Why you won’t see or hear the ‘I have a dream’ speech

[Repatriated Canuck]

Slavery was practiced for more than four centuries. Jim crows laws lasted more than a century. The Blacks and other colored only started experiencing the freedom from legal barriers. However social and economic barriers remain to this day. Don't expect the attitudes of the blacks to disappear overnight the same way as you don't expect social and economic barriers to disappear overnight. After all, there are still survivors of Jim Crow laws and mob lynchings living today. Ask the question in 50 years and then it would be appropriate to ask.

If people are not willing to move on in 50 years it will still be the same.

The attitude you project is similar to the Middle East. Being pissed off for a really long time about historical slights is really working for them over there.

[Blademaster]

If people are not willing to move on in 50 years it will still be the same.

The attitude you project is similar to the Middle East. Being pissed off for a really long time about historical slights is really working for them over there.

Then you have not been in the shoes of these people. You diminish/trivialize the impact of slavery and Jim Crow laws. It is very easy to criticize others when you have enjoyed the products and fruits so long denied to others. Yes the legal barriers are gone but the social and economic barriers are not gone and they take the longest to go away whether you like it or not.

Yes some blacks are lazy but I have seen other blacks who had to work harder and put more efforts to have similar opportunity. We are getting closer to the dream that King was talking about but we are not there yet.

[Repatriated Canuck]

My heritage is mixed. My ancestors where not slaves they where just murdered and had their children taken. Many Native people of North America are still held back due to their own lack of self responsibility. Even with guaranteed 70k job due to their skin colour some can't not drink long enough for an alcohol breath test. They don't tent to blame themselves. Yes they where royally screwed and in VERY recent memory. Until they as a people can start taking responsibilities for themselves they will never be free. My family has still not regained Native Status taken from us.

On my mothers side my family is from Scotland, wonder what made them move to Canada so long ago? Could it be some form of Jacobite oppression? Should I still hate the bastard English?

I've also watched my fiance assaulted through racial hatred and I myself have been abused by a black mother in front of her child. Jamaicans who moved to London sure brought a lot of hate with them. My ancestry is Maritime Canada, we freed slaves. I got beat up by a fair few East Indians as a teenager because of my colour growing up in Surrey BC. I know what racism and bigotry looks and feels like.


I'm so tired of this blame the white man crap. I didn't do it and I don't want to pay for what some asshole did in history who happens to have the same pigment. Those people where evil dickheads.

I'm also far from the abnormal white man. When I meet racist white people of which there are a fair few, normal people think they are just as stupid as you and I do.


Social and economic barriers certainly are still there. It's a good thing I worked my ass off to get a trade before I moved to the North. I'm the wrong colour for an apprenticeship you see; even if I had been born here I'm second to certain tribes in hiring preference. Even if I had my status card I would be the wrong kind of Indian.... What kind of racial harmony do you believe hiring practices based on race promote?

When was the last time you filled out a job application? Why do they ask what racial background you identify yourself as? I bet it must be so they can hire the white people first.


Your version of social and economic barriers don't go away anywhere. There are poor areas all over the world full of people blaming their version of the man as to why their life sucks.

Anyone alive today in North America who works hard and is willing to move to chase work will be successful. To say otherwise is a lie.


You have a black president in a country with only %12.6 black people according to wiki. Not the greatest source but it will do.

Demographics of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



That's a whole lot of racist white people forgetting to vote I guess.

[JAD_333]

You may not want to be so quick in taking King down a notch JAD. It is hard to say what his motivation was at the time and he is no longer around to explain/defend that position.

My notches are small. :) I still have a high opinion of him.

[bonehead]

Then you have not been in the shoes of these people. You diminish/trivialize the impact of slavery and Jim Crow laws. It is very easy to criticize others when you have enjoyed the products and fruits so long denied to others. Yes the legal barriers are gone but the social and economic barriers are not gone and they take the longest to go away whether you like it or not.

Yes some blacks are lazy but I have seen other blacks who had to work harder and put more efforts to have similar opportunity. We are getting closer to the dream that King was talking about but we are not there yet.

I am not diminishing the impacts of slavery/jim crow laws as heinous is too light of a word, but seriously, how many do you personally know that were slaves? I do not advocate forgetting those atrocious crimes, but it is time to put down that crutch of an excuse because if you don't you are never going to be able to move on. In todays society what happened to your great great grandparents many years ago matters very little when compared to what YOU make of your life today. Many people have to work harder than others for the same opportunity but it is rarely a matter of skin color. More like who you hang out with and BTW racism still is a two way street. Pretty much everyone living today has experienced a form of it. Most of todays social barriers holding back blacks are put in place by the black community. Even though that pressing problem needs to be addressed it is largely been ignored. Exactly what economic barriers that are in place today are you referring to?

[bonehead]

My notches are small. :) I still have a high opinion of him.

I don't doubt that. It is a shame that his speech is not more widely and freely available as it is not only about blacks, or even Americans but relates to everyone on the planet.

[Parihaka]

Obama reminds Americans that Martin Luther King’s vision was just a dream

Today, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., U.S. President Barack Obama marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech by reminding Americans that the civil rights leader’s vision was “just a dream” and “not necessarily representative of an eventual reality.”

“Fifty years ago, on the night before he marched on these steps, Dr. King had a dream,” said Obama. “It was a good dream, and that’s why we remember it. But like with all dreams, we must understand that it is neither realistic nor necessarily achievable.”

Obama told the audience of tens of thousands that, while dreams can be fun and “sometimes sexy,” they are “also not real.”

“Dreams are a wonderful thing,” he said. “Dreams keep hope alive. But as I’m sure you’ve all experienced in your own lives, dreams don’t often come true.

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a firefighter. Obviously that didn’t pan out.”

Obama said it was “probably best” that King’s vision never fully reach fruition, because if everyone was judged by the content of their character, “no one would be treated very well at all.”

Nonetheless, Obama acknowledged that Dr. King’s vision of racial harmony in America and throughout the world was “a nice idea,” but he didn’t have time to stick around and talk about it, as he had an important meeting about war.

Former President Bill Clinton also delivered a speech at today’s event, in which he recounted at length one of his own dreams while touching himself.

[Double Edge]

It is hard to say what his motivation was at the time and he is no longer around to explain/defend that position.

If you think music and artists having the rights to their work, then it makes sense.

He wanted to prevent others from commercially exploiting his work. It belonged to him and he wanted to keep it that way. And the system allowed him to do just that.

[JAD_333]

Obama reminds Americans that Martin Luther King’s vision was just a dream

Everyone knows this is made-up satire, right? Obama's actual speech was rather blah...

The full text with applause indicated can be found here:

Remarks by the President at the "Let Freedom Ring" Ceremony Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington | The White House

[Parihaka]

Everyone knows this is made-up satire, right? Obama's actual speech was rather blah...

The full text with applause indicated can be found here:

Remarks by the President at the "Let Freedom Ring" Ceremony Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington | The White House

oh spoilsport. This is pure gold

Obama said it was “probably best” that King’s vision never fully reach fruition, because if everyone was judged by the content of their character, “no one would be treated very well at all.”

[JAD_333]

oh spoilsport. This is pure gold