April 4, 2018 will mark 50 years since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. As the nation celebrates Black History Month, let us compare what King envisioned for our future to the reality of being black in today’s society.
Racial oppression by policy has always been most efficient for white Americans, as it has been since the Black Codes of the Reconstruction Era and the Jim Crow South. The U.S. progressed through countless racial conflicts in the 20th century. As the 21st came around, some argued the outward violence of race relations in America had subsided. No one was ignorant to the point of thinking racism in America was no longer real, it was simply no longer mainstream.
As we move into the digital age, camera phones expose an enormous problem: police brutality in America. Time after time, name after name and trend after trend, every case rocks the nation. Communities fed up with plight of terrible policing took to the streets, but the peaceful protest blueprint created by King was lost. From the CNN and Fox News angle, every protest was only a looting-filled riot that proved the true ignorance of these urban communities.
To say that 50 years has yielded nothing for the black community is simply untrue. The wealth gap between communities is still great, but it is shrinking. High school graduation rates for black Americans are roughly 16 percent lower than that of white Americans, but this percentage continues to shrink.
The truth is, Black America has yet to reach the potential of King’s true dream. Complacency breeds contempt. Electing former president Barack Obama as our 44th president was not our cap. Black Americans continue to define and recreate popular culture, but entertainment and music is not our sole purpose. The mental complex that the only options for young black Americans are sports or music is hindering success for so many people in the community.
College graduation rates are up for black Americans. However, according to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, it is merely 42 percent, compared to 62 percent for whites. Correcting this alone would create so much more wealth and opportunity for the black American community.
King faced violence and resistance everywhere he went, but that never stopped him from continuing the fight and the journey he felt God had predestined for him. That same spirit of violence and resistance to change is still alive today, and even emboldened by words from people in high places.
Last year, President Donald Trump praised the good people “on both sides” of a horrific racism-based event that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia. This should be a wake-up call for every minority community, but especially black Americans. The election of a president who is so lacking of moral compass that he cannot denounce Nazis and white nationalists proves there is still much work to be done 50 years after King.
In 2016, there were 5,770 hate crime offenders. Of these, 46 percent of offenders were white. White people continue to be the majority in America. Is racism mainstream again?
Frankly speaking, King was a man with a vision for America that we have yet to achieve. Black Americans must continue to strive for opportunity and prosperity 50 years after his death. We have King potential, now it is time to take King action.
Justin Franklin is an 18-year-old political communication freshman from Memphis, Tennessee.
