America Owes a Big Debt to the Black Community
Rahim Islam is a National Speaker and Writer, Convener of Philadelphia Community of Leaders, and President/CEO of Universal Companies, a community development and education management company headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. Follow Rahim Islam on FaceBook(Rahim Islam) & Twitter (@RahimIslamUC)
I think most people, Black and White, would agree that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of America’s greatest citizens and his life and what he stood for is something that we should all be able to get behind and emulate – right?
Even though during his life, his loyalty to America and American values came under question, primarily by White racist. History has totally vindicated him and today he is one of America’s biggest heroes that is completely aligned with the Spirit of America – a spirit if you’re free to speak your own thoughts and have your own beliefs, you’re free. I bring up Dr. King to make a point, calling to your attention to the fact that a debt is still owed to the Black community by America.
“At the very same time that America refuse to give the Negro any land – through an act of congress our government was giving away millions of acres of land in the west and midwest, which meant that it was willing to undergird its White peasants from Europe with an economic floor.
But not only did they give the land, they built land grand colleges with government money to teach them how to farm; not only that, they provided county agents to further their expertise in farming; not only that, they provided low interest rates in order that they could mechanize their farms; not only that, today many of these people are receiving millions of dollars in federal subsidies not to farm and they are the very people telling the Black man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. This is what we are faced with and this is a reality and when we come to Washington and this campaign, were coming to get our check.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968
This speech was given near the death of Dr. King and describes the hypocrisy of America toward the Black community – has this behavior changed? How is it that the American government can do all it has to deny the Black man in America a “fair” shot? In fact, they have done so much to keep the Black community on its knees in a dependent state, but will not use their resources to do what is just, fair and right especially when it has had no problem to do for every other group.
At the time of Dr. King’s death, he was heavily focused on HOLDING AMERICA ACCOUNTABLE TO THE DEBT OWED TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY WHICH HAS YET TO BE PAID – AMERICA HAS DONE ALL IT CAN TO AVOID AND EVADE ANY RESPONSIBILITY. Dr. King had begun to organize and build the “Poor People’s” Campaign to gain economic justice for poor Americans, which the Black community is significantly oversubscribed. The Poor People’s Campaign was motivated by a desire for economic justice: the idea that all people should have what they need to live. King and the SCLC shifted their focus to these issues after observing that gains in civil rights had not improved the material conditions of life for many Black Americans.
The Campaign developed the “economic bill of rights,” and asked for the federal government to prioritize the helping of poor Americans by providing billions of dollars to invest in anti-poverty measures.
These included a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed annual income measure and more low-income housing.
These are the same issues that are suffocating the Black community today. The civil rights movement wasn’t the complete movement because the struggle for economic rights was the second chapter of the movement. It makes a lot of sense that we had to focus on civil rights first because the laws were so discriminating and unfair to Black people, that it, in effect, promoted and protected racism.
“But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. Dr. Martin Luther King, 1963
Here is another reference made by Dr. King to the debt that is owed to the Black community by America, which remains outstanding. Again Dr. King is calling into question America’s hypocrisy toward the Black man in America by denying Black people full and equal access under the law – there are two laws; one for White people and one for Black people. This is what King spent his entire life fighting for – one must ask, if this is the case, how is it that the condition of the Black man in America and resolving them has become a challenge for America that has grown to herculean proportions. Our issues weren’t addressed in 1963 nor have they been addressed today. Not only have they not been addressed, they have been removed from the lips of American intellectual and all we have left is the carnage and the legacy of one the most racist and inhumane systems ever perpetrated in the world.
Dr. King also referenced a period of “100” years of struggle and oppression that has now grown to represent “150” years of struggle and oppression, which is added on top of nearly 400 years of slavery. White America gets extremely upset when Blacks express their frustration – we don’t have the right to complain; we don’t have the right to continue the struggle of Dr. King; we don’t have the right to secure reparations to avenge our ancestors; and we don’t have the right to feel the pain of generations of suffering and struggle in this country.
We must be real and tell the truth that Black Americans have been severely damaged by its experience in America – unparalleled struggle and oppression in the history of mankind. The struggle and the current conditions, which are historical in nature, now depict Black people as inferior – this is the classic case when the victim is made to feel like he’s the culprit. As Dr. King stated, White America enjoys all of the American benefits (i.e. institutions, wealth, power, prestige, etc.) while America, in more ways than you can count, has asked the Black community to just forget about what we’ve done to you and to get over the racism, oppression, discrimination and the torturing, and pull yourself up by your bootstraps you lazy and inferior group – this is so hypocritical on so many levels. We must acknowledge that this treatment is absolutely about race and I asked you “what did the Black community do to deserve such treatment?”
Our Black ancestors were not guilty of any crime. They were not casualties of war; nor was there an exit from slavery – unspeakable acts were done to our ancestors with absolutely no regard for our humanity – we were treated like animals without a soul. The Black community has been significantly damaged by White supremacy which has been the fuel that the White supremacist have used to oppress Black people – this is now fully emerged with American culture and climate. America must accept a great degree of responsibility and this is the fight to date, they are completely unaware that they have had any role in our oppression.
Today, White America enjoys an extreme level of advantage and privilege gained from the enslavement and subhuman treatment of Black people WITHOUT ANY COMPENSATION TO THE BLACK MAN AND THE DEBT REMAINS OUTSTANDING.
There are even some White people today who say they don’t understand why we have groups like “Black Lives Matter”. I’ve even heard some say that Black groups like them are anti-American – again, this is absolute ignorance and pathological. What nerve of them to continue the struggle of Dr. King and demand that America treat Black lives like White lives – how absurd a request? If we examine the social-economic conditions today for Black people, Blacks continue to be traumatized by White supremacy and Black inferiority at every level in America (i.e. media, historical, physical environment, religion, imprisonment, health, wealth, poverty, etc.). I call this the legacy of slavery and its impact is embedded in every aspect of American life making the “oppressor” a little more deceptive but just as lethal.
However you want to slice it, the Black community in America suffers disproportionately than any other group in America and this fact hasn’t improved since emancipation. These and other conditions are the symptoms of the trauma that Blacks are experiencing daily. Even the most liberated Black man and woman have deep fears and insecurities. They carry a heavy dose of Black inferiority with them daily and transfer this fear to the next generation unconsciously – how else can you explain our “collective” paralysis. In spite of the individual accomplishments by Black people, as a collective, we are at the bottom of the economic ladder and without purposeful and real conversations about what the “core” problems are.
While Dr. King and others fought and secured the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960’s, these achievements were only the first steps – these gains were not intended to be “one and done” and are extremely ineffective without the achievement of economic rights (this was the campaign that Dr. King was on prior to his assassination). We always had two different America’s; one for White people who enjoy all the benefits of being a world economic power and another for Black people that are still being denied the ability to enjoy the fruits of “full” American citizenship. Today, race is the great taboo in our society and we are afraid to talk about it. White people fear that their unspoken views will be deemed racist and Black people are filled with sorrow and rage at unjust wrongs that continue to be minimized and discounted.
Even the founding fathers were compromised when trying to establish America while it held millions of Blacks in chattel slavery. It is a deeply tragic paradox that the founders also valued liberty so highly because while immersed in the American Institution of Slavery. Even the slave owners among them knew how obscenely unjust the institution was yet they were unable to correct it. “The whole commerce between master and slave,” wrote Jefferson, “is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other.” I needn’t detail the crushing toil, the sadistic punishments, the sexual exploitation, the break-up of families, the enforced ignorance, and the regulation of every aspect of life comprehended in Jefferson’s decorous statement of the inhumanity of which human nature is capable.
Jefferson describes the conditions of Black America to a tee and today’s reality for most Blacks are the legacy of those consequences. Unfortunately our issues are now complicated and exacerbated by “total” ignorance. Today, we have an entire population, Black and White that are ignorant to America’s past and therefore are unable to handle nor address the issue of race.
We now have a major race relations problem in America that has its origins in our past and it must be addressed now or we will never be able to fix the problem.
White supremacy and White privilege is alive and strong and can only be addressed through critical and honest dialogue.
The descendants of the slave owners and the descendants of the enslaved must be able to argue around a set of “truths” not “ignorance” if we are to make progress in this country. America must come to understand how the current White generations have benefited and are “privileged” as the result of the massive disadvantage (oppression) orchestrated against Black people and continues today.
The root causes are directly related to the role that the White ancestors played, and the overwhelming “stacking” of deck that confronts most Black people today.
We can no longer down play this reality, in that White America has amassed trillions of dollars in wealth and an economic system that protects those with wealth, while the Black community was inheriting abject poverty.
White America must come to understand the economic disadvantage that Blacks have inherited even though not all White people are rich or that White people must compete daily to maintain their advantage.
While White people must compete amongst each other and with other groups; Blacks are absolutely no competition to them. The Black community remains at a significant disadvantage that is now structural.
The Black community and its issues are overshadowed in Public Square with an entire nation being misinformed. Most White people, and even many Black people believe that Blacks are simply inept; lazy; looking for a handout; and haven’t worked hard enough for the American dream, and are not deserving of the spoils of all that America offers.
This opinion voids the facts and equally negates the struggle that Blacks have had in this country no matter how many White people won’t recognize it – the fact that Whites don’t have to endure these same struggles is the definition of “White Privilege.”
Just for the record, there are nearly 45 million Black people living in America. Descendants of enslaved ancestors, and nearly 70% are, by all accounts, struggling socially and economically with approximately 15-20% that are solidly in the middle class.
For the price that our ancestors paid (enslavement and fighting wars), we should be better off.
What is going to take for White America to stop making excuses and live up to the American hero Dr. King that we all hold up high and begin to pay down on its debt to the Black man in America?
