I was in my car this morning on my way to work listening to Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the radio. Today is the anniversary of his death in Memphis. It wasn’t my first time hearing it but it was my first actually paying attention to what he was saying. I really listened to the hopes, dreams, and aspirations he had for his African American people.
I asked myself if we as an African Americans have lived up to those expectations.
True, we have come a mighty long way.
We have been given opportunities to do things that those who came before us couldn’t imagine doing, not for fear of failure, which stops many from advancing in life, but for fear of being beaten or even killed.
For my generation, it is a difficult concept to grasp because we didn’t live back then. We don’t truly know what it is to be declared guilty and deserving of such harsh treatment by others just on the color of our skin.
Today, a lot of the mistreatment we experience today is due to our immense contentment with the state of affairs in
America.
When Jeremiah Wright’s sermons were being broadcast on every major network, I saw him as a little bit over the top in what he was saying. However his seemingly contempt for America is not completely unwarranted. Many people would agree with me that we are not all equal. In the eyes of the law, money, job market, and the education system African Americans are not truly created equal. African Americans in many instances are given harsher sentences, paid less, not fully represented in many career fields, nor receive the same quality of education.
So then the question becomes: What are we African Americans doing about it???
Don’t get me wrong, groups like the NAACP and individuals like Jesse Jackson speak out whenever injustice hits our communities and for that I am grateful. With the exception of this minority, what are we doing about it???
I can tell you what we are doing. We’re having our men wear pants below their butts glorifying ghetto life. Our girls are becoming mothers before they become women. We are investing our money in name brands, rims, and big cars. We’re foregoing education and culture to walk around and speak ignorance instead.
So how can one be too content? The definition of content is being satisfied with what one is or has and not wanting more or anything else. The Civil Rights movement gave us a lot and because it gave us the ability, we are content with that. So content we cannot see how much further we can go as a people.
The price of being too content.
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