EDITORIAL: Corporate America is returning to MLK’s dream

Using discrimination to fix past discrimination is a fool’s errand. One obvious problem is that it justifies an unending cycle of future discrimination to account for the present discrimination done to fix past discrimination.

More than 60 years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. laid out a better way.

“So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream,” Mr. King said in 1963 while speaking on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. “It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ ”

He continued, “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.”

There are a couple of things worth noting about this dream. To start, as Mr. King noted, it isn’t a rejection of the country’s founding ideals. It is a call to live up to them.

He wasn’t the first one to draw attention to this. In his famous 1852 speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July,” Frederick Douglass made a similar point.

“Interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a glorious liberty document,” he said. “Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them?”

Douglass also said he drew “encouragement” from “the great principles” contained in the Declaration of Independence.

Mr. King’s dream is also unifying. People don’t pick their skin color. They can’t change their skin color. But each individual’s character is the result of their decisions. It’s a far better way to judge people. It also doesn’t pit them against each other based on something they can’t control.

Over the years many businesses and elite universities have gone the opposite way. Through corporate DEI programs and outright or de facto racial quotas, they treated people differently based on their skin color.

That’s starting to change, especially with the return of President Donald Trump. Major companies, including Facebook, McDonald’s and Amazon, have dropped some of their DEI programs. Companies are facing lawsuits for racially discriminatory practices, too. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action in college admissions was unconstitutional, although some colleges went looking for workarounds.

These are positive signs. As the country takes a day to remember the life of Rev. King, its institutions need to continue working to make his dream a reality.