Dear Dr. King,
I am a white woman. I was born and raised in Massachusetts. I was four years old when you made your "I Have A Dream" speech and eight years old when a bullet from a white supremacist ended your life. I have no memories of you from my childhood. What I know about you, I learned in history books. Today the United States commemorates your birthday as a holiday. I don't know what you would have thought of that. Whether you would have been surprised, honored or dismayed because people continue to struggle for the rights and equality for which you ultimately gave your life.
Dr. King, I am sorry that nearly one hundred fifty-three years after the end of the Civil War, a little more than one hundred fifty-two years after ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, nearly one hundred fifty years after ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, nearly one hundred forty-eight years after ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, a little more than fifty-three years since you gave your "I have A Dream" speech, nearly fifty-four years since the enactment of the 1965 Civil Rights Act and nearly fifty years after you were assassinated, we, as a country, have not made very much progress at all and we white people are to blame.
Racism has always been a part of the United States from its beginnings as thirteen British colonies, to its birth as as a nation and every year since then. Often we are able to keep racism simmering beneath the surface. Sometimes it boils over and explodes in violence. But always it is with us and to deny that is to deny the reality we white Americans must accept and acknowledge if we are ever to really make progress. Dr. King, I am sorry that not only has racism boiled over once again, but that it has also found a friend, a voice and support in the Office of the President. This is not the first time we have had a President who espoused racist values. Nor is this the first time that racism has found friends, voices and support within Congress as well as state and local governments. We can surely hope this will be the last time that racism is welcomed and used to stir up people to vote for candidates who divide us. In the end, whether we once again choose to send the message that racism is not welcome in our country will be up to all of us and that can only happen if and when we stand together as one, not divided.
Most of all, Dr. King, I am sorry that we, as a country, have not moved closer to that beautiful dream that you had, that so many still have, that equality will no longer be based on skin color, race, gender sexual orientation, religion or anything else which separates people in to "us" and "them" and allows anyone to believe that anyone who is different, in any way, from us is the "other" who does not and never will be worthy of the same rights we have.
