When did "I Have a Dream" become "I Have a Hoodie"?

The Death of the Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King Jr.:  I have a Dream!

Miami Heat basketball team:  I have a Hoodie!

When did the civil right movement go off the rails? Why is there not a single current civil rights leader for children to look up to?  Most importantly, has anyone let Bill Belichick know that he is the new face of civil rights?
I don't know the answers to any of those questions, but I have heard the obvious death rattle of one of the most important movements in American history.

Fashion Trend-setter or Civil Rights Leader?

I do not know the cause, but I can give you the symptoms. The movement that began with such visionaries as Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, and Martin Luther King Jr. has been entrusted to the self-serving and corrupt hands of those like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.  People who are more interested in the sounds of their own voices and lining their pockets than the welfare of those they claim to represent.




Perhaps it is a result of the success of the early luminaries.   What did all founding civil rights leaders have in common? Sacrifice and risk.  They all sacrificed and exposed themselves to incredible risks.  Obviously, some even to the point of death.

What risks do today's civil rights "leaders" face?  Fire hoses, lynch mobs, National Guardsmen, assassination?  I have heard that Al Sharpton faces the possibility of a stern talking-to from the empty suits at MSNBC.  The horror!  Spike Lee faces criticism for posting the INCORRECT address of George Zimmerman for justice seekers (vigilantes) to exploit.  (I hope the poor woman whose address it is sues his ass off!)  I'm sure he did it so that the justice seekers (vigilantes) would know where to deliver their petition entreating Mr. Zimmerman to confess to murdering Trayvon Martin in cold-blood.  And of course, the fearless Lebron James and the Miami Heat basketball team.  Those brave souls really went to the mat for their dangerous political stance.  They took a team picture in *gasp!* hoodies!

There is very little common ground between George Clooney and myself politically, but he has my complete respect concerning his work to help stop the true Holocaust that is happening in the Sudan and Dafur.  This is a tragedy on an unimaginable scale and his work is to be greatly commended.  Unfortunately, there is little monetary or political captial to be gained fighting for this cause, so Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Spike Lee are unsurprisingly unmotivated to take up its banner.

Such is the sad state of affairs for the once shining civil rights movement.  But maybe this is a good thing. Perhaps the necessity of a separate civil rights movement for blacks no longer exists.  Of course racism still exists.  In some form, it will always exist.  But maybe, just maybe, America has matured to the point where, the majority of the time, we only have to worry about people's rights.  And you know, I think that would be a very good thing.