This isn’t what Dr. King wanted

By Barbara R. Arnwine
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

As we reflect on Martin Luther King Day, many of us remember his famous and stirring “I Have A Dream Speech.” This speech is memorialized as the centerpiece of the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” which spoke of the twin evils of racial discrimination and economic deprivation that prevailed because of the defaulted promissory note that stipulated equality for all.

In an earlier speech in Detroit (1963), Dr. King linked the “twin evils” stating that “I have a dream this afternoon that one day right here in Detroit, Negroes will be able to buy a house or rent a house anywhere their money will carry them and they will be able to get a job.” Then and now the Civil Rights Movement is about much more than ending racial discrimination, a major tenet of the movement has been also advocating for economic justice and opportunities for all people.

Until there is equal access to economic opportunities for all Americans, our nation cannot call itself a post racial society. The modern form of racial discrimination is realized through an economic proxy. We find evidence of this in the fiscal cliff compromise, which was hard fought and difficult to reach. The devastating implications for African Americans and other economically vulnerable racial minorities of the shredding of the social safety network cannot be ignored. The fruition of the December 2012 compromise allowed racial minorities to avoid a compound of injustice and discrimination that could have manifested without a decision.

According to the Congressional Budget Office’s August 2012 report, “An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022 Report,” the cuts could have sent the entire country into another recession. As we have learned from the Great Recession, racial minorities are disproportionately impacted by downturns in the economy. In 2001, nearly 65 percent of White adults and just over 60 percent of Black adults were employed. The Great Recession caused the share of Black working adults to slide down to 52 percent, nearly seven points behind whites.

Throughout the recession, the unemployment rate for African Americans continued to rise in the double digits, with the December 2012 unemployment rate at 14 percent for African Americans, while it was only 6.9 percent for whites. Even though racial minorities can count this fiscal cliff compromise as a win, the political showdowns surrounding the compromise have fostered a breeding ground of animosity that may preview continual struggles ahead.

Debates in coming months concerning spending cuts and raising the nation’s limit on borrowing are raising legitimate concerns in minority communities. Those who opposed the compromise and were against raising taxes on the wealthy, have vowed that in any future debates they would stalwartly seek to include significant cuts in government benefit programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which could potentially have a disparate impact on minorities and low-income families. This debate illustrates the twin evils of racial discrimination and economic deprivation that Dr. King spoke of so eloquently.

Many of Dr. King’s remarks are almost prescient of today’s economic issues. His remark that “God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous wealth while others live in abject deadening poverty” resonates soundly with the fiscal cliff compromise to tax wealthy Americans at a higher rate in order to supplant the harrowing growth of the minority poverty rate, which had previously been narrowed prior to the recession. In a similar fashion, his observation that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” speaks to how politicians should approach future economic debates.

Decisions in any upcoming fiscal debates should ensure that all Americans are treated fairly and should not create an undue burden on those in our country who are already struggling to survive economically. That type of injustice only impedes the growth our nation in becoming a post-racial society. Dr. King’s speeches push beyond issues of economic inequality, calling for parity in all facets of life. However, it is hard to envision the dream of equality manifesting without an equal economic playing field.

This article was originally published in the January 28, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper