be king

Be Dr. King for a moment.

You are not a dreamer. But you do have a vision. Your opposition? On one side, a racist society. Racist politicians. Racists police. Racist people. On the other side, hopelessness. Poverty. Fear. Ignorance. Your mission seems impossible. To fight racism, and unite your own people, with one tactic. Peace. Anger is constantly aimed at you. So are barking dogs. Water hoses. And guns. Your weapon. Peace. Rational men can't understand your logic. Defending oneself is a birth right. Isn't it? But that's not your vision. By the way, you are not a single man with nothing to lose. You have a wife. And kids. Your death will have ramifications on their lives. You accept this. You push on. You know freedom is a process. So you march. You protest. You have sit-ins. You go to jail. All while saying, peace is the key. Not only here, in America. But even over there, in Vietnam. At one period in your life, you are a civil rights leader. But you are more than that. You become a human rights leader. You've taken the struggle, from the South, to the North, and abroad. You begin to criticize foreign policy. Compared to more outspoken militant minds, you seem to be the lesser of two evils. However, you are very much viewed as a threat. You are attending African Day Celebrations. You don't believe in black power the slogan. You do believe in black power the notion. You say Italians don't scream Italian power. You say Jews don't scream Jewish power. You believe black power is in the organization of communities and businesses. The government knows this, "most dangerous and effective negro leader in the country". So they see you as the enemy. Your dreams, are nightmares. Always ending the same way. A gun shot. You on the pavement. With only your words, to live for you, through eternity. You are tired. Misunderstood. Praised and criticized in the same breath. Your own people question you. Your own people hate you. The government is always watching you. So why are you doing this? You have a vision. You think America can and should live up to its own promise. Freedom, liberty, and justice. FOR ALL. One day, the dream, or should I say, the nightmare comes true. You hear a gun shot. You drop. You hit the pavement. Blackness. Silence. You're gone.

The rioters riot. The looters loot. The mourners mourn. You live on. But people forget who you were. Instead of relying on their memories, instead of relying on the very words you left us, they let text books and media outlets redefine you. They offer up only a few of your writings. The new definition? The dreamer. You become synonymous with the American dream. They forget to remind people you never saw equality in your lifetime. Or that they may never see it in their's. Neither do they mention your political criticism of the government. They also forget about you speaking out against Vietnam. They even forget to mention you were one of the most hated black men of your time. They simply say, you had a dream.

Dr. King you live on, even now. Last night you were on the Boondocks. In their scenario, you were never killed. You just got shot, and laid in a coma for years. Then you woke up to see this. A society equally as dysfunctional as yours. A society where black people make up less than 2% of corporate America. A society where over 90% of the people will die in the same economic group they were born into. A society where black people still have the same percentage of the wealth, that we did post slavery. The Oprahs, Jordan, Bob Johnsons, and every black executive and ball player in professional sports. Those are the lotto ticket holders. There's an entire nation of struggling people forgotten about. And to pacify us, on your birthday, they call you, the dreamer.

You are Dr. King. Redefined and watered down. Your words, essays, speeches, and every aspect of your life is still out there waiting to be discovered. The question is, how many people, will be willing, to discover, who you really were?