ECONOMIC EQUALITY: HAS THE DREAM BEEN REALIZED??

Many of us have been bathed in the words of Dr. King's “I Have A Dream” speech, however the purpose behind his words have seemingly gone down the drain of our eardrums. We will all be mistaken if we continue to believe that his dream has somehow been realized and that we have reached the mountaintop. A major part of Dr. Kings dream was economic equality. In his 1967 speech, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”, he stated:
The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.

Let's fast forward to 2009. Eleven million Americans are out of work; this equals the total population of New York City and Chicago combined. When it comes to the unemployment rate among African Americans, it is over eleven percent -- double that of any other race in the United States. When it comes to income, out of 13.7 million African American households sourced in the 2004 Census, almost 10.5 million households (68%) earn less than $75,000 a year. Out of 23.5 million Americans earning over $100,000 a year, over 87% are Caucasian and 1.04% are African American. And as for poverty, 12.5% of Americans live in poverty and of them 24.5% are African American according to the 2008 Census.

To answer the question, no, the dream has not yet been realized, a notion that was seconded by members of the King Family on Inauguration Day. On a socio-economic level, we are unprepared to handle the opportunities that will be presented with the election of an African American president. In and of himself, President Barack Obama's inauguration doesn’t automatically give us, the black community, a voice. It gives us an new opportunity to be seen. Not necessarily appreciated, but it gives the world an opportunity to give us a second look. A second look is needed because the first spotlight view that the world had of us as a people since Dr. King’s passing has been unfavorable.

The last group of individuals or leaders that placed the African American community in the spotlight included Jesse Jackson, Sr., Al Sharpton, Michael Vick, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, Tupac, Marion Jones, Michael Jackson, 50 Cent, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and a slew of embattled pastors. They all have left a tainted inward view of what it really means to be Black in America from a global perspective. Before President Obama took office, the sum of the African American community was sports, drugs and entertainment and it was unfairly perceived and packaged as being rooted in Hip Hop. We as a people looked unfavorable on a global front because of the publicized personas and actions of few. For Black America to somehow think that we have arrived says that allot of us have been asleep at the wheel.

So where did we go wrong? We’ve lost our grasp of what has always been the mainstay of the black economy and that is ownership. We've gotten away from what I call Grandparent Economics. Think about how momma and them owned their home free and clear, owned their vehicle free and clear, raised 5-10 children, put them all through college and can still afford to financially support the entire family 30 years later. Now think about how a family of four making twice as much money is struggling to meet the monthly bills and can't be called on to help anyone else. We have also gotten away from being landowners. In 1905, African Americans owned over 19 million acres of land. As of 2005 we own 1.1 million acres and falling. Ironically the average black farmer earns over $600,000 a year and you read earlier about how many of us earn less than $75,000 a year. Numbers don't lie, but we as a people have been lying to ourselves. We created a rush to be integrated into everything that we were denied, but didn't pause to see what things we already did better or if it would really work for us in the long term. The Black Economy has always been rooted in ownership and as of 2009, we are losing our roots. We need to return back to the basics of our own economy if we are going to see the essence of Dr. Kings dream materialize in our lifetime. In a way, Dr. King's dream of economic equality for America as a whole has turned into a fiscal fantasy that is a clear and present nightmare for African Americans.

Having an African American President is a significant milestone for the American people as a whole, not just the African American community. Mainly because he is not the black people’s president, he is the American president. Our dreams of having an African American in the highest office in the land, The President of the United States of America, is the only dream that has been realized.

The Λdvocate