This Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on the eve of the inauguration of the nation’s first African American president. The swearing-in ceremony will be held in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, where Dr. King shared his dream for America.
President-elect Barack Obama’s run for the White House does not mean the race for economic justice is over. In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King said:
Forty-five years later, a black man will assume the mantle of “leader of the free world.” But far from a “vast ocean of material prosperity,” millions of Americans are drowning in a sea of debt.
While there has been undeniable racial progress, racial inequality persists.
Last week, United for a Fair Economy, a nonpartisan research and economic justice advocacy group, released a report, “State of the Dream 2009: The Silent Depression,” which quantifies growing economic inequality. The findings include:
Overall, 24% of Blacks and 21% of Latinos are in poverty, versus 8% of whites.
Extreme economic inequality (which the U.S. experienced in the 1920s and is again experiencing now) is often a key indicator of recession and/or depression. The Black depression of today may well foreshadow the depth and length of the recession the whole country entered in December 2007.
A deep recession would see median family income decline by 4%. Thirty-three per cent of Blacks and 41% of Latinos would drop out of the middle class. The overall national rate would be 25%.
Yes, take a day on to celebrate the Drum Major for Justice. But Dr. King’s dream of economic justice is not yet realized.