Black, White and Shades of Gray: The Semiotic problem with Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Dream”

There’s a Problem with “I Have a Dream?” Not the speech itself; the problem is the ideology that frames the dream. More specifically, the problem is embedded in the Western ideology of binaries. Most specifically, the binary of black and white.

Black and White codes are an opposition within American ideology. The individual consciousness is nurtured on signs: it derives its growth from them; it reflects their logic and laws. Only the current of verbal intercourse endows a word with the light of meaning. Signs emerge, after all, only in the process of interaction between one individual consciousness and another. And the individual consciousness itself is filled with signs. Consciousness becomes consciousness only once it has been filled with ideological (semiotic) content, consequently, only in the process of social interaction. (Bakhtin)

Idioms Framing the Ideology He tends to view everything as a black and white issue; i t is either right or wrong, w hereas his partner always finds gray areas. This day's black fate." "Black villainy." “ Arise, black vengeance." --Shakespeare. "Black day." "Black despair." black list -- A list of persons or things considered undesirable or deserving punishment A little white lie never hurt anything

But Dr. King did not use the term “black” in his speech!  King uses the term “negro” to describe all people of African descent living in the United States.  “Negro” is the Spanish term for “black.”  The word negro comes from the Latin term nigrum, meaning black.  The evolution of the slang-version of Negro has become accepted as an epithet, and is no longer socially or politically acceptable within American cultural code.  For the purposes of this presentation, the term “black” is substituted for “negro.”

But aren’t these idioms are arbitrarily created by a culturally biased ideology? NOT COMPLETELY Newton’s separation of color from light confirms the notion that white is the purest form of light, and that black is the absence of all light. In 1670, Sir Isaac Newton demonstrated that white light is composed of all the colors of the spectrum by refracting sunlight through a prism. ( cirquedigital.com ) Click on the photo to see for yourself!

Black, white and gray are Iconic. For instance, every color on the color wheel is in opposition to another. Watch what happens when we combine these binaries Gray

Black and White as Icons Good Truth Right Evil Lies Wrong

Synonyms within the ideology Black SootyDarkFilthyGrimyGrubbySmuttySoiledUncleanBad White alabasterClearFairImmaculateIvoryPearlyPureSnowyangelic

Black vs. White is a Western Ideology The Philosophy of Yin and Yang is an Eastern ideology of combination and harmony. Binaries do not oppose one another, they complement each other. As in the Western ideology of multiple meaning, black and white represent more than just color and lack of color. Yin and Yang include binaries of male and female, good and evil, black and white, happiness and sadness, etc. One cannot exist without the other. The resulting balance between two, completes the one whole.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"