Why You’ve Never Read “I Have A Dream” • Hacker News Board

Re: Why You’ve Never Read “I Have A Dream”

#231

Post by unclebucknasty » Sat, Aug 31, 2013, 12:21 PM UTC

krschultz wrote: post #86

slg wrote: post #23

I have to disagree with part of the premise. While the speech is copyrighted, that might not be the reason most people haven't read or seen the entirety of the speech. If schools really wanted to teach it, it would be well within fair use laws for them to show the whole thing. There are probably a variety of other reasons why you don't see this speech taught in schools. First one that comes to mind is its length. Unl…

I really don't think references to religion are a problem. My AP English class read parts of the Bible itself - because it has significant literary and historic importance even if you don't view it as a religious text. This is in a secular public school in a very liberal state only recently. Nobody objected, because if you start going down that road, you will have to throw out pretty much everything written before 18…

It's always been odd to me that freedom of religion is so frequently interpreted as denial of its existence. At some point, the extent to which public society goes to avoid acknowledging it becomes kind of silly. And, of course, when taken too far, it actually infringes on true freedom for those who practice.

Re: Why You’ve Never Read “I Have A Dream”

#232

Post by Zimahl » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 4:10 AM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #209

Zimahl wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes a very biased viewpoint to blame the Black Panthers for being violent when they only arose after decades of police brutality and lynchings and KKK terrorism. Based in California. I'm not saying that there wasn't oppression in California but if you are going to fight the war wouldn't you got to the front lines? MLK sure did. So Malcolm X and the Black Panthers are marginalized and demonized to this day while…

> I'm not saying that there wasn't oppression in California but if you are going to fight the war wouldn't you got to the front lines? The Black Panthers drove around with guns shouting legal advice to blacks who were pulled over by the notoriously racist Oakland PD. Is that not "on the front lines" enough for you?[1] Can't people fight racism in their own communities without having to move to the South--which, incid…

The Black Panthers also admittedly murdered cops. All the kudos go out the window at that point.

The militarism makes an easy excuse for a crackdown. If you think scaring the shit out of people, threatening their very existence with violence, is a good way to affect change, I think you are very uninformed. Find me one example where that worked.

Re: Why You’ve Never Read “I Have A Dream”

#233

Post by pvaldes » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 11:47 AM UTC

I'm feeling a little evil now...

I have a dream. I dreamed with some bad guys writting with a felt-tip the complete speech in several walls in your cities, in a corner next of your schools. Ten point size is okay much more should be excessive.

Then the good people; lawyers and copyright holders came to delete the illegal speechs from the walls, restoring the law and the order.

This could be and extremely interesting social experiment, maybe even a piece of performance art.

If there is a "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day", a "Mother's Day, a "World Sparrow day" and a day to play with rubber bats, candies and pumpkins; why not a "Everybody writes a famous speech day that changes our country for good it the corner of his/her street, in a paper airplane or in a ballon"?

Could make a really beautiful local holiday...

Re: Why You’ve Never Read “I Have A Dream”

#234

Post by philwelch » Sun, Sep 01, 2013, 6:31 PM UTC

Zimahl wrote: post #232

philwelch wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not saying that there wasn't oppression in California but if you are going to fight the war wouldn't you got to the front lines? The Black Panthers drove around with guns shouting legal advice to blacks who were pulled over by the notoriously racist Oakland PD. Is that not "on the front lines" enough for you?[1] Can't people fight racism in their own communities without having to move to the South--which, incid…

The Black Panthers also admittedly murdered cops. All the kudos go out the window at that point. The militarism makes an easy excuse for a crackdown. If you think scaring the shit out of people, threatening their very existence with violence, is a good way to affect change, I think you are very uninformed. Find me one example where that worked.

The Republic of Ireland's independence from the UK and the end of apartheid in South Africa are the first two examples that come to mind.

Hell, just look at this country's own history: KKK terrorism was tremendously effective in preventing a civil rights movement from even existing for close to a century.

Cops murder black civilians to this day. If Nelson Mandela is a hero for bombing government buildings and killing government officials to resist apartheid in Africa, why are the Black Panthers villains for killing cops to resist apartheid in America?

Fear is a tremendous weapon if people can save face by pretending they never caved to it. Without the fear of more militant black nationalist groups, whites would have never given King the time of day.