“I Have a Dream” by Jordan Cline

           

            Martin Luther King, Jr. is a very famous, black iconoclast. He has inspired me with his words to always persevere and do good for the world! But is he necessarily the person that makes me who I am today?
            I was in the fourth grade at a new school, a private school. There were not many kids, so everyone knew each other, except for me. It was the first day of school and everyone was out on the playground. I stood there, alone while everyone else was having fun; I only wanted someone to talk to, or even just to play soccer, but I seemed to be invisible….
         Finally, a kid in my class, named Charlie, came up to me and I thought he was going to ask me if I wanted to play. At that point, I was wearing a huge smile, and was in sheer happiness that I might make a friend, but then Charlie said, “Hey! You’re black, you must be stupid.” and he ran off, continuing to play.
            I stood there in pure awe; I hadn’t a clue what to do. To this day my feelings of how I felt are unexplainable. Was I too shocked to be angry? Or was I too angry to cry? I just stood there, realizing that, to some people, the color of my skin still matters.
            I went home crying because I thought that Martin Luther King, Jr. had fixed this; I thought the world was good. But my dad, infuriated, said, “Jordan, Martin Luther King might have helped us earn our civil rights, but the world still burns with hate! The scars of prejudice will never heal….”
            That’s when I realized Charlie was blinded by hate. He could only see the black on the outside and not the real me on the inside. That’s also why I didn’t believe his dry “I’m sorry” crap during the “No tolerance” meetings, because I could feel his hate towards my skin color, or was it me?
            My only friend Danny, who was Charlie’s best friend but hear about the incident and, I guess didn’t agree, he was there for me. He said, “Jordan, I don’t know why Charlie would say something like that, but he really is a nice person, you must believe me. All that I know is that he used to be at the top of our class….”
            Danny’s “comforting” words, at first, sounded like he was still trying to defend Charlie. And I still wonder today, why would he want to protect Charlie’s image if we were friends? But I realized that Danny did tell me something very important; it led me to ask, “Was it me?”
            Our teacher, Mrs. Fletcher, hung up “ladders” that displayed how well each student was doing in each core, academic subject. Every week since I had arrived, I had been at the top “step” of each “ladder.” At that moment, I felt on top of the world! But most importantly, I proved Charlie wrong; I showed him that the color of my skin doesn’t relate to my intelligence.
            But today, I see that I really didn’t win; I didn’t lose either, but I think Charlie wasn’t prejudice, he was just jealous. I suddenly appeared in his life and took away his best friend, his notoriety for being the smartest in the class and being the teacher’s favorite. I had stolen almost everything from him.
            To me, Charlie never did apologize, but because of that, everyday he drives me to out-perform others. When I walk into a classroom for the first time, I feel that everyone is like Charlie; like I have to prove I’m smart. That is why I am so competitive, and I only strive for and settle for perfect grades. When I take a test, half the time I hear Charlie’s voice saying, “Hey! You’re black, you must be stupid.”
            If I ever do see Charlie again, I would thank him; thank him for making me, me: a person that is loquacious, out-going, open-minded, friendly, strives for excellence, and is generous.
            To me, Martin Luther King, Jr. helped my people earn our civil rights, but Charlie is the one who constantly reminds me that if I let my guard down, someone else might say, “Hey! You’re black, you must be stupid.”