A 2006 episode of “The Boondocks” called “Return of The King” imagined what it would be like if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t die from an assassin’s bullet but instead woke up from a coma into today’s world.

Dr. King doesn’t wake up to a pretty picture. He sees the dream he had in the 1960s become a nightmare.

He hears gunshots going off on streets bearing his name. He sees blacks devaluing education and glorifying the thug life. He speaks out angrily against the Iraq war and gets threatened.

“Is this it? This is what I got all those ass-whoopings for?” Dr. King asks.

But all this does is get Dr. King labeled a sellout and a terrorist sympathizer. He’s ridiculed, imprisoned and eventually run out of the country.

The episode ends with people beginning to remember the Dream. Dropout rates begin to plummet among black youth, black members of the NBA sit out the season until the troops are withdrawn from Iraq and Oprah Winfrey is elected president.

But the “Return of the King” episode so enraged the Rev. Al Sharpton that he asked for an apology from Aaron McGruder, the show’s creator. He thought the show was a derogatory depiction of Dr. King’s legacy. Sharpton missed the point. Most other people saw it as a brilliant illustration on how far we’ve strayed from Dr. King’s dream.

Now we have CNN correspondent Soledad O’Brien hosting a two-part documentary that basically explores the same turf. The documentary “Black in America,” which airs today and Thursday at 8 p.m. on CNN, takes a look a how far we’ve come since Dr. King’s death.

“Black in America” utilizes a town hall meeting format to address crime, education, HIV infection and other issues facing the black community today. Audience members ask a changing guest panel that includes Bishop T.D. Jakes, author Michael Eric Dyson, radio host Tom Joyner, Bennett College for Women President Julianne Malveaux and other notable blacks a series of questions regarding black America today.

Tonight’s episode, “The Black Woman & Family,” looks at HIV/AIDS, single parenthood and other issues.

HIV cases are soaring among black women in the United States. One chilling segment is the testimony of a young black woman who contracted AIDs from her longtime boyfriend.

Thursday’s episode focuses on “The Black Man” and the issues of father absenteeism and incarceration. But it also talks about those brothers who are doing the right thing. It’s more than the media would have you believe, said Essence magazine editor Angela Burt-Murray.

“Those are the stories you’re missing,” Burt-Murray said from a press release.

We’ve come a long way in the 40 years since Dr. King’s death, but we still have further to go. Black in America shows us that part of the journey takes seeing that our problems are not always someone else’s fault.

Alonzo Weston can be reached at alonzow@npgco.com