Martin Luther King’s ‘dream’ still not reality
Say the words “I have a dream” to people of certain generations and they will know exactly what you mean.
If you don’t know what I mean, visit YouTube and you will soon get the picture.
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Hide AdIt was a brave speech at a time of great racial tension and political upheaval.
And it set the tone for much of the politics that followed.
It could be argued that Malcolm X made better, braver speeches.
But Dr King held the world, for those few minutes, in the palm of his hand as he worked the television cameras in a way that, must surely, never have been seen before and the like of which has never been seen since.
Nobody could claim that 50 years later racism is a thing of the past.
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Hide AdClearly things are a lot better than they were 10, 20, 30 and 40 years ago.
But there is still an underlying level of racism that I find appalling.
Many inter-faith groups still fight hard to give us a truly integrated society.
But anyone who believes that has already happened is, unfortunately, sadly mistaken.
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Hide AdIt is a sad fact of life that too many people in this area have a level of racism indoctrinated into them.
My upbringing was the complete opposite of that and I still find it very difficult to understand how the colour of someone’s skin, their religion, their heritage, culture or their language could make them a better or worse person.
At the very first Pendle Stage Awards in 1990, Peter Allen chose to deliver the “I have a dream” speech.
It was a spine-tingling episode that reduced the Pendle Hippodrome Theatre in Colne to complete silence.
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Hide AdImagine my horror half an hour later to share a taxi home with an acquaintance who insisted on calling the driver “Abdul” all the way home.
I still hear the same kind of thing in local Indian restaurants and at taxi ranks.
And while that behaviour still persists, Dr King’s dream remains just that.