State of King's Dream: Black America's economic nightmare

As we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it's important to take stock: Where does our country stand in realizing King's dream of a more just South and country?

Historians like Michael Honey have documented how, in King's later years, the civil rights martyr broadened his agenda to look at the larger economic obstacles that stood in the way of progress for African-Americans and the rest of the country.

When judging the state of King's dream for economic justice, the verdict is clear: Black America faces a nightmare.

African-Americans bore the brunt of the Great Recession's job losses and economic slow-down. And it only promises to get worse: The slash-and-burn agenda proposed by the new Congressional House leadership, as well as many state legislatures, will have a uniquely devastating impact in low-income and black and Latino communities.

Just how bad? A new report by United for a Fair Economy [pdf] offers a valuable survey of the damage that's already happened, and how it will likely get much worse:

• While the unemployment rate for Blacks and Latinos remains at Depression levels, Republicans consistently block meaningful job creation proposals. The official unemployment rate is 15.8 percent among Blacks and 13 percent among Latinos as of December 2010. The White unemployment rate is 8.5 percent. Including discouraged and under-employed workers would push these unemployment numbers up significantly. Despite these facts, the GOP's Congressional leadership has consistently opposed broadbased stimulus and public job creation programs that have the best projected economic returns. While their stance hurts millions of unemployed and under-employed Americans, they drag down Black and Latino workers the farthest and fastest.

• With fewer assets to fall back on in hard times, Black and Latino families rely more heavily on unemployment insurance, Social Security and public assistance in times of need. For example, a new analysis shows that well over half of older Blacks (59.1 percent) and Latinos (64.8 percent) depend on Social Security for more than 80 percent of their family income, as compared to only 46 percent of Whites. Republican opposition to these programs pushes people of color who are struggling -- and other low-wealth households -- further down the economic ladder.

• Blacks will be disproportionately affected by the attack on public sector workers. New analysis in this report shows Blacks are 30 percent more likely than the overall workforce to work in public sector jobs as teachers, social workers, bus drivers, public health inspectors and other valuable roles, and they are 70 percent as likely to work for the federal government. Public sector jobs have also provided Black and Latino workers better opportunities for professional advancement. The GOP hostility toward government and government employees will, if translated into policy, have a devastating effect on Black and Latino workers, while eroding our nation's capacity to carry out the important work of the public sector.

• Republican tax breaks disproportionately flow into the hands of high-income and high-wealth Whites. The recent income tax extension heavily favors Whites, who are three times as likely as Blacks and 4.6 times as likely as Latinos to have annual incomes in excess of $250,000, according to original analysis in this report.8 In the short term, the extension of Bush-era income tax cuts for households earning $250,000 or more per year deprives the federal government of the necessary revenue to create jobs and revive the economy. In the longer term, these cuts will do even greater harm by widening racial income and wealth divides.

• The Republican tax cut agenda rewards wealth for those who already have it, and limits opportunity for those who do not. Recent efforts to weaken the estate tax will help to ensure that the wealth inequalities of generations past are carried forward indefinitely. Additionally, the preferential treatment of capital gains and dividend income further exacerbates the racial wealth divide by rewarding wealthy Whites with dramatically lower tax rates. Original analysis provided in this report shows that Blacks earn only 13 cents and Latinos earn eight cents for every dollar that Whites receive in dividend income.Similarly, Blacks have 12 cents and Latinos have 10 cents of unrealized capital gains for each dollar that Whites have.

The report concludes that this grim scenario isn't inevitable, but it will require a major shift in U.S. politics -- a shift he also understood, from his lessons in fighting for civil rights, would only come with the prodding of a massive grassroots movement.

As King said in his sermon at the National Cathedral on March 31, 1968, the same year he was killed by a follower of the incendiary segregationist George Wallace:

This is America's opportunity to help bridge the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. The question is whether America will do it. There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will.