Earlier today, I
attended the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. We gathered to hear speeches before
beginning the march down the newly renamed street honoring the famous reverend.
One of the first speakers caught me off guard. She approached the stand and
began speaking in a tongue foreign to me. She broke into a beautiful Native
American song welcoming in the new day. This was such a shock to me because a
lot of tribes have a very difficult time keeping their language. A long time
ago there were Bilingualism policies against Native Americans. They were
put into boarding schools to try and make them fit the ideals of white men
where they were forced to cut their hair and were beaten of they spoke their
own language. Her accomplishment of knowing the language still is huge for the
Native American community.
A lot of the
speeches made it seem like we lived in a post racial society. Instead of
focusing on areas we need to improve our race relations, almost everyone
addressed the need for education. The Spokane sheriff said that school is the
most important thing and addressed graduation rates. However, school is part of
the problem by helping people all think the same.
My favorite of the
speeches was done by the NAACP chief. He spoke a little about the affirmative
action’s Spokane has taken to increase diversity in a respectful environment.
He told the crowd that change doesn’t come to us- we make change together. I
was thrilled when he referenced MLK’s final speech (my favorite of all of his).
I attached it below so you could all watch this emotional and inspiring speech
Alyssa,
ReplyDeleteNice post. I hope it was a good experience for you.