Still dreaming

Still moves me every time I hear it.

Dr. King would be 80 years old this past week. His death was a serious loss for all humanity, not just those Americans of color. I know many saw him as a "rabble rouser" and a trouble maker, but civil rights was something that was - and still is - a place where the pot needs to be stirred. We cannot be complacent, we cannot turn a blind eye. None are free while others remain oppressed.

As I find myself doing every year, I wonder what Dr. King would think of our nation, of our world, if he were still alive. Consider, on this historic eve, this piece of Dr. King's speech:

"We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote, and a Negro in New York believes that he has nothing for which to vote."

Black America had an amazing turnout this year. Actually, several segments of the population who had previously been seriously underrepresented turned out in spades and made their voices heard. We stood up and shouted that we were done with the status quo, were tired of the Old (Rich, White) Boys' Club and tired of not having a sovereign interest. We showed that everyone can have a say. And instead of yet another old white man of privilege, we elected the best man for the job: a mixed-race man, son of a Kenyan, born in Hawaii, who lived many of his formative years in Indonesia. I am proud of us. I venture to say Dr. King would be, too.

Consider also this, one of my favorite quotes from the March on Washington speech: "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." That was in 1963. Today, some 46 years later, my friend Khalilah went to work. She's one of my friends from medical school. She's a physician, a solid, solid woman, and one of the best people of character I know. Today, at the hospital, dressed down but wearing a name badge that said "doctor," someone saw a black woman and assumed she was part of the housekeeping staff.

::sigh::

Prejudice is insidious. We're set up for it - you constantly make quick, automatic assessments of people and situations, and it serves an adaptive and protective function. What makes us judgmental is not whether or not we judge people, but how rigid we are in those judgments. How much we allow the irrational and unfounded to cloud our lens. Even now, as far as we've come, our lens, as a nation, is still quite foggy. Consider Khalila assumed to be a housekeeper, me assumed to be a nurse. Consider the disgrace that is most of our inner-city school systems. Consider Proposition 8. We've come so far as a people, a nation, a culture, and a race of humanity. But we're not there yet. We still have so far to go.

Now is the time, my friends. Now is the time.