MLK Day isn’t just a day off

Some see it as a day off of work and school. A day of relaxation. Others see it as an excuse to complain that they didn’t get the day off. What is the occasion? Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

While there are a substantial number of people that spent the day honoring the life and work of the good doctor, there were others that showed a significant amount of disrespect by ignoring the reason for the holiday.

This seems to be a growing problem in this country. We are so concerned with having a holiday so that we can have a day to ourselves that the meaning has been stripped. In fact, it would be an educated guess to assume that many millennials don’t even know why we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The day was set aside by Congress in 1983 to honor the work of one of America’s most influential civil rights activists. The fact that the holiday is almost forgotten is a travesty considering the backward steps that our country is making toward finding racial peace.

A day doesn’t go by that a headline isn’t made about the injustices in America. Whether it is a headline about an officer shooting an African American teen or a headline about only white actors and actresses being nominated for Oscars, we cannot escape it.

With all of the racial tensions around us, we should be even more conscious of a holiday set aside to commemorate the steps that we have taken toward common ground.

Twenty-first century racism is different than the racism that Martin Luther King Jr. fought. Racism today is disguised by calling immigrants ‘criminals’ and by protecting some of the discriminators by letting them claim that they are being discriminated against.

Racism has gone underground. It used to be violent and public, but now it is subtle and sometimes even unconscious. People with names that sound as if they may be a race other than Caucasian are denied interviews for jobs despite their qualifications.

However, racism is two sided. It is not just Caucasians discriminating against the rest of the world. A white man is ridiculed just as much if he walks into the wrong neighborhood. Invisible boundaries have been set by both sides to prevent true integration.

In order for us to all honor the true work of King, we must strive to reach a place where there is equality and understanding from every side, because as of right now, we are far from the goal we should aspire to.

At The Eagle, we have a question for you. How far have we really come?