“I Have a Dream” 50th Anniversary: Why are we Still Sleep???

Posted by

JaimeBenin

August 28, 2013

On August 28, 2013

“There comes a time where silence is betrayal” – Dr. Martin Luther King

Yeah, yeah, I know what today is. I recognize Martin Luther King’s dedication to the uplift of his race. But I have a question…

What the hell are we celebrating for???

Today, we celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of that great day in American history and we reflect on how far we’ve come. But I have to ask…just what are we celebrating?

50 years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Black Americans are facing a real unemployment rate of nearly 37% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics U-6 unemployment rate. Black youth aged 16-24 have an unemployment rate of of nearly 48%.
There are less Black-owned enterprises now than there were during the 1950s.
Among Black families who do have jobs, their wealth is 20 times less than the median white household according to a 2011 Pew Research Report. In the same report, it’s found that almost one-third of Black households have zero or negative wealth (debt).
Sadly, many of us are not free at last. The number of incarcerated Americans has risen from less than 400,000 in Dr. King’s time to nearly 2.5 million today. Of those 2.3 million, more than one million of those prisoners are Black, even though they only represent 13.6 percent of the American population. This means that there are more people in jail today than there were slaves in 1850s America.
72% of Black children are raised in a single parent household.
Black students represent only 21% of the public school population in Florida, but make up nearly 46% of all disciplinary action and arrests. This means that the same schools we fought so hard to get into are not only depriving our youth of an education, but they’re simultaneously pushing Black children into the prison system.

Don’t get me wrong, progress has been made. If it weren’t for Dr. King, the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968 wouldn’t have ever happened, and we would be in the same struggle we were in 50 years ago.

But anyone who looks at Black America’s situation has to admit that we ARE in the same struggle were in 50 years ago. As a matter of fact, it’s the same struggle that our forefathers faced when they were forced to become slaves to build the New World. As depressing as it may be to think about, the forces of oppression against Blacks haven’t changed at all…we’ve only been taught to be more tolerant of our situation.

Social integration is not the same as racial equality. Being allowed in the building is not the same thing as owning one just like it. Many of our parents were the first to live their whole lives in an integrated society and after hearing stories of your grandparents being banned from stores like Woolworth’s for their whole lives, they spent the last 30 years spending Black dollars in white businesses. As a result, the Black community has crumbled, and our generation has very little left to call our own.

The positive thing is that we are in a prime position to right the ship of racial inequality if we are bold enough to accept our responsibilities. This includes making decisions by your own research rather than accepting everything you hear as fact. It also calls for us to be active participants in the uplift of our people.

Each one of us were born in the shadow of the crack cocaine explosion, and as young adults most of us will have to pay 56% more in student loans than a student did ten years ago. By now, we should know that things aren’t equal.

And if you know better, do better.