Martin Luther
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I read the “I Have a Dream” last night at work on my breaks and between calls. The thing about my reading it last night is that it was my first time familiarizing myself with the speech. Sure I had heard the I have a dream line over and over again, but I had never sat down and read what Dr. King had to say about the state of the Negro in America in the early 1960s.
I read it and was moved. I was moved probably just about as much as a white man attending the speech was moved, but the difference in how I felt was that I can see where those words brought the African-American community today.
I look at the music culture that the African-American community has spawned as the epitome of cultural debasement and avoid it at all cost. For this reason, it has been hard for me too look at the culture in a positive light for some time, but after reading this speech I can honestly say that we have come a long way in being able to sit down together as brothers and sisters.
While reading this essay, I could picture all of the powerful Negro political leaders and all the great African-American businessmen that keep this country together. I see Obama and his meteoric rise as a positive black role-model for todays youth. I look at Oprah and how she has harnessed the American dream and has become the most influential woman in American not to mention the richest. I saw the African-american athletes that, being a majority in professional sports, make us cheer and swear all in one enjoyable breath. I saw my friends and co-workers who look at me and talk to me with the equality and frankness that seems to be second-nature these days.
After reading the speech, I felt proud to be part of this budding country.
I was all ready to just type of this little expose on Dr. King when I saw that we were assigned to watch it or listen to it as well. I immediately did a Google video search for the speech and generated close to 200,000 results. That made me feel even worse for having never read it or seen it before.
The only similarities to the video and the text is the focus on black and white. The text, of course, is black on white and the video itself is in charming black and white. I would comment here about how Dr. Kings speech was about everything black and white, but that would sound a bit contrived.
Martin Luther King appears sad and a bit nervous at the beginning of the film. I have no doubts as to why this was. He was getting ready to hit white America with a left that we didnt see coming.
His momentum builds out of metaphors and solid pacing. His voice rises and falls in a predictable pentameter that lets the hearer feel his pain. He speaks frankly and to-the-point and he says everything in a manner that makes one want to hear more.
The slow, drawn out pauses between his metaphors and his