Text Title: I Have A Dream
Author: Martin Luther King
Text Type: Speech/Written text
Date read: 25/9/2020

This text was a speech written and presented by Martin Luther King Jr. He was a  activist who preached non-direct violence protesting for civil rights for black people during the 1950 and 60s. His speech was presented at Lincoln Memorial in Washington Dc in 1963 on the 28th of August. It was a peaceful demonstration in which of many, during those years regarding the discrimination black people were still facing. His speech talked of how although slavery was abolished  in 1865, “One hundred years later the life of a Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.”,  people of colour were still not ‘free’  almost 100 years later, still lived in fear and captivity of the white race who claimed superiority though Jim Crow laws, lynchings, segregation, KKK, etc. He goes onto explain a dream he has where colour is not seen but admired and accepted as equal.

In the speech he says “There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted citizenship rights.” . I thought this was a fair statement in relation to the protests they were doing because why should have have tolerate such inhumane treatment and it also foreshadowed exactly the situation in the present day America where Black Lives Matter protests are resurfacing at a fast rate and turning violent quickly. The reason for the rage and protests is not because they are looking for an excuse to be destructive or randomly deciding to snap but a build up of rage from hundreds of years of oppression and discrimination because like King said slavery was abolished 100 years ago from when he said his speech and since then its been another 60 odd years and they still are not ‘free’.   

In the speech King says “So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”. Meaning that the dream he has for America of equality and equality for people of all races directly correlates and falls under the American dream that states ‘Anyone born of any race or class has an equal opportunity to attain success and happiness through hard-work’. I thought this potentially was not the best comparison because in the real world the American dream is an unattainable ideal that realistically no one can reach, this is because human nature and society create the idea that there will always be someone happier, wealthier, classier than you no matter what status you reach. Therefore him saying that his dream is ‘rooted’ in the American dream to me makes me think, especially because of our current days events and reality, that this dream of equality is, like the American dream, unattainable, which is a really dark idea and I think incorrect but definitely something requires time, lots of education and change.

The segregation that he talks about in the speech is something that I cannot relate to in any particular way because what he faces himself and people of different races is based purely on the colour of their skin or the way they look. “ I have a dream that little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged  the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”, what King is saying is that, the reality for children of colour is that they are judged instantaneously with prejudice on who and the type of person they are.  This shallow judgement is the stepping stone to numerous false judgments of character, actions, intentions, intelligence, all of which are things that as a white person I have not had to endure because although maybe judged off of appearance and things that I can control, never off of something like skin colour which is an uncontrollable variable. I thought this was really sad because what it means is that it limits the opportunities and everything that people have and makes me feel way too lucky, because although exactly the same inside, because of the outside of my skin I could have ten times the likeliness of being successful.