Martin Luther King Jr. Called For Economic Restructuring

ON THE ECONOMY

Julianne Malveaux 14jan01

Millions of Americans will celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tomorrow, both because it is a federal holiday and because many of us believe that King's work transformed our nation regarding matters of race.

As with most holidays, though, people often forget the purpose and focus simply on enjoying the day off. Doing so on this day, especially in the context of our fluid economy, would be a missed opportunity to reflect on the unfinished business of racial economic justice.

My conservative colleagues groan at the term "racial economic justice," but the fact remains that the playing field still isn't level, despite significant progress made in the 32 years since King's assassination.

Differences in income, home ownership and unemployment can partly be explained by nonracial factors, but at the end of the day, race still matters.

When the overall unemployment rate is barely 4 percent and the African American unemployment rate is 8 percent, there's a racial difference that needs to be explained. When African American household incomes remain at less than 60 percent of white incomes, there's still work to do.

Indeed, though many talk of racial bias as a thing of the past, when new-economy companies such as Microsoft Corp. are being sued for racial discrimination, it is clear that racial economic justice still needs to be a goal.

Unfortunately, the economic expansion of past years has left many people with the sense that little is wrong on the racial front. To be sure, this impression is shattered when African Americans are denied voting rights, as they were in Florida during the 2000 presidential elec-

tion. But most whites and many African Americans bask in the progress that has been made and think there isn't much left to do.

King would disagree. In his speech "Where Do We Go From Here?" he talked about our nation's economic structure. "There are 40

million poor people here," he said in 1968.

"And one day, we must ask the question, why are there 40 million poor people in America. We've got to begin to ask questions about the whole of our society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's marketplace.

"But one day, we must come to see that an edifice that produces discouraged beggars needs restructuring. You see, my friends, when you begin to deal with this, you begin to ask the question, who owns the oil? Who owns the iron ore? Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two-thirds water?"

There was a time when people openly asked questions about our nation's economic structure. Now we simply accept the fact that 1 in 8 Americans and l.in 4 African Americans live in poverty.

Though income distribution ought to be a matter of concern, we ignore the fact that the rich have gotten much richer during the past decade, and that African Americans are 12 percent of the population but hold just 1.7 percent of the nation's wealth.

Questions about economic structure are not popular, which is why Gov. Gray Davis seems determined to develop a negotiated solution to energy deregulation in California instead of simply admitting that de-

regulation has failed and that it has hit the poor harder than anyone else.

All the poor aren't African American, and all black folks aren't poor. That ought to be a mantra when we look at poverty policy. So many Americans are accustomed to seeing have-nots with a face of color that we forget that the majority of the poor are white.

We also forget that economic success is a fragile thing, that some who were last year's dot-com mil-

lionaires are now struggling to make ends meet. We need to repair our fraying social safety net, but there seems little sentiment to do that.

Instead, we keep hearing about private charity and faith-based programs, neither of which takes a single step toward economic restructuring.

While closing the racial economic gap ought to be an imperative, visible African American economic success convinces some folks that the playing field is level and that anyone can get rich in America.

The success of BET's Bob Johnson, Harpo Productions' Oprah Winfrey - as well as a legion of multimillionaire sports gladiators -should riot be exhibit A in any effort to eliminate affirmative action.

Some will say that King said people should be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin, but he said much more than that.

Those who want the flavor of King's latest thinking, the thinking that caused him to lead a strike of Memphis garbage workers, ought to read "Where Do We Go From Here?" and not "I Have a Dream."

Economist Julianne Malveaux welcomes readers' comments and questions at lastword prod@aol.com