Martin Luther King Speech
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on
January 17th, 2007
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As most of you know, two days ago was Martin Luther King Day in the U.S. His dream is alive but there is still much work to be done regarding racism. I grew up in a small town in the northern part of Sweden. Tons of snow, cold weather, beautiful midnight sun and northern lights, forest with reindeer, and nature wherever you look. But no black people and no foreigners. Now things are a bit different but I can't remember ever seeing a black person in my first 15 years. Now when I think about it, there were actually two. One guy who played tennis and another who went to my school. That's about it.
I also can't remember my parents ever talking about race or black people to me in an informative way. That may sound bad but it's actually the opposite. Sure, they may not have told me much about the world in my younger years but they also taught me that everyone is the same. This was probably unconsciously but I grew up thinking and knowing that everyone was the same. Regardless of race, color, origin, or religion.
It's never been a big deal to me if someone was black or white. I never cared. After my teenage years I've actually been much more interested in people who are different. Race, religion, origin, looks, interests, or something else. There were quite a few Swedish people working with me during my years in NYC and they all hung out with Swedes at work and in their spare time. I was the opposite. My friends were never Swedish and our many dinner parties at home always looked like some kind of UN convention. There were people from all over the world talking about fascinating stuff in a variety of languages and accents. The Swedes are extremely boring, I'm no exception, so perhaps that's why I've always been looking for more interesting people in my adult life.
I've never read the speech by MLK before. I mean the whole speech, not just the "I have a dream" part. But I was browsin through Shards Of Consciousness yesterday and read the whole speech. It's a little long but well worth reading. It's a little depressive to me. To think that black people were another class just 40 years ago in the U.S. As a matter of fact, they still are today in many places. It's pathetic how far we've come in some areas and how far behind we are in others.
Great post,
It is strange, I had similar upbringing in North Dakota. I never saw a black person until I was six. I have no idea what those folks have been through. I can only imagine.
I’d love to write more on race and racism, but it’s a subject that is too volitile and too easy to be misunderstood so I avoid it. We still have massive racial problems in the US. It’s changed, but not as much as it could have.
I have some crazy ideas about it. One’s I’ve never heard expressed before in my life. Nothing negative, it’s all positive, and very accepting, but I’m still afraid it’ll be misunderstood. Maybe someday when the taboo around discussing these things lifts, I will write about the issue.
I think I am kind of like you (what you said about swedes being boring). I find regular old middle class American white people (like me) to be very boring. I love globalization and the internet. I’ve met more people from more places in the last ten years than I ever thought I would. I love differences and get quite bored of sameness.
I’ve heard the speech before, but this was the first time I’ve read the text of it. Great speeches need to be read to get their full impact.
Steve said there is a lot of racism in the U.S. as yet, and he’s right. I would broaden it to entail bigotry of all sorts, though, and throughout the world, at least from what I see on the news. Much of it seems to be based on the fear of difference. “You’re not like me, so you’re bad.” You see it in people of all colors and religions, and socio-economic classes. Gradually, though, I think, and hope, we’re growing up.
May 2nd, 2007 at 10:04 pm
[…] foreigners of any kind. My parents never discussed race or gave me any lessons, but I always felt like everyone was equal. Racism around the world seems to be growing, my own feeling is that the previously low levels […]