Arts of the Contact Zone

¶ … Arts of the Contact Zone by Mary Louise Pratt [...] Pratt's essay and methodology as it relates to Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech may be one of the most famous speeches in recent history. It galvanized black Americans and showed whites what indignities blacks still faced in America in 1963.

Martin Luther King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. On August 28, 1963, during a massive march calling for black civil rights. King was a Baptist minister who worked tirelessly for civil rights until his assassination in 1968. King's speech helped mobilize the black community to work for civil rights and helped show the white community just what blacks faced in terms of segregation, bigotry, and prejudice. It also is an excellent example of the art of the contact zone - specifically how different groups can view the same experience with very different eyes.

King's speech graphically portrays the plight of the black American in 1963. Author Pratt calls this type of text an "autoethnographic text," which she notes is "a text in which people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with representations others have made of them" (Pratt). King says of modern blacks, "One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land" (King). He describes himself and other blacks graphically so that white Americans can understand the representations they have of blacks may not be correct or even valid. In addition, he described their plight in terms of the vanquished, which is another mark of the autoethnographic text. Blacks were still victims of a white society in 1963, and King's speech shows this vividly.

In 1963 (and even today), blacks suffered from discrimination in many forms. There were segregated restrooms, dining rooms, hotels, and even transportation, such as buses, where blacks had to sit in the back, or give up their seats to white passengers. There were countless ways blacks were dehumanized and discriminated against. Blacks had been fighting for equal rights for many years, and so had Martin Luther King. More people were beginning to listen to their pleas for help, and Martin Luther King's dramatic speech helped gain momentum for the civil rights movement and show Americans civil rights should be taken seriously. King himself experienced discrimination throughout his life, and he chronicles some of these indignities in his speech, such as the inability to register to vote, no black candidates, the inability to gain decent educations and rise out of the ghettos, police brutality, and the inability to eat or sleep in the same buildings that white people enjoyed. Blacks were still treated as inferior citizens, even though they had gained their freedom after the Civil War. They were still treated as second-class citizens, and King wanted that to change. His dramatic speech showed America blacks were willing to fight for their rights until they received them, no matter how long it took, or how many people had to fall in order to raise up the others.

Martin Luther King delivered this speech to rally those who listened, but also to share his dream for the future of the United States. He wasted a world that was equal, where everyone has the same opportunities for advancement, and could live peacefully together. He said, "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" (King). He preached reform, but he also preached hope and faith to his followers. He urged them to go back to their homes and fight for what was right. He said, "Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed" (King). Thus, his speech was not simply a complaint about what was wrong with the current system, but a stirring look at how to fix the problem as soon as possible.

Perhaps the most important part of King's speech is his cry for peace and understanding between both groups. He did not urge blacks to take their rights by force, but advocated peace and mutual respect for each other. This part of the speech follows Pratt's essay regarding the critique portion, where King first assesses what is wrong with the treatment of blacks in the country, and then offers ways to fix the problem. He advocates collaboration for reform, and always advocates understanding between blacks and whites in the country. He was a man of peace who used radical reform to help solve a pressing problem.

King's speech represents the contact zone in another important way, and that is because it represents two different cultures and can be taken two different ways. Whites listening to the speech might see it as rabble rousing or inciting violence and violent reform, while blacks listening to it could identify with the wrongs and long for the rights. Whites were fearful of blacks gaining too many rights, especially in the South, where segregation was prevalent. However, blacks suffered indignities all over the country. King's strong feelings and insistence that blacks be taken seriously scared many whites, and they viewed his speech as the beginning of a frightening rebellion, while blacks saw it as the beginning of much needed reforms and rights. Thus, it represents two different cultures in the same words. It shows how far blacks still had to go to assimilate into American culture, while urging the whites to reform the culture as soon as possible. It shows the subjugation of the blacks, the superiority of the whites, and the reforms necessary to rectify the situation.

King presents denunciation of white practices, mediation to solve the problem, and most of all, imaginary dialogue - all of which create the contact zone in this work. His imaginary dialogue takes up much of the last quarter of the speech, where he lists the dreams he has for the future of America. His dreams for peace and equality are his imaginary dialogue, and they are some of the most powerful images in the speech. It does not seem wrong that a white child and a black child should hold hands in Alabama. It does seem wrong that they cannot during the time of the speech, and that is his point. The contact zone for this speech is King's cause, and the misinterpretation of his speech by fearful whites is the cost of this contact zone. Ultimately, the fear cost King his life when he was assassinated by a white shooter.