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.

–        Martin Luther King, August 28, 1963, Washington, D.C.

Walter Block has written a brilliant piece, echoing this most famous line of what is perhaps King’s most famous speech.  From Walter:

I recently heard a young black male student give thanks to the fact that at my school, Loyola University New Orleans, for the first time in his academic career, he has had teachers who “look like him.”

Walter offers several thought-provoking counters to this student’s joy:

I have a brown belt in Shoto-Kan Karate. Virtually none of my senseis (teachers) look like me. Well, yes, they all had heads, feet, arms, heads, and, I presume, the usual complements of kishkes (inner body parts), but that is where it ended.

What mattered to Walter is the content of his senseis’ character.

I identify with the New Orleans Pelicans. Yet, apart from maleness (and age and athletic ability too!), virtually none of them “look like me.” Should I be perturbed at that fact? …Not if I want them to win, which I certainly do.

What matters to Walter is the content of the players’ character.

I have learned more economics from Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams in the fields of racial and sexual discrimination than I have from any other two scholars…

What matters to Walter…oh, you get the point by now.

In a line that King would have been proud of – heck, he said the same thing just in a different way (emphasis added):

To return to that young black male student who gave thanks to the fact that at Loyola, for the first time in his academic career, he has teachers who “look like him.” Here is some free advice for him: No, no, no, skin color is entirely irrelevant.

Instead, Walter looks to (maybe you are getting tired of my pointing this out) the content of one’s character:

Yes, we do indeed need more diversity at Loyola but not along the usual racial, sexual, ethnic lines. Rather, there is a great need for this in terms of ideology.

Too many leftists and not enough libertarians and conservatives.

In other words, the content of one’s character.

Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.

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