Who will live out the Dream?

At the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s iconic "I have a dream" speech and the march on Washington, many prominent African American celebrities spoke to commemorate and remember the historic day.  

 (1:15-1:35)

In particular, Jaime Foxx, a well known actor and singer, gave a brief speech about the importance of renewing King's dream: "I'm going to tell you right now that everybody my age and all the entertainers, it's time for us to stand up now and renew this dream."  He called out Will Smith, Jay Z, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, and Kerry Washington as examples of influential African Americans who can make a difference through their work and actions because they have "power."  Power is what the majority—whites—has over nonwhites, which can expand far beyond just legislative and financial reasoning.

This call to service is to break free from the rationalization of what Omi and Winant (and Gramsci) call "common sense," which sources itself in hegemony, which is “constituted by a combination of coercion and consent"(unsure of page, cut off, 4th in the second Omi/Winant article).

Foxx wants these influential well-known people to deconstruct our rationalized way of "acting in the world" (60). Thus, dissent is necessary to challenge the "popular system of ideas and practices" which can be described as “education, the media, religion, folk wisdom, etc” (67).  However, in order to overturn this “common sense” it will take much more than fame and celebrity.

Interesting sidenote: the Henry Belafonte and Jay Z connection again!