Martin Luther King, Economic Equality And The 2012 Election
Forbes.com
In the last years of his life Dr. Martin Luther King expanded his focus from political and civil rights to include economic justice. Noting that the majority of America’s poor were white King decried the already huge gaps between rich and poor, calling for “radical changes in the structure of our society,” including a massive urban jobs program.
If King were alive today, he would have plenty of reason to take pride in the success of his struggle for human rights. Yet he would surely be disheartened at the economic situation among African-Americans and other racial minorities. African-American unemployment, for example, is at its worst level in more than three decades. While African-Americans make up 12% of the nation’s population, they account for 21% of the nation’s unemployed. Unemployment for black men stands at a staggeringly high 19.1%, and the Economic Policy Institute estimates that overall black unemployment will remain well above 10% till at least 2014.