40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Junior’s Death and the Remaining issues with Racism

Forty years ago today Martin Luther King Junior was shot and killed while speaking to a crowd from his hotel balcony here in Memphis. King was a great leader in the Civil Rights movement and from his work he has left a great impact on America. I really cannot say if Mr. King would be happy or disappointed in how America is now. I mean sure we are all equal and have the same rights but there is still turmoil and differences among races. I usually do not think about me being different from someone else, may they be black, Hispanic, or any other race but occasionally I am confronted with others who obviously feel all are not equal. One example that I feel fits in perfectly with the topic of Martin Luther King happened in my ACAD class last semester. In ACAD we had a group project that we were supposed to read a chapter from a book of MLK’s speeches and give a presentation on what it was about and how it pertained to us, who all were planning to be teachers. While giving her presentation a friend of mine used the word “negro” multiple times because that is what was used in our book. While my friend was giving her presentation a lot of people in the class started laughing. At first I had no clue what was going on, but then I heard someone whisper, “did she say nigger?” My friend started to notice the whispers and laughing and wondered what was going on. She finished her presentation, sat back in her seat and asked what everyone was making such a commotion about. She felt bad once she heard what people thought she was saying but figured everyone understood that she didn’t and it just sounded like it.