As Friends. As Family. As Equals.

Transcription

1 MACOMB COMMUNITY COLLEGE As Friends. As Family. As Equals. Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Dakota Wayne Jackson

2 Jackson 1 As Friends. As Family. As Equals. Cornered. Shameful. Fearful for their very existence. All ways of describing the manner in which African Americans across the United States felt to some extent at a time not so long ago. Equal, but treated differently. Separate, but still somehow lamentably equivalent to those of other races around them, at least in the eyes of bigots. For any person born in today s world lacking the experience of living through the late 1950s and 1960s, one short half-century ago, it is difficult to encapsulate the notion that certain people were not allowed to sit with others, that certain people were not allowed to dine in certain restaurants. Better yet, certain people were not even allowed to share the same restrooms and for what? The color of their skin! An uncontrollable, relatively unalterable part of who they were that was inherited via genetics before birth and also before the person has had a legitimate chance to grow and make their mark on the world around them. Perhaps at some point in the future we may laugh together about how foolish we as a society were at one point to treat a person, group or even an entire race differently on the basis of something so trivial such as the color of their skin. We are not there yet and we may never completely arrive at such a point in time, but Dr. King played a major role in turning the tide toward that end. He dreamed of a world in which black boys and black girls could both literally and figuratively embrace white boys and white girls as brothers and sisters. As friends. As family. As equals. Though he may have only explicitly mentioned blacks and whites in his speech, his words and his meaning could just as easily be extrapolated upon to other issues present in today s society. For example: I will not pretend to know why someone falls in love with another person. I will also not pretend to know why someone may fall in love with someone of the same gender or different ethnicity, or anything that may have once been considered outside the societal norm for that matter. What I can say is regardless of whom a person may love, reside with or confide in, they are people. They are worth

3 Jackson 2 no more, and most certainly no less than any other person blessed with the opportunity to roam this world for their short lifetime and should be treated as such. Dr. King s message, at its very core, is simply this: All people are equal. Those of different races, ethnicities, and belief systems should not be treated differently or segregated based upon these differences. Lastly, he wished for the world to live in harmony amongst one another. He wished for a world where any given person could feel welcome and no less of person than another. He wished for a world where no one has to feel cornered, shameful or fearful for their very existence. Now, how might this affect me? How does this impact me? I will gladly and brazenly retort to this, How does this not impact me, or anybody else for that matter? As an individual, I may not be of Caucasian or of African American origin, but I definitely know what it is like to be on the receiving end of unwarranted prejudice. I grew up on an Indian reservation in northern Ontario, Canada. Even there, in a country that stresses the value of multiculturalism, racism and prejudice is still regrettably alive and kicking. It may not be nearly as ubiquitous as it was in the southeastern United States some 50 or 60 years ago, but it can certainly still be encountered. From being labeled as a wagon burner, to the casino-rich, tax-exempt, good-for-nothing, welfare-abusing son of a drunken Eskimo, I have heard it all at some point. These labels are very far removed from terms of endearment, and I am neither casino-rich nor tax-exempt. In addition to this, I have not burned any settlers wagons and do not know of anyone who recently has for that matter. What I know now and understand is others have not had the upbringing and wealth of life experiences I have had. I know now to take these unkind and ill-informed words of slander and ignorance with a grain of salt. Instead, I figuratively combat my would-be enemies with love, in stark contrast to countering with even more hate and ignorance. I kill them with kindness, so to speak. Sound familiar? It should. Like so many others, I have known pain and have experienced the receiving end of unjustified acts of malice. I would

4 Jackson 3 be lying if I stated it did not affect me. I have lived through being treated like a second-class citizen simply because of my heritage and this is a major reason why I am the way I am. I wish to be a balancing force in the world and I want to bring people along for the journey with me. I stand on the shoulder of a giant. My goal and wish for society is to work together and live in harmony with one another. Even if this cannot be realistically achieved, I wish to be a part of meaningful positive change in the world around me which works towards ending discrimination. My goal is for no one to feel excluded in a single activity, group or society on the basis of what they are to a minority of a population that looks down on those who are different. I prefer that individuals are treated based on who they are and who they choose to be, rather than what they are. I am a subscriber to the notion that people should be treated with dignity and respect according to how they treat others. I also strongly believe in the good of people. I stalwartly believe we as people have a strong desire to be appreciated, understood and accepted as individuals and as a collective whole for who we are. Not for whom we could be, not for what people want us to be, but for who we are. To this end, I have been impacted by Dr. King to take his dream and further extend it in my own way to all people, of all nations and backgrounds and induce a sense of togetherness, community and bond amongst all populations. Not just some, but all. It is for this reason that I join Macomb Community College for a 5 th year to volunteer in honor of Dr. King. My previous experiences with the event leave me hungering for more. I want to do more, to be more and to inspire others to do the same. I once described a previous experience with volunteering on MLK day as living poetry-in-motion when a common cause of building a house united a group of students of diverse backgrounds and personal circumstances. I thrive on the energy of such situations that others may simply view as a one-day Habitat for Humanity build. To me, it was not just a one-day Habitat build but symbolization and fruition of a dream some fifty years removed from its utterance.

5 Jackson 4 In closing, my goals align with and have been impacted by Dr. King s message in the sense that I wish for people of all backgrounds to not feel cornered, ashamed and fearful of others because of who they are. Instead, I wish for people worldwide to embrace their neighbors, friends and strangers alike as equals. As friends. As family. As equals.