Great strides have been taken on the field of equal rights during the past 40 years. Nowadays, drinking fountains for “whites” and “coloreds” have all pretty much been abolished — save museums and possibly a few towns in the deep, deep south where folks still put their blind faith in the letters KKK. Countless other changes are apparent everywhere from desegregated schools to efforts at equality in the workplace.

Despite all the steps in the right direction, all the laws enacted and all the pats we give one another on the back, each Martin Luther King Jr. Day, America and the world are still a long ways off from attaining any sort of true racial equality.

As recent as Sept. 11, 2001, Americans looked at citizens of Middle East descent in an unflattering light. Not because they had any real issues with them personally but rather because Osama bin Laden and his followers had many believing that brown skin equaled evil. It didn’t take much to push many “red-blooded Americans” over the edge and reveal racist undertones that many in our society feel but do not act upon.

Even more recently, the war in Iraq accomplished a similar result as people from the Middle East were once again painted evil with a political paint brush. Whether we like it or not, racism and inequality in many forms lie just beneath our proud society’s surface.

It often takes but a scratch before a gaping wound opens.

As a “advanced” society, we must learn to recognize our racist tendencies at their primary levels. And correct them from within. Only then will we truly be able to live up to the dream and the challenge set in motion by King.

Only then will the dream truly be realized.