The 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech presented an opportunity to ask ourselves if we are satisfied with the state of racial relations in America a half-century after King’s landmark address. While there have been significant gains in racial justice over the years, the fact is our country is still deeply divided on race.
The most recent example of this divide is the outrage over the death of a college baseball player Christopher Lane in Duncan, Okla. by three teenagers who allegedly killed him out of boredom. What should be a story of shock over a senseless, random killing has instead turned into a debate over race.
It’s not enough that a 22-year-old college student was killed in cold blood by three teenagers — it’s the fact that a white man was killed by three teenagers, two of whom are black, that is causing the majority of the outrage — or, according to conservatives, the lack thereof.
Fox News, Glenn Beck and other notable conservatives have injected race into the Lane’s death by asking where the outrage is for a white man being killed by a black teenager who had previously posted racist tweets towards white people.
These tweets fueled the conservative fire that there is a double standard when it comes to race and violence. Their argument is on the heels of the recent Trayvon Martin verdict, which set off a national debate on race because a black man was killed by a white-Latino man and argues that there should be a similar sentiment in the Lane murder.
The conservatives have a point. When Martin was shot by George Zimmerman, it sparked nationwide anger and debate over race, which overshadowed the real tragedy — a teenager was killed on his way home from buying iced tea and Skittles.
Conservatives believe that the Martin case was an example of the media being overly sympathetic because they portrayed it as a killing based on race. This notion was amplified by the fact that President Barack Obama came out twice and spoke about the issue, saying, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” and then after the verdict, “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.”
Obama’s comments helped turn the Martin tragedy into a debate about race and gave conservatives a legitimate reason to question Obama’s silence on Lane’s death. Although Obama recently released a statement condemning the violent act, it was a far cry different from the personal attention he paid to the Martin killing.
The irony is that there was no proof that Zimmerman killed Martin because he was black or that racial profiling was involved, just as there is no direct proof that Lane was killed because he was white. However, when Obama chose to make those statements about Martin he made it a racial issue and opened himself up for criticism for not showing the same level of sympathy for Lane being killed by a black man.
The Martin and Lane killings are prime examples of the deep racial divide that still exists 50 years after King’s speech.
We have a president who says he wants to unite our country and then makes comments that create a racial divide. We have a media that, on both sides of the political spectrum, has no qualms about using race to stir up interest in a story. The fact of the matter is that Martin was killed because of a Florida law that encourages and protects budding vigilantes, and Lane was killed because three teenagers in Oklahoma were bored. The real issue in those killings should be the accessibility of guns to just about anyone and not race, yet that’s the conversation we are still having.
When King gave his emotional and stirring speech, he spoke of his dream for our nation to live up to the true meaning of our creed that all men are created equal. While we have made great strides as a country with civil rights, we still are not living King’s dream. Our nation has yet to fully grasp the concept that all men are created equal and that any unnecessary death is a tragedy in itself. Race should have nothing to do with it.
As a nation we should come together over the senseless killings of Martin and Lane instead of being driven apart. This was part of the dream that King had for our nation and he spoke of this hope in his speech saying, “With this faith we will be able transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”
Perhaps over the next 50 years that dream can become a reality.