Dr. King's Dream Revisited 50 Years Later: A Letter to America

America, America
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea…

America, oh America, as I sit back and reflect on my short 30 years in this country, I recognize that I have indeed witnessed tremendous growth and progress but at the same time, I have to also admit that I think we are still a far cry from what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned in 1963 when he gave his historic I Have A Dream speech. Indeed, I can’t help but applaud the passage of the Civil Rights Act, desegregation, and the election of our nation’s first Black President in 2008.

But at the same time, I must admit that these breakthroughs don't in any way erase the fact that we still witness wealth inequality, racial profiling, and other forms of social injustice in our society today.

Alas, one can only imagine what Dr. King would say if he heard research reports indicating that the average net worth of households in the upper 7% of wealth distribution has risen by 28% while the net worth of households in the lower 93% of society have dropped by 4%? I can see him lamenting the fact that the rich are getting richer while the rest of us are, quite frankly, stuck in the basement struggling economically. On top of this, one wonders how Dr. King would react to seeing high-profile cases like Trayvon Martin's that brought the ugly issue of racial bias and profiling back into our collective consciousness.

For those that don't already know, Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old unarmed black male whose life was tragically cut short after an altercation one night while wearing a hooded sweatshirt and carrying a bag of Skittles. Martin was shot by Florida community volunteer watchman George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, a white male of Peruvian descent, claimed self-defense and invoked Florida's Stand Your Ground Law before being acquitted on all criminal charges brought against him. According to a Christian Science Monitor article, many people across the nation disagreed with the verdict and thought that race played a significant factor in Martin's untimely death. Indeed, if Dr. King were alive I can hear him asking, 'when will a man be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character?',

Along with this case, I have also seen other situations surrounding racial profiling in America. In New York, they have adopted stop and frisk policies aimed directly at Black and Hispanic men, that have ignited a firestorm of controversy and criticism because of the humiliation and harassment they have caused. Moreover, in Arizona, they have instituted an immigration law that many have said fosters racial profiling. Indeed, a study done by Pew Research finds that majorities of blacks still perceive discrimination from many institutions in their communities, and are consistently more likely than whites to say blacks are treated less fairly than whites. Things have gotten so bad to the point that in a New York Times op-ed piece, the newspaper went so far as to call the United States a "country plagued by racism, which persists in ever more insidious forms."

 At the same time, one need not stop with these sensational cases that have hit the front pages of our beloved newspapers to see what I am getting at as it relates to America's shortcomings and how far we are from Dr. King's Dream. One can also look at the 500 plus murders in Chicago alone last year, the recent Bankruptcy of Detroit's Motor City, or the dilapidated condition of many of the streets that bear Dr. King's name to see the point I'm making here. Bottom line: there's something wrong in America. Dr. King's Dream of the Beloved Community has not and cannot be realized until these conditions change and one recognizes that change doesn't occur overnight, nor does it come easy, change takes time and effort. Indeed, as Dr. King said himself, "even as we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow". Its important that we not give up on our Dreams...a Dream of a better tomorrow despite the stark realities of today...a Dream where one day this nation will rise up and become that shining city on a hill that it was meant to be. In the words of an old Negro spiritual, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome one day.

As I put the finishing touches on this letter to America on the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's historic I Have A Dream speech, I recognize that essayist James Baldwin was right when he said, "I love America more than any other country in the world, and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually". Indeed, we as a country have come so far, but yet we have so far to go. Sure, we must celebrate the victories and breakthroughs, but we must never forget the work that is left to be done. In other words, there will be neither rest nor tranquility in this country until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. As we fight for our Dreams of a better tomorrow, let us not forget Dr. King, who he was, and what he stood for. 

Brooks Overcomes Death Threats And Presses On

TRENTON-- In a recent interview, local activist tells all about his recent bout with the New Jersey State Parole Board.

Daryl Brooks, a longtime Trenton political freedom fighter and now member of the Tea Party who served a three and half year bid in prison for flashing two minors (a crime he insists he did not commit), decided to sit down for an in-depth interview last week.

During the interview, Brooks spoke out in a way that he hasn't done before. The brash and outspoken political firebrand was in rare form last week as he opened up about his longstanding fight against injustice and persecution.

Since being released from prison, Brooks has sought to bring about social and political change within his community. According to an Occupy the Hood New Jersey blog, Brooks was the first person to run for U.S. Senate from Trenton, New Jersey. Although his campaign proved unsuccessful, he has coordinated numerous community organizing activities to stop violence and bring different people together.

Despite his efforts, Brooks has experienced problems with the State Parole Board and the public at large. In May, the Parole Board required that he attend counseling sessions. In these sessions, Brooks reports that he was required to admit guilt for a crime that he insists he did not commit.

After not complying with their request, he was ordered to take a polygraph exam or lie detector test as a part of the Parole Board’s Containment Approach that monitors the activity of individuals that are on parole for sex offenses. This test was required despite Brooks having had no parole violations since being released from prison according to Philadelphia Tribune reporter Linn Washington. Once he was given the lie detector test, Brooks reports that he was told by the Parole Board that he failed.

Brooks speaking at rally

Brooks subsequently requested a copy of the results to determine why he failed but was denied. The Parole Board confirmed this. When a parolee fails a lie detector test, they can have stricter restrictions placed upon them. The political activist questions the results and has voiced concern over how the lie detector was administered. He has expressed concerns involving the use and application of testing equipment, the recording of information, and the polygraph examiner’s impartiality.

Research bears out what Brooks is saying. According to Polygraph Specialist Joseph Buckley , the polygraph technique is highly accurate, but at the same time, errors can and do occur.

Most errors happen when the examiner fails to prepare the subject properly for the examination or by misreading the physiological data on the polygraph charts. This makes it all the more important that the examiner be properly trained. According to a State Parole Board representative, parole officers can and do administer polygraph examinations because they have gone through training and are required to undergo recertification every two years.

Brooks and another parolee that spoke on the condition of anonymity both question the accuracy of lie detectors. They wonder why the results of these tests can be used to restrict an individual for Parole Board purposes, but cannot be used in a court of law. Mother Jones journalist Brendan Koerner confirmed this finding when he reported that polygraph test results are generally inadmissible in court.

Through these issues with the lie detector test and by refusing to comply with the Parole Board’s requirement that he admit guilt for a crime he claims he did not commit, Brooks was now in violation of his parole which meant jail-time. In a previous interview, Brooks said the possibility of going back to prison was “terrible”.

Brooks went on to call his experience with the Parole Board an instance of 'persecution' citing that it was unjust to have this happen to him, because he has already served his time and he has had no parole violations since being released.

Brooks in Mississippi with poor children

Along with this travesty of justice, the political gadfly spoke out about countless situations where he was spit on, threatened with violence, and physically attacked by members of the Black community, a community that he has consistently fought for over the years with his protests and rallies. It came to a point where even his daughter was threatened by others in his community. Indeed, the Trenton activist had serious concerns that someone was going to kill him and that he was going to have to maybe kill someone to defend himself or his family.

In the interview, Brooks describes how utterly disappointed he was in the Black Community because of the way he was treated. He could not understand why they hated him when he did so much to improve things in the Black Community. It came to a point where the political activist threw up his hands and said, “my own people are trying to destroy me”.

After this, it came to a point where 'enough became enough' for the political activist. 

After years of fighting injustice, facing fierce opposition, and wrestling with the possibility of going back to prison for something he deemed to be unjust, Brooks says that the pressure became overwhelming and he came to a fork in the road where he felt a life or death decision needed to be made.

In the interview, the political malcontent said that the night before he was arrested in May, he sat in his room all night staring at a bottle of prescription pain pills that was lying around his house, contemplating whether or not to take them. His intentions were to take the pain pills as a way to end his misery and cut his life short. That particular night, all sorts of thoughts ran through his head as he glanced as that bottle of pills. However, something stopped him from taking them.

Brooks says that the only thing that prevented him from taking his life that night was listening to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sermon But, If Not, a 1967 speech that highlights the importance of what King called civil disobedience where one refuses to abide by an order of the government because your conscience deems it unjust.

The political activist said that he had no worries that following morning when he received a 7 o’clock call from parole because he knew that he never “walked alone”, God was with him always. So that following morning, Brooks buried those pain pills saying that he felt strong and inspired, like Martin Luther King, Jr. before he was escorted to that Birmingham Jail in 1963.

Brooks being interviewed for U.S. Senate

Brooks went on to say that despite the persecution he is currently going through, history is ultimately on the side of right and that justice will eventually prevail. However, the political activist is still concerned about the social implications of others going through a similar ordeal with the Parole Board that he went through.

The Trenton born activist expressed concern regarding the Parole Board's use of power. In the interview, he makes the case that the State Parole Board is abusing its power whenever it administers a lie detector test, but does not provide the parolee with a copy of the test results. Brooks fears that the Parole Board may begin to require others that have been convicted for non-sex offender related crimes take these same sorts of tests and not be given a copy of the test results either. The political firebrand thinks this could have damaging social effects as it relates to one’s civil liberties.

Brooks says, "Are they [the Parole Board] testing this out for the next line of individuals? This may start off with people with sex offense and lead to people with regular crimes. This could be the start like when we used drones in other countries, now that was a test, now let's see what its like to use drones here in America. Now let’s do it [lie detectors] with people that shoot people, drug dealers, people that do a regular crime, let’s test it out on a group of people that people are going to despise because they're not really human".

In general, this issue brings up questions about how we treat parolees. Does society care about how people on parole are treated since they have already served their time or does society think that it doesn't matter how these individuals are treated because they committed crimes against society? Are parolees being pushed around by the Parole Board or are their rights being protected under the law?

If Martin Luther King Jr. were still alive…

By: Delonte Harrod 

Black History month is always, at least for me, a great context to reflect upon Dr. Martin Luther King and the history of liberators in our country. I was reminded of this in a conversation with a friend about the Civil Rights movement. From that conversation, I began to ponder: would MLK’s message be relevant in today’s context?

Through the 50s and 60s King, along with the African-American community, desired equality. The Civil Rights movement was a burning flame against the blatant injustices in those times. Men and women sat in at white-only diners while refusing to go through the back doors just to receive nourishment for their bodies. They refused to drink at only Negro water fountains. To put economic strain on white-dominated public transportation, they boycotted. They marched, they spoke-out; they were a force to be reckoned with. Instead of being obedient to America’s splintered morality, they disobeyed.

To some, their tactics were seen as radical nonetheless they struggled alongside others in their fight for freedom. But this fight for freedom was filled with much bloodshed and grief: churches were bombed, sons and daughters lost their parents and parents lost their children. Men, women and students were jailed for announcing their humanity to the world. They suffered while singing Negro spirituals!

With this passion, King led part of his community, (not all African-Americans agreed with King see the Nation of Islam) and the nation, to Washington D.C. In 1963, African-Americans whites, Jews and gentiles marched in unity to publicly proclaim their freedom within the bosom of the enemy. With the voice of a trumpet, King so eloquently said,

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of light hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”

Yet, I think, these words carry just as much weight now as they did then. While some may disagree, we live in a nation where some people are under the illusion that we are post-racial. That is, racial issues and discrimination (based on color) is pre-historic—something of the past! It is my opinion; it is the agenda of some to try to move the nation past the conversation of color and ethnic discrimination. If so, I can understand. It is human nature to want to move past lingering problems. Race in America is a very sensitive subject. People become defensive, friendships can be lost and, sometimes, mutual respect flies out the window. Therefore, what better to do than to try to create an illusion, via narrative, that racism just doesn't exist anymore!

In truth, violent acts against non-whites are rarely reported in the mainstream media. There is the occasional black face [white people painting their faces black] or someone bringing a noose [a rope used in America by whites to hang African-Americans] to school! In my opinion, these are the exception.

In Blind Sight 

By this blindness to racial and ethnic discrimination, one can contend that racism or racist attitudes do not exist anymore. If one is referring to officers of the law allowing dogs to bite, in order to reprimand African-Americans, jailing of black men and women for fighting for a right to be a full-fledged American citizen; mass demonstration by people holding up signs “We are Men.” No, that’s not happening! And, I haven’t seen anything like that in the last twenty years, but I am only 32! However, that does not mean racism has ended. It means that we are not paying attention and sometimes journalists do a poor job of reporting it. There are plenty of articles in the media—maybe not mainstream—that speak of the systemic problem of racism within a variety of government entities. For example,

In 2012, Harper Magazine featured an article, The Last Tower: The decline and fall of Public Housing. Journalist Ben Austen describes the complex relationship between the residents of Cabrini-Green and the city of Chicago and its Housing Authority.

“Chicago’s projects were underfunded and poorly maintained almost from the start. He continues, “The ratio of children to adults in these developments was ruinously high, and well-intentioned laws regarding maximal allowable income for public-housing residents ultimately forced out the most stable rent payers in the population,” writes Austen.

Housing discrimination is not the only area in which people of color are oppressed. In The Washington Post Beth Jacobson, a former Wells Fargo Bank employee, admitted she “processed loans for home owners with sterling credit ratings and higher interest rates than they needed to pay.” She acknowledged Wells Fargo intentionally targeted African-Americans in the city of Baltimore and a Washington D.C. suburb-- Prince Georges County. She goes on to say she “pumped out millions of dollars in mortgages to people with no paperwork and low incomes, becoming Wells Fargo’s top-producing loan officer.”

Like African Americans, Latinos have also faced discrimination. The University of California conducted a study, in which they concluded, that schools in certain parts of America are being re-segregated. According to the Civil Rights Project, “The typical Latino student in the region attends a school where less than a quarter of their classmates are white; nearly two-thirds are other Latinos; and two-thirds are poor.”

Juan Gonzalez, host of Democracy Now, and Joseph Torres co-authored the book, News for All People. In it they outline the history of media for minorities. According to Gonzalez, “the media system has never been a free market system.” They say when media conglomerates monopolize the Internet there is no free flow of information. Torres said when this happens minorities don’t get to tell their own stories but others tell them. The National Association of Black Journalists exists to sensitize “all media to the importance of fairness in the workplace for black journalists” (a principle from their website).

Contrary to popular belief, there still is racism in the African-American community. The Nation of Islam, a largely African-American religious sect that began in 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad, is inflamed with racism. The organization is strictly for the flourishing of African-Americans—no one else. By logical deduction white people and any other race are excluded. In addition, the Hebrew Israelites (a religious sect similar to the Nation Islam) believes they are the true Jewish people.

According to them, white people have been lying to African-Americans about their history. They see themselves as the true messianic people of God hoping to restore Native Americans, Latino and African-Americans to their true identity. In other words, they haven’t revealed to them they’re the true Israelites. These types of theologies are damaging; they do not advance the health and well being of the African-American community. Instead, they promote ideologies of victimization and the seed of un-forgiveness.

Classism in the African-American contexts exists because it is a culturally consciously-blinded practice. Therefore, because we are all, to a large degree, cultural practitioners then it is perfectly normally to look at someone with disdain because they’re not in a specific economic class. There was a time when white flight (white people living the city for the suburbs) was normal—now black flight is a normal. “There is classism within the black community…Middle-class blacks, like middle-class whites, are also put off by the behavior of impoverished blacks who have developed their own culture, one that is very different from mainstream America,” wrote Sheryll Cashin, Professor of Law at Georgetown University, in article in The Root.

What would King say?

Still, we have not answered the question of ‘what would Kings say?’ Well, I don’t know what he would say exactly, but we can thank those who take the time to preserve some of King’s letters, speeches and videos. However, I do think, through these mediums of communication, King has left us with a framework in which we can think. Ultimately, I believe, King was a champion of reconciliation. He wanted those invisible barriers of intolerance to be torn down; he wanted people to love each other; he wanted the incarnate flesh of white superiority to submit to the idea of equality amongst all people. Because racism and injustice permeates every edge of our society and culture—he would have something to say to us all.

From the MLK holiday to Black History Month, people have often used King’s speeches—because they are so powerful and packed with imagery—to further their causes. But, the very people that use them are the very people to whom King was talking! Let us not forget that any place where injustice was tolerated in any form was an enemy to King and those who sacrificed their lives in Civil Rights Movement. Let us be reminded of the words of a Civil Rights Leader:

“It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”

Anwar's Reflections Says Show Must Go On After Thief Makes Off With Empty Laptop Bag

TRENTON-- As the city of Trenton as a whole grapples with crime and other social problems, I too have my own story of misfortune.

This evening my car was broken into. The unknowing criminal made off with a black computer bag filled not with a laptop, but with used library books, pens, and an old notebook (my PC is in the shop getting repaired).

What makes this story more unique is that the incident occurred in the heart of Downtown Trenton, just steps away from the State House, who would've thought???

Needless to say a police report will have to be filed and a broken rear  window will need to be replaced. Now granted, I should not have had my laptop bag in the back seat visible to the naked eye and things could be worse (I could have been physically harmed), but as I type this blog from my cell phone, I say to myself, what does this isolated incident say about the overall state of affairs in the city of Trenton.

Indeed, it seems as though poverty is a very real thing here in the state's capitol. Along with this poverty comes its constant companions, i.e. drug abuse and crime. In this particular climate, it seems as though the old saying, 'desperate times call for desperate measures' holds true, but nevertheless, there comes a time when one can no longer remain silent about things that matter.

Alas, the question becomes: where do we go from here as a city: chaos or community? Lo and behold, it seems as though it is just these sorts of unfortunate events that make me want to bring different members of the community together all the more and have a real discussion about where we go from here.

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "now is not the time to cool off" and return to business as usual. Rather, now is the time to take positive action and talk about things we can control. Now is the time to speak about service and solutions.

Are you with me? Will you join this conversation?