Question

Help appreciated! Thanks! :3 How well has the United States has fulfilled the Dream described by Dr. King---> In what ways has the U.S. succeeded? In what ways has it failed to live up to King's vision?

Answer 1

YES due to

Before we tackle a question like this, we need to look at context. And we need to treat the man as a man, not a cause.

Lincoln, responsible for emancipating our nation's slaves and arguably beginning the advancement of the civil rights cause, said that he would never suggest that blacks could be intellectually or socially equal to whites. Was he racist? No. Did he still have a vision of race relations far ahead of his time? Absolutely. Was he a great man who made great changes? Absolutely. Was his vision accomplished? Yes.

Does that mean that we live in a perfect world, or that the fight to end racism and racial inequality is won? No.

Similarly, MLK lived in a time when the status quo was entirely different than in our world and times. If a black person were told to "get to the back of the bus" or that "we don't serve coloreds," in the United States of 2009, they would be taken aback, surprised, and maybe even laugh at the mere ideas. For black Americans in Martin Luther King's times, these were realities of every day life.

When Dr. King spoke of a day when little black boys and girls could hold hands with and play with little white boys and girls, he was not speaking figuratively. He was speaking literally. In his time, that was unthinkable. Today, it is normal and accepted.

Martin Luther King, Jr. lived in a day when it was common for white Americans to call people "sleek-feathered ones." Today, even people who use that word tend to look over their shoulder and think twice about it.

We have come a long way since Dr. King's time, and I believe that we have cashed our check. Is our nation, or our world, perfect? No. Will it ever be? No. Is there still racism and racial inequality? Yes. But simply the fact that the "norm," or what is expected of black and white Americans is now the same, is the accomplishment of his dream. The fact that we discuss "racism" and "racial inequality," and consider them as out of the ordinary and unacceptable is the accomplishment of his dream.

Now, for considering him a man, not a concept. We have accomplished his dream, but that does not mean we need to stop fighting racism and inequality. Martin Luther King and his dreams were part of an idea, not the whole idea. He lived in a time where his vision and his dream were very forward thinking and radical, just as Lincoln's vision of physical freedom for blacks was in his own time.

That dream has been realized, that check has been cashed. But our society's checking account has not been closed. Martin Luther King's dream was not the destination; it was a stop on a long, hard road. We have reached that stop, but must continue down the road.


NO due to
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's speech, given as Lincoln's massive statue sat silently in the shadows of the March on Washington on August 20, 1963, has been largely ignored by history. We remember his famous line that one day he hoped his "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" but we forget he also had a dream that America would "live out the true meaning of its creed," namely that all men were created equal, and that across the South, white and black could "join hands...as sisters and brothers" and justice be meted out-fairly-to all Americans. Unfortunately, we continually refer to King's speech as a dream, and few expect dreams to be fulfilled.

King spoke on that August day of a future where all people would be treated equally no matter their faith or skin color. One need only turn on the news to see how woefully short America falls short in that regard. A person's sexual orientation and attractiveness are just two examples of how differently people are treated based on what most would consider quirks of genetics. This is also the obvious absence of women in King's vision, though to fixate on that ignores the cultural context of 1963, where few would not group women and men under the same umbrella.

Another of King's dreams, that the South would become not simply racially-tolerant but color-blind, is easily proven a failure by looking at news stories across the South (let alone the North). While King's focus was the plight of African-Americans, it is just as common now to hear about racial strife involving Hispanics and Asian-Americans (just to name two racial groups growing in influence in the south) to see that the South, as well as America as a whole, has a long ways to go to see King's dream fulfilled. Lynchings and voter intimidation are far less common, but stereotyped depictions of individuals based on their race (or gender) seem to be growing.

What then of the dream we remember, that King's children (meaning the younger generation of black Americans) would be judged solely by their character? When Barack Obama was elected President in 2008, many hailed it as proof race no longer mattered. Of course, many could say the economy simply mattered more-it is folly to assume why one votes one way or another without evidence. Far more troubling was that, in the same breath this odd vision of racial utopianism was being reported, Obama was trumpeted as the "first black president." The language is important, because it presents race before title, which gives it importance. Similarly, when Jack Kennedy was elected in 1960, he was called the "first Roman Catholic president." Again, the statement is factually accurate, but by talking about such characteristics, it gives them importance.

Would we treat a red-haired (forgetting Thomas Jefferson for the moment), glasses-wearing or double-jointed president the same way? No, because they are not considered relevant to a person's character, whereas race and religion have been and to many, still are important measures of a person. Hence, you will hear often in election cycles that America has not had a Jewish (not to mention Muslim) president, often with subtle hints that the absence is not mere coincidence. Until we start thinking of Barack Obama as a president who is black instead of a black president, King's dream of a person's character being judged on their actions and not their genetics is far from reality.

This sad collection of evidence is not, however, reason to consider King's dream a failure simply because it has not been fulfilled. Striving for the dream, keeping the importance of equality in our minds and hearts, was King's ultimate goal for the foreseeable future. So while the dream has not been fulfilled, that it is remembered makes it that much more likely that, by reminding Americans of their shortcomings, they will continue to work to make his dream come true.