BLACK pride returned to Washington on Monday in the =20 shape of the Million Man March. The contrast between =20 the last time such civil rights numbers assembled and =20 now could not be greater. =20
Three decades ago the great black leader, Martin Luther =20 King, warned his people “not to thirst for freedom by =20 drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred”. =20 Instead, he spelled out his dream of black and white =20 sitting down together at the table of brotherhood.=20
Three decades on, there is a new messenger. A messenger =20 of hate and bitterness. Louis Farrakhan, leader of the =20 tiny Nation of Islam sect, who inspired and organised =20 this week’s march, is a racist, sexist separatist. Jews =20 are “bloodsuckers”, murder comes easy to whites, and =20 black women were told to stay at home on Monday, pray =20 and watch the childen. =20
Yet most mainstream black groups endorsed Farrakhan’s =20 march, even though few embrace his separatist message. =20 What happened to Martin Luther King’s dream?=20
Statistics starkly illustrate the gulf which still has =20 to be bridged in US society. Compared with their white =20 contemporaries, black people are twice as likely to be =20 unemployed, three times as likely to be on welfare, =20 four times as likely to be in prison, six times as =20 likely to be murdered. There are more young black =20 people in prison than in college. Is it any wonder that =20 there is disillusion with the dream?=20
Yet this ignores the bridges which have already been =20 built. Black America has been transformed since King =20 spoke. Segregation has ended. Almost one-third of the =20 35-million black Americans are “comfortably off”. =20 Almost 50 percent of black school-leavers go to =20 college, only 10 percent fewer than their white =20
Huge divisions remain. The black middle class feels =20 culturally excluded while the poor are totally =20 alienated. Farrakhan’s uncompromising message to the =20 poor is embraced by nearly all: a call for more black =20 self-reliance, self-help, self-discipline. Time to =20 separate the messenger from the message.=20