In April of this year, it will be 43 years since the assassination of this nation’s premier civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. During that tumultuous and volatile time in 1968, it would have been unfathomable to even think of having an African-American President or a billionaire named Oprah Winfrey who could own an entire television network. Even as recently as the 1980s in New York, when we were forced to tackle racial outbursts like those in Howard Beach and Bensonhurst, it would be difficult to imagine a day where we would be living side-by-side with one another in harmonious neighborhoods.
I still look at my scar from a stab wound at that protest in Bensonhurst, but I take comfort in the fact that I can look at my TV and see a black President salute a gay Latino Congressional aide who saved the life of a Jewish member of the House of Representatives in the state of Arizona. Dr. King’s vision is nearly fulfilled.
As we take pride in our tremendous collective progress, we must remember to utilize all of this renewed energy and apply it toward some of the areas in which we still can equalize the playing field.
We have harnessed the ability to heal and relate to one another on a very real and personal level, but now we must transfer that capability in the direction of education, employment and our criminal justice system. The vast majority of New Yorkers work alongside one another without racial or ethnic strife. We thankfully do not have open mob attacks on people, nor lynchings, nor segregation.
But what we do have is unequal access to jobs, quality education and an imbalanced prison culture. Once we rid society of racial discrimination on an institutional level, then and only then will Dr. King’s dream be fully realized.
An integral platform of my work has consistently centered on serving as a voice for the voiceless and shedding light on injustice wherever feasible. Unfortunate incidents of police brutality like those involving Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo and, more recently, Sean Bell required immediate attention and action to hold the perpetrators accountable. But these horrific incidents also served as a teachable moment for everyone — despite his or her ethnic background — to acknowledge the very real existence of abusive and biased police conduct. And during these times, we were all forced to take a stern, hard look in the mirror to see how our own shortcomings and preconceived ideas may have contributed to a climate of hatred and animosity.
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