An Unrealized Dream

Forty Years Later is another Viewpoint gem which makes some excellent points. Quoting:

I'd like to, but I'm afraid that King's dream is pretty much moribund. The dream was, in part, that someday his children would be "judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin." The dream was that we would live in a color-blind society where people would look past one's race and pigment to one's values and achievement. Unfortunately, modern liberalism has made that all but impossible.

The importance of race is made evident in the paperwork Americans fill out. In order to fulfill quotas institutions need to be aware of the ethnicity and religious affiliation of those with whom they conduct transactions. This indicates that as long as this practice is in effect the color of one's skin will remain a relevant factor in determining how one is judged. "None of your business" is an appropriate response to insidious inquiries about one's ethnic or racial identity. But that kind of response could very well bring about an adverse reaction to any associated benefit.

Affirmative action, race-based scholarships, minority set-asides, race-norming, school busing, welfare, etc. were all attempts to compensate blacks - a kind of reparations - for the abominations of the past, but whatever they accomplished for black people in general, they surely stoked white resentments and pushed further into the distance the day when skin color doesn't matter.

They do the above but they do more than that. They are intrinsically at variance with the very principles they purport to uphold. There is no differentiation within minorities between the privilaged and the disadvantaged. The sons and daughters of wealthy, privilaged people of color are numbered among the disadvantaged while poor, uneducated whites are considered advantaged. According to what value system does that make sense? One in which historic events, impacting people now deceased, should determine how we treat those connected to the historic abuse only by their skin color? Sounds like, contrary to Dr. King's words, skin color rather than character continues to be the most important fact in America.

Moreover, the Democratic party has exploited race since the 1960s by instilling in blacks a kind of plantation mentality.

The linked article goes into details. Doing for others that which they are able to do for themselves is a subtle form of personal sabotage. African-American intellectuals like Thomas Sowell have pointed this out more eloquently. I would emphasize something I believe is extremely pernicious to the welfare of America in general and to African-Americans in particular. That being social welfare policies which encourage single parent families. The family is the foundation of any society and any society which weakens that institution condemns itself to the resulting sorrows that are sure to follow.