Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. Washington, DC.

When I was living in Portland, Oregon—I visited Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr statue called The Dream just right outside Oregon Convention Center. That was where Deaf People of Color Conference was taken in 2010. I was blown away with each of presenters. I see dream in the conference theme “Hands Joined, Signs United, Colors Flying”—with the main objective to heal from Racism, one of the society’s most venom letter in the English language. The quote by MLK continues to inspire as well as struggle to overcome hate, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?”

That quote was mind-boggling—and we must continue to honor MLK’s legacy. When I visited National MLK Memorial in Washington, D.C; the statue of MLK had reflected many values that unite all of us to continue to fight against hate. Especially in the Age of Trumpism, we need to continue to fight for civil rights, and the legacy what MLK had done made us to be socially responsible to be on the front lines to make a radical change to overcome hate.

I remember one day when I visited Lincoln Memorial and stood where MLK gave the most famous speech, I Have a Dream front of the largest audience—no way you can ever take that away like that. Moving from Portland to Washington, D.C. is a huge difference.

Portland, the whitest city in America, to DC, one of the largest Black populations in America, I see oppression every day around the city. This is 2018. For example, I remember standing outside in the back of the apartment in Trinidad area, my next-door neighbor was hosting a party, so they asked me to join the festive and appreciate the DC life. I was only living in DC eight months that time…and saw something surreal what I saw. It was hot summer.

Maybe one of the hottest summers so far and there were couple of Black people sitting, standing, and drinking a bottle of water and all of sudden, the police was driving around and decided to make a power trip and got out of the car and decided to grab their water bottle and emptied right front of them with laughter and one of the mothers became so upset and had bravely confronted them and the cops laughed and drove away. I saw the whole thing—I was like, what the fuck? Of course, the police officers—who were white.

The language is different from Portland and DC. It has been a lot of experience to understand the problem of Racism, and I have seen the stereotype and full of hate. One of the best examples that Donald Trump said about Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries, “SHIT-HOLE”—what a SHIT HOLE PRESIDENT. As for Deaf community, we have to be thankful for National Black Deaf Advocates for its leadership. I’ve met few Deaf people from Haiti, and few African countries and they are incredible people!

As for Trump, you cannot fix a personality disorder—Trump is mentally nuts. People with personality disorders do not think there is anything wrong with them, and Trump is one of them. Trump will never acknowledge the fact that he has a problem even when he spewed hate as an American President—just wrong to see like this.

The growing of white supremacy in America is alarming, and the President of the United States creates the big picture about Racism and encourages violence against Black Deaf people. Remember the way he encourages harsher police brutality front of police officers and they all laughed. It was an alarming experience to see this. Perhaps there is a racist angle in there somewhere if we look hard enough.

MLK day—the reflection about “soul searching” is important for us in the society. The book you see on the left side is one of the best books I ever read about MLK.

Please honor MLK’s legacy and celebrate his life. Oh, yes, please reserve a ticket in advance should you visit in DC to see National Museum of African American History and Culture.

-JT

Copyright © 2018 Jason Tozier

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