As we celebrate the 80th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther Kings birthday, he was born on the 15th.  I am wondering how close we are to seeing his dream come true.  Although Dr. King became famous for his lead in the African American Civil Rights Movement, his dream is really a dream for all ethnic/racial groups.  The institutionalized discrimination has been outlawed, and people of various ethnics groups have achieved positions of power within our society. 

But have we achieved the dream?  I don't think so.  To really achieve the dream of ethnic/racial equality where all people, "will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."  That takes an individual to overcome.  Government can create all the laws that they want but that does not change the way people think and feel in the privacy of their own homes, sitting with their friends.  And it is not just an issue for White people to overcome, every ethnic/racial group has it's own prejudices.  Every ethnic/racial group is a victim of negative stereotypes that have been assigned to them by another ethnic/racial group.

To really reach this dream individuals need to think of people as humans first and eliminate categorizing people by their ethnic/racial appearance.

So when you first see a person of a different ethnic/racial makeup from your own, do you see them in light of that group?  Or does that thought even enter your head?

Do you measure how tolerant and unbiased you are by counting how many friends of ethnic/racial group A you have, and how many of ethnic/racial group B you have?  Or do you count your friends by their character?

When you are alone with a group of people that are of a similar ethnic/racial group as yourself, do you find yourself and your friends making stereotypical jokes about another ethnic/racial group?  Do you use derogatory names for that group?

Would you be upset if a relative of yours married someone from a very different ethnic/racial group?

How far along are you to achieving Dr. Kings dream?

Ethnic/racial harmony will only be achieved when individuals stop looking at the world as us versus them and replaces them with just us.