While Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had many well-known speeches and quotes, I think it’s fair to say that his “I Have a Dream” speech is his most famous.
And in that most famous speech, the following line may be the most famous:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
In a campus world of affirmative action based in part on the color of one’s skin, and a hyper-sensitive microaggression mania, I’ve wondered how long it would take for Dr. King’s most famous line to be repudiated.
There is an irreconcilable tension between Dr.King’s call to not base the evaluation of people on the color of their skin, and the modern progressive demand that skin color (and other immutable characteristics) be a central focus of everything.
It’s why Black Lives Matter protesters and supporters are infuriated by the counter-demand that All Lives Matter. And it’s enough to cause a near-riot or riot on campus.
So, with that said, the first shot has been fired in the exorcism of Dr. King’s most famous line from campus.
Mediaite reports, U of Oregon Debates Removing MLK Quote For Not Being Inclusive Enough:
Student leaders at the University of Oregon debated removing a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. from its student center, arguing that the quote was not inclusive enough for modern understandings of diversity.Oregon’s Erb Memorial Union, which is currently under renovation, had the following famous King quote on the wall: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream…”But as renovation continues, the Oregon Student Union seriously considered replacing that quote. “The quote is not going to change,” reports student paper Oregon Daily Emerald, “but that decision was not made without some hard thought by the Student Union Board.”When the student union considered the question, some students asked, “Does the MLK quote represent us today?” The problem wasn’t so much the message, but the fact that it only focused on racial diversity instead of gender identity.“Diversity is so much more than race,” said one sophomore architecture major. “Obviously race still plays a big role. But there are people who identify differently in gender and all sorts of things like that.”
The quote will not be removed after all, but the mere fact that the suggestion was taken seriously shows the wisdom of Dr. King’s words.
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