Martin Luther King, Jr, had a dream that one day his children could play with the white children of their neighborhood in the peaceful rituals of youth. He dreamed of a place that we are judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character. We have not come very far. People are still being judged by how we see them; how the dress, talk, or how much money they have. In some situations, we have to judge people on the spot just by how they are adorned, or in their approach towards us. However, these verdicts are more often made by the media and their stereotypes than by our own personal experience or reasoning. Hopefully we can start looking past what pop culture considers acceptable and start making our own judgements by listening to our hearts.

Over a hundred years has passes since slavery has been abolished and sometime since then, we have banned segregation in the United States. We have laws that say that if you persecute a man, woman or child for being a different religion or color, you, yourself, will be persecuted by law. Judge them in your heart, and your own judgement will be before God when that fateful day comes. Though discrimination is illegal, we all judge by the color of another’s skin. No, indeed we have not come far at all.

People are all about themselves these days. Everything can be personalized and customized to an almost garish condition. Mass populace has a “me, me, me” outlook on life, and we don’t look past our own little bubble. When someone breaks out of the “membrane of mirrors” and decides to live for them, to wear what’s comfortable and not what ruptures the bank to but, the are immediate social outcasts. When you see someone that is not wearing high dollar merchandise, you classify them as poor or uncaring. Furthermore, there are the people who pretend to like the garbage they wear. We have all become better liars, and we use this unfortunate talent to make people like us. It’s a disease that every child is born with, and through life, perfects into an absolute art. That, my friends, is unacceptable. Judging someone by how they dress is unacceptable, but doing it while you’re in shoes that don’t fit is just wrong.

Now. Picture this. Walking down a dark street in the middle of Atlanta at night, there’s a woman coming home from work. She sees a tall, dark figure coming down the other side and her heart starts racing. Who is it? Will he hurt me? These along with many other questions race through her head as the person gets closer. They pass one another under a street light as she looks over. He’s a tall, black male, and he’s looking at her, too. She clutches her purse and walks faster. He grips his wallet and speeds up the pace. Now, because of the movies and music videos and stories we hear and read and see we make these assumptions sometimes and end up being wrong. Pop culture influences us too much and the idiot box starts making judgments for us. Just because of the black man’s skin tone and size, the woman became scared and most likely because she saw an episode of CSI where the young woman was killed by a large black man. Society and everyday culture do not allow us to be thinking machines, and our judgment is swayed. How can you make characteristic judgment when you are surrounded by things telling you to watch out for the skin color?

Someday, Dr. King’s dream will be realized, and we will all look at each other through the eyes of our hearts. Skin color, yearly income, breast size, clothing brand, none of this will matter anymore. We will be seen as people with character, not as people of substance or color. All the colors and tints and stereotypes will be washed away like dirt from the hands of the American people at large. Why must we be judged at all? No judgment matters like that of the Holy Father anyway, so why even waste time thinking about it?

Since we do, take these words into consideration.

We are all brothers and sisters in these eyes of God. Nothing will change that.