If Martin Luther King, Jr. was here today, he would say:

They have been lying to you. My dream has not been realized and this is not a “post-racial era” in the United States and elsewhere. Getting married across the colorline, having white friend and an African American president does not equate to a post-racial society. And to equate it with such is to trivialize the struggle of African American people and taint my memory. Read my last book, Where Do We Go From Here?

The Civil Rights Movement was never meant to be an end, it was meant to be a beginning. As long as segregationist laws existed, we could not fight for authentic liberation—strong neighborhoods, jobs, great education, and happy kids living in a society where the entire neighborhood is a safe haven and all your neighbors are loving caregivers. When a black man meet smiling facing in every neighborhood they meet, and they feel joy when seeing a policemen. When black women are viewed as something more than an exotic sexual experience, and where kids who are bi-racial can proudly proclaim I am an Afro-white American. So, you see, we are nowhere near a post-racial society.

Indeed, colorblindness has become the newest and most virulent form of American racism. It is used to hide the horrendous problems faced by blacks, Latinos and other people of color. It is used to prop up and celebrate people we used to call Uncle Toms because of their greed and because their use of blackness to leverage their own individual agendas at the expense of other black people. Every race has their Uncle Toms and I would advise you to resurrect that term and start using it again.

After my death in 1968, the federal government and their local cohorts destroyed the black left movement, created a self-deluded black middle-class, pumped crack cocaine into the African American community, replaced social programs with a new oppressive strategy hidden under the law and order scheme, and used it attack the black community by imprisoning their young men. Between my death in 1968 and 1990, the United States became the leading jailor in the world. From 1980 onward, the conditions in the black community declined dramatically. As things fell apart, higher income blacks left the inner city for other parts of the city or the suburbs or went back to the South.
The Ghetto morphed into the Distressed Neighborhood.

I am also happy about the Occupation Movement. We need it. But I caution you that protest is not enough. You have to build models down on the ground; you have to infiltrate institutions and fight to change their culture; you have to increase your allies among moderates and even conservatives; you have to battle for control over the political apparatus; you have to fight on many fronts. At the same time, the protest movement is the catalyst; it is the force that moves the entire movement forward. Without it, we choke and die. So, celebrate and protect the protest movement—it is the heart and soul of our broad movement.

On the eve of my day, I urge you to cast away your illusions and prepare for struggle—Keep My Dream alive and fight to realize it in practice.

-Dr. Henry Taylor