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I Have a Dream, a la Shmoop. We may not have the whole thing committed

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to memory…

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…but we all know at least bits and pieces of Martin Luther King Jr.’s immortal speech.

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Here are a couple familiar-sounding nuggets:

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“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not

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be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…”

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“Let freedom ring…”

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“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

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“Would you eat them in a box? Would you eat them with a fox?

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Okay, to be fair, that last one was Seuss. But still.

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It’s been a long time since King delivered that speech…

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…and the world has changed quite a lot.

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But… are blacks “free at last,” as he hoped?

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Is his dream now a reality? Or are we still in the process of waking up?

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One big point in the “reality” column is that we have now elected a black president.

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Not only that… but we’ve re-elected a black president.

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So seemingly we didn’t just vote Obama into office as a social experiment.

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The fact that a majority of the country… however slim… is willing to have a black

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man lead our country…

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…seems to indicate that the ugly veil of racism has been lifted… at least somewhat.

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But does that mean there aren’t others who are still hanging onto a racist agenda?

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Will King’s dream not become reality until our nation is 100 percent bigot-free?

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Most people are pretty good about not hating… redheads, for example.

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But we’re sure there is a small segment of crazy out there who are forming “I Hate

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Ginger” clubs as we speak. Does that mean that our nation isn’t truly

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free as long as there is even the tiniest bit of irrational hate bubbling below the

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surface? Or… are we not nearly as close as we think

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we are?

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True, black Americans have numerous opportunities that they did not have 50 years ago…

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…and they can hold many positions of authority that were previously off-limits…

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…but hate crimes still abound. There are still daily reports of racism-fueled

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acts of violence…

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…and even non-minorities who claim that they “don’t see color” may still harbor

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some degree of subconscious prejudice. So… are “little black boys and black girls

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free to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters

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and brothers”…

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…as King hoped? Does our election of a black president prove

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that we’ve cleared the divide?

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Are a small percentage of haters ruining it for the rest of us?

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Or is the world King dreamed of… still something of a nightmare?

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Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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