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Martin Luther King's Fight To End Racial Discrimination In America

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“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,” the renowned American civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr. (1963) once said, but instead “by the content of their character” (King). King’s, I Have a Dream Speech, served as a cornerstone in his fight to end racial discrimination in America. Consequently, America’s culture and society, over fifty years later, is still working to establish the core principals of King’s dream. Some may argue that the election of President Barack Obama into the oval office is a sign that America is now diverse and that racism, stereotypes, and prejudices are a thing of the past. However, certain women, especially those of color like Mellody Hobson, will argue that America still has a long road ahead of them when it comes to leveling the playing field in today’s society. In this essay, I will give a brief overview of a TED Talks video given by Hobson and an article written by Byrd on the subject of women and …show more content…

Every organization has their individual set of norms, practices, and values. However, “the problem this presents for women of color is that biased, prejudicial, and stereotypical images that are grounded in social identity often clash with cultural ideals” (Byrd, 2016, p. 191). There are two primary examples of this given by Byrd (2016) that include the notion that often times women of color are more likely to assert themselves, and secondly, within the culture are invisible ‘gatekeepers’ that can deny certain rites of passages to individuals (Byrd, p. 191). Ultimately, facing women of color is an uphill battle within the social construct forcing them to navigate through adversity to “prove themselves worthy of inclusion” (Byrd, p.

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