Today I replayed the Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream" speech and posted the video on my FaceBook page. Throughout the day, I replayed it. Even got a YouTube of an angry "ginger"--the name that South Park gave red-headed kids with freckles, to make fun of making fun of people based on the color of their skin. Not all the kids got the joke, some red-headed kids are getting bullied from the episodes and reactions are happening. Satire can detonate in your hands sometimes.
Dr. King has a famous sentence: "I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Since this phrase has become accepted as truth, I thought it might be provocative to find a way to challenge it and get some debate and discussion about what this means today. I made my personal status, "Last MLK thought for the day: It wasn't clear from the speech, do we still retain the right to be judged by the color of our skin, or do we all now have to be judged by the content of our character? I'm thinking some folks may want to stick with the skin bit."
Immediately, a friend on a FaceBook Thread of college friends wrote: "...what does that mean coming from a really white Dutch American male? I'm just sayin'...you may want to click 'delete'... I mean, I think I get what you are saying, but the masses may not."
I believe "delete" as an option in social media, is weak. Instead I posted the below:
It invited some off-beat questions that I thought were provocative:
1. Will Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson start judging people by the content of their character?
2. Was OJ guilty or innocent because of skin color, dollar-to-attorney ratio, or content of his character?
3. If my character really sucks, can I go back to skin color?
4. If I believe in original sin, neither judgment criteria works very well.
5. Should we be judging folks, like political figures, religious leaders and celebrities on the content of their character? For what and when do we get to throw the first stone? There seems to be a big debate over that these days, what that criteria actually means and when it applies.
I think the vast majority of Americans agree that judging people based on skin color is foolish (hence today's national holiday). I'm not sure we all agree that judging people based on the content of their character is such a great criteria anymore. Thought it might be interesting to ask the question about skin vs. content of character.
So here is my attempt at a haiku (leaving as much space as possible for interpretation) about MLK Day:
mlk throwing stones?
judge not skin color
but moral soul character
please don't dig too deep
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Love the haiku. Lots of good questions here and food for thought. I agree with the essence of what you're saying, and that we're all fallen, flawed human beings regardless of skin color. However, I think what King meant is that he hoped for the day when, for example, in considering hiring someone for a job, or choosing one's friends, etc., people would make those "judgments" (or "choices," if the word "judgment" bothers you) based upon a person's qualifications for that job or inner qualities as a friend.... The fact that none of us meets God's perfect standard--in the sense of content of character--doesn't mean that we should turn to judging people based upon skin color.
ReplyDeleteAgree--skin color doesn't seem to be a good criteria for judgment calls or days.
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