So as of today it’s now exactly half a century since Martin Luther King expressed his dream that his four children would one day live in a world where they would be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.
Half a century since he expressed the idea that character is all; that skin colour is just something you're born with; that recognition of that fact should not be just a Dream.
So how are we doing after half a century? Have we reached that day?
Looking around me just in this country—looking around at race-based law, race-based preference, race-based settlements, race-based “cogovernance” arrangements, race-based quotas, race-based seats and race-based political parties—I can only say, “I wish.”
50 years later, even to talk about the dream of one law for all is to see yourself branded as something you’re not. It seems clear that, as Thomas Bowden says,
we still need to focus on the proper antidote to racism and the proper alternative to racial thinking: individualism. We need to teach our children and all our citizens to look beyond the superficialities of skin colour and to judge people on what really matters, namely, "the content of their character."
Could we make a start today?
6 comments:
Dr King would probably be appalled if he were alive today.
just in this country—looking around at race-based law, race-based preference, race-based settlements, race-based “cogovernance” arrangements, race-based quotas, race-based seats and race-based political parties..
What annoys me is that even Maoris totally against this kind of stuff are too scared to speak up for being labelled an 'Uncle Tom'.
Consequently the average man in the street is under the (mistaken) view Maoris are all in favour of race based policies when in fact the opposite is true.
It may surprise many people (Finlayson and Hone, for instance) to know there is little or no support in places like the Far North, or Gisborne, or Eastern Bay of Plenty for any of the policies mentioned - just peer pressure.
A good example is the non existent turnout in the recent by-election; I wonder how many votes a "One-Law-For-All-We-Don't-Need-Or-Want-Your-Patronising-Policies-So-You-Can-Tell-Everyone-What-A-Good-Liberal-Guy-You-Are" candidate would have received?
While MLK was right about looking to the character and not to the colour, the one-law-for all crowd is just pushing for the New World Order.
http://www.actsinjunction.info/nwo.html
You left out the "race based terrorism" of Taame's Army.
NZ's 150 years of history teach that there is only one way to guarantee domestic peace - the quick and overwhelming application of force. A lesson Hellen Clark clearly forgot when ordering the heavily-armed STG into Ruatoria. It could have been so much better, but it was so much worse.
Can someone please tell me how I seem to attract fruitloops, conspiracy mongers and advocates of "quick and overwhelming application of force" to a post this straighforward?
Just like the Crown's history of racism, race relations in NZ not straightforward, Peter.
We are going backwards, as is America.
It comes down to the govt being a soft touch for handing out stuff. I suspect that if the gravy train stuff simply stopped and we really were colour blind, economic realities would force a sudden shift in performance of segments that are not presently obliged to perform at all.
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