After last Tuesday's election, when Barack Obama was elected the next US President, I found myself going back to read Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
Like many others, I find the tones and cadences of its message still moving, fresh, and powerful. When I listen to Reverend King's message, I experience what I imagine to be a near-universal response to the power of his vision. Beyond that, I react to a specific part of the speech that resonates for me as a personality psychologist.
The first portion of Dr. King's speech is a summary of the nation's hopes for equality among peoples. In the US after the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery. The consequent hopes for equality for Black people in America, however, soon were dashed by political realities. King reminds us, "But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free."
The second portion of the speech intertwines two notions. The first idea is that it is justified to feel dissatisfaction with the nation's unequal treatment of its citizens ("We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.") The second is "We cannot walk alone;" that all Americans must join together to create justice.
The next portion of Reverend King's speech describes his dream of future equality.
The line with the special meaning for me is his statement: "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, but by the content of their character."
The near universal response to this remark, I believe, is to think of Dr. King's children, our own children, children everywhere, and the world of equality we wish them to inherit.
The phrase, "judged...by the content of their character," elicits an additional response for me as a personality psychologist.
When I entered the field of psychology years ago, I took inspiration from the idea that, in learning to judge a person's character (as opposed to other attributes), I could help, in a very small way, to create greater justice in the world.
The sub-field of psychology to which I gravitated, personality psychology, is especially focused on understanding and judging character (the term personality often is used as a synonym for character). I find myself intrigued anew with this notion of judging character.
It seems to me now that the promise of judging a person by his or her character is not as simple as I once thought and that judging a person's character, too, can become associated with difficulties and challenges.
First, it is not easy to judge personality (or character). Moreover, although many people regard doing so as a noble pursuit, others regard such judgments as misguided and destructive to the person judged.
In the presidential election just past, judgments were made regarding the character of presidential and vice-presidential contenders, and their associates. "Which of those judgments," I have wondered, "have been helpful and fair? Which have been misguided and harsh?"
In upcoming posts, I hope to examine some key aspects of judging and evaluating personality: the pros and cons of doing so, how that can contribute to the individual and society, and if and when such judgments can be deleterious.
That is where the next posts will lead, and I invite you along for the journey.
Notes: The text of Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech can be seen and/or downloaded from www.usconstitution.net/dream.html
(c) copyright 2008 John D. Mayer
