History and Historiography

Reaffirming King’s Dream

By on • ( Leave a comment )
David Pan

Telos
As we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, we can reaffirm the dream he expressed of a color-blind society, in which people “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” We can be proud that our nation has largely achieved this dream, in which the mixed-race marriages that were shocking in King’s era are a commonplace today and in which the character rather than the race of the various 2024 presidential candidates has been the key topic of debate. The remaining blight has been the diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that have created special preferences for certain racial groups. As Collin May writes today in his TelosScope post, a key motivator of such policies has been aspects of critical theory. While the courts and politicians have begun to contest the use of racial preferences, universities will continue to resist the dismantling of such policies until the theories justifying them have been delegitimized.

For more on these topics, see our special issues on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Telos 182) and the Place of Truth at the University (Telos 200). You can also register for the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute’s webinar series on “Reckoning with October 7: Israel, Hamas, and the Problem of Critical Theory.”
SALE! Now through January 21, save 25% on the print edition of Telos 182: Martin Luther King, Jr.: Fifty Years On in our online store.

Categories: History and Historiography, Race and Ethnicity

Leave a Reply