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It’s sad that this dream has not been realized. Yet if you remember what the day of Nov 5, 2008 felt like. This speech was playing in the background, and the

It’s sad that this dream has not been realized. Yet if you remember what the day of Nov 5, 2008 felt like. This speech was playing in the background, and the feeling was we were living in the day he dreamed about it. A black man had been elected as the president of the United states. Yet even in that glorious position it was not powerful enough to end the oppression of black people. Is this dream just that? Is it a dream that cannot be achieved. If the president of the United States can’t bring it about well then who can? Or what if it has already been achieved and yet we prefer pretending that it is not. That there is something else in this dream being fulfilled that scares us even more than it not, so we go back to the way it was. I though when Obama was elected we would put the divisive Clinton and Bush years behind us, but instead we’ve grown worse. If anything the cancer has spread more rapidly. Yet I still think MLK’s command is good - “Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.”

ethbr0 5y ago
It's a good point. But I prefer to view it as "Dream as in verb." Followed by the work to realize it. Yes, it's exhausting to see progress clawed forward inch by inch, or simply held steady against backwards pressure, but that's what real change looks like. Those who do that work, day in and day out, for years, are heroes. Every movement needs flashy wins for inspiration and celebration. Because that's how media and the human brain work. But it's important to be clear that those wins are the results of work, yet not the work itself. And that before and after the celebration, the work continues. Eight years cannot be expected to unmake five hundred.
- mostertoaster 5y ago
  See but heres the thing, can 160 unmake 300? You could also argue the work you’re talking about started after the civil war, accelerated during the civil rights era, and culminated in 2008. If you told a recently freed slave that in 150 years a black man would be elected president and that includes nearly half of the white population voting for him. They would’ve looked at that day as a wonderful dream. Yet you are telling them, that day will come but you will not be satisfied. And rightly so they wouldn’t be satisfied. So think even now you’re working towards a dream. Progress was done in 08, but took a step back in 2016. Isn’t it depressing that this dream you’re striving with all your might won’t satisfy even if achieved? Or has the dream been realized. And simply put there is now no excuse. That underneath every time we’re a victim, we are also guilty ourselves.

ethbr0 5y ago

It's a good point. But I prefer to view it as "Dream as in verb." Followed by the work to realize it. Yes, it's exhausting to see progress clawed forward inch by inch, or simply held steady against backwards pressure, but that's what real change looks like. Those who do that work, day in and day out, for years, are heroes. Every movement needs flashy wins for inspiration and celebration. Because that's how media and the human brain work. But it's important to be clear that those wins are the results of work, yet not the work itself. And that before and after the celebration, the work continues. Eight years cannot be expected to unmake five hundred.

mostertoaster 5y ago
See but heres the thing, can 160 unmake 300? You could also argue the work you’re talking about started after the civil war, accelerated during the civil rights era, and culminated in 2008. If you told a recently freed slave that in 150 years a black man would be elected president and that includes nearly half of the white population voting for him. They would’ve looked at that day as a wonderful dream. Yet you are telling them, that day will come but you will not be satisfied. And rightly so they wouldn’t be satisfied. So think even now you’re working towards a dream. Progress was done in 08, but took a step back in 2016. Isn’t it depressing that this dream you’re striving with all your might won’t satisfy even if achieved? Or has the dream been realized. And simply put there is now no excuse. That underneath every time we’re a victim, we are also guilty ourselves.