Fifty years ago in June, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. practiced the now-legendary "I Have a Dream" speech in Detroit before taking it to Washington D.C. a few months later, which is why we're talking about it today. Detroit's role in the groundbreaking address is something we're pretty proud of here.
So while journalists and thought leaders worldwide are pondering where we are now — the income gap between blacks and whites, a cornerstone of the speech, actually grew wider since then; we're maybe like 1% closer to solving racism problems in general; voting rights are being threatened despite legislation to rectify those inequalities in the speech's aftermath — the Detroit Free Press, our largest, oldest paper of record, takes King's famous words and applies them to Detroit sports.
That's exactly what the Freep says on its Storify: "In honor of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. anniversary [which anniversary? Birth? Death? Jail time? Montgomery Bus Boycott? He did a lot of things here, guys.], we take his famous words and apply to them to the Tigers, Lions and more."
I get it — sports desks are supposed to be interactive with their readers, as they tend to be the most ravenous and dedicated of all a newspaper's subscribers. And as journalism evolves, we have to find new, clever, eye-catching ways — like slideshows — to interact.
But the "I Have a Dream" speech, really? Perhaps some of the most sacred words in American history thrown around to discuss matters such as the Pistons moving downtown? We couldn't talk about the Joe Louis Fist or something?
I mean, I guess — MLive found time to do a video of Detroiters reading excerpts from the speech, isn't that also reader participation? We know you guys like iPhone videos that autoplay on every damn link now, oh my God can this please be stopped somehow, I know Gannett makes you do it but Jesus H. Christ so was that not an option? Or maybe a Storify of tweets from famous celebrities about the speech? Come on.