Martin Luther King, Jr. marshmallows

Happy birthday to one of America’s most precious leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For you, I made some marshmallows.

I live in a diverse neighborhood in Washington, DC. My daughter attends a public school with students from every ward in the city; the student body is so diverse that diversity is barely a noteworthy topic. But I recognize and appreciate the bubble in which I live, a bubble that inches its way closer to MLK’s dream than many places elsewhere. I’m thankful for our place, and especially that my daughter is growing up in the best possible surroundings to train her consciousness with regard (or rather, DIS-regard to color), but with systematic racism so embedded in our history, I know we still have a lot of work to do. Yep, we have a LOT of marshmallows to draw. (In case you’re thinking I’m somehow unaware of how horribly inadequate marshmallows are to represent the great MLK, I’m not, I assure you.)

Sadly, my beloved edible writers still have a ways to go to fulfill the dream. The skin color options are painfully lacking. They have a peach for white skin, and brown for “other.” Sigh. So I had to get creative with different shades. Some markers that were losing their ink, drawing with the sides of the marker, light strokes, heavier, etc. When these markers come in a set of skin tones, with all the glorious hues you can imagine, THEN we will have arrived.

Read the famous “I have a dream” speech HERE.