A Neo-Aristotelian Essay on Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech

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Recommended: Racism in today's society

On April 24th 2014, the entertainment television channel TMZ released an audio record of a conversation between Donald Sterling, the owner of the professional basketball team Los Angeles Clippers, and his girlfriend. In the conversation, Sterling expressed his extreme racism towards the African Americans. He specifically told his girlfriend, “You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that… and not to bring them to my games.” Sterling’s recorded conversation immediately invoked a series of protesting reactions from a great deal of public figures within and outside the basketball field. Five days after the recording tape was released, on April 30th 2014, Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, announced that Sterling would be banned from NBA games for life, and most likely would be forced to sell the Clippers. Silver stated, “We stand together in condemning Mr. Sterling’s views. They simply have no place in the NBA.”

This story proves that even though the society’s opinion towards racism has changed dramatically for the better in the past decades, racism still exists and remains a real problem in our society today. It becomes even more important to look back into the past and re-examine the legacies of anti-racism, especially one of the most prominent anti-racist figures in history, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. He was famous for his activism in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, and after his death by assasination has become an influential figure in the anti-racism movement.

On August 28, 1963, the date of the March on Washington, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King delivered his most essential speech in his ca...

... middle of paper ...

...nst Sterling’s racism proves that racism is declining, and the world is changing for the better. In King’s own words, “in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” If he can be here today, he would be happy to see that his dreams have finally come true.

Works Cited

King, Martin Luther Jr. “I Have a Dream.” Lincoln Memorial, Washington, District of Columbia. 28 August 1963. Public address.

“About Dr. King.” The King Center. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Web. 4 May. 2014.

TMZ Staff. “L.A. Clippers Owner to GF: Don’t Bring Black People to My Games… Including Magic Johnson.” TMZ. EHM Productions, Inc, 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 4 May. 2014.

“Donald Sterling receives lifetime ban.” ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 30 Apr. 2014. Web. 4 May. 2014.

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