{"id":218095,"date":"2010-01-19T10:58:52","date_gmt":"2010-01-19T15:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"tag:www.southernstudies.org,2010:\/\/5.12105"},"modified":"2010-01-25T12:43:22","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T17:43:22","slug":"voices-mlks-dream-drained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/218095","title":{"rendered":"VOICES: MLK’s dream drained"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brian<\/a><\/span>By Brian Miller, New America Media<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of a society worthy of the principle in
\nits founding declaration that “all men are created equal.” But he did
\nnot live in such a society, and he did not act as if he did. His life’s
\nwork was dedicated to bringing the nation closer to that dream. While
\nwe have made progress, the dream remains elusive. <\/p>\n

Last year, after Barack Obama’s historic election, many pundits
\ndeclared that the victory had ushered in a new “post-racial” era. But
\njust as the civil rights victories of the 1950s and 60s did not end
\nracism, the election of our first African American president does not
\ncreate a post-racial society. <\/p>\n

During his first year in office, President Obama, along with Congress,
\nhas governed as though the myth of a post-racial America were true.
\nFaced with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, both
\nCongress and the president have pursued universal, broad-spectrum
\nsolutions designed to lift up “all Americans.” <\/p>\n

But a post-racial America and colorblind policies are ideas that can’t
\nstand up to the facts of persistent, and even growing, racial economic
\ndisparities. <\/p>\n

As detailed in the newly released “State of The Dream 2010: Drained”
\nreport, racial economic inequities have worsened over the last year as
\npeople of color have taken the brunt of layoffs from this Great
\nRecession. The unemployment rate for blacks jumped 4.3 percent to the
\ndevastating height of 16.2 percent, while the white unemployment rate
\nstands at 9 percent, up only 2.4 percent by comparison from a year
\nearlier. And African Americans who are employed still earn less than
\ntheir white counterparts in similar jobs. <\/p>\n

Racial disparities of wealth are even more persistent and severe than
\nincome and employment disparities because unlike most jobs, wealth can
\nbe passed from one generation to the next. So, families and communities
\nthat are wealthy tend to stay that way, and those who are not wealthy
\ntend to stay that way, too, generation after generation. <\/p>\n

Because African Americans hold only 10 cents to every dollar of white
\nnet wealth, they are less able to cope with the loss of income and jobs
\nthat have come with the Great Recession. Exacerbating the problem, most
\nof the wealth that is held by African Americans is held in the form of
\nhousing that has collapsed in value due to the foreclosure crisis and
\nthe predatory lending that fueled it. <\/p>\n

It’s important that we get the recovery right. The Great Recession
\nbegan with the collapse of the predatory subprime mortgage market. Our
\nimmediate policy response was to bail out the banks under the Toxic
\nAsset Relief Program. This did shore up their profits and ensured the
\noutlandish bonuses of executives, but it failed to bring relief to
\nwhere it is needed most. <\/p>\n

As more predatory and adjustable rate mortgages reset to higher
\npayments and joblessness increases over the coming year, more families
\nwill be forced into foreclosure. Foreclosed properties bring down the
\nvalue of homes near them, further reducing the wealth in communities of
\ncolor where foreclosure rates are the highest. Many homeowners,
\nregardless of being current on their loan payments, are left owing more
\non their mortgage than their home is worth. <\/p>\n

Last year’s stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
\ncertainly did more to shore up the broader economy than the bank
\nbailout. It did not, however, effectively reach the communities most in
\nneed of recovery and reinvestment. Less stimulus funding has gone to
\nareas with higher rates of unemployment than to areas with more jobs.
\nAnd the sectors that have benefited most from stimulus money are
\nindustries that have traditionally not been major sources of African
\nAmerican employment. <\/p>\n

MLK’s dream of racial equality cannot be realized until the economic
\ndivide between races is addressed. The Great Recession and our policy
\nresponses to it have proven once again that we cannot address racial
\ninequity by ignoring it. With colorblind policies, the people in the
\nworst economic position stay that way. <\/p>\n

The “State of the Dream” report recommends targeted solutions to end
\nthe foreclosure crisis, to bring jobs to where they are needed most,
\nand to bring opportunity where it is most lacking. These
\nrecommendations will address the particular plight of African
\nAmericans. Proponents of a post-racial or colorblind society will no
\ndoubt be pleased that these solutions will also raise up all poor and
\nworking class families regardless of race.<\/p>\n

Brian Miller is executive director of United for a Fair Economy
\n(UFE), a national non-profit organization working to promote more
\nbroadly shared prosperity and to end extreme inequalities of wealth and
\nincome. Miller is co-author of UFE’s new report, along with Ajamu
\nDillahunt, Mike Prokosch, Jeannette Huezo, and Dedrick Muhammad,
\nentitled “State of the Dream 2010: Drained – Jobless and Foreclosed in
\nCommunities of Color,” available on-line at
\nhttp:\/\/www.faireconomy.org\/dream<\/i> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brian Miller, New America Media Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of a society worthy of the principle in its founding declaration that “all men are created equal.” But he did not live in such a society, and he did not act as if he did. His life’s work was dedicated to bringing the nation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}