole middle class was disgruntled-a few can water down the vote because so few vote and so many are ignorant and apathetic.
The truth often sounds like spin because it's unapologizingly complex.

Well... I thought I'd just tell you all that I did my report... Finished it yesterday. I stuck with my original plan of "No, it has not become a reality" and then in my conclusion paragraph I said that "While it hasn't become a reality, some progress has been made such as blah blah and blah." Since I was so divided with it, he told me that would be fine to do.