The Ties That Bind: Poverty Racism and Militarism in America (Page 2 of 2)

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The reality is that we still struggle with the challenges King identified. Racism is a living dynamic in our society, evident in virtually every sphere of our lives. A lot of white folks like to think we’ve put it behind us, but our religious, social, political, and economic institutions reflect the insidious prevalence of racism in our national life and our personal lives. Pop into almost any Christian church in East Tennessee; it will only take a second to gauge the demographics of the congregation. Check out the society column in the local paper of record: a couple of photos each week document the social lives of the movers and shakers—technically, they’re black and white photos, but really they’re only white. Not because African-Americans don’t have social lives that are rich and full, the circles just don’t intersect much. The fact that race was the virtually unspeakable issue in the Ford/Corker Senate race speaks for itself. And it’s not just a coincidence that people of color are disproportionately represented in the lower income census tracts or that our expensive new schools are being built in not-East Knoxville. (“Hey, out west is where all the people are!” “Really? And why might that be?”)This year those responsible for organizing the King Commemorative Celebration in Knoxville are working hard to bring an icon to life: Materializing the Dream, Piece by Peace is the theme of the events. They have their work cut out for them; most people these days are content to honor King as a historical figure who was a great civil rights leader.

But of course, he was much more back in the day. He saw that poverty is not inevitable; it is the result of conscious decisions about how we spend our common treasury. Our leaders, none of them racists mind you (except the one or two who are proud of it), borrow hundreds of billions from the Chinese for a war on terror or to bail out Chrysler, Delta Airlines’ pilots’ pension plan or savings and loan institutions, but stand before the poor with pockets turned inside out and the saddest of looks: We’d really like to help you, but as you can see…

The result is predictable: the poor (disproportionately people of color) are denied hope from birth, driven by an absence of any plausible alternative to the military or to prison. Remember John Kerry’s misfire when he tried to joke about Bush getting us into the war in Iraq? The way it came out, it sounded like he said kids who didn’t get on the fast track to the good life while they were in school would end up in the Army. I was wishing he’d had the guts to stand by what he said, seeing as how it is true, or at least declare it a Freudian slip and one worth examining. In our schools, those deemed underachievers (disproportionately Black and Latino) long before they’ve had a chance to prove themselves, are channeled into non-academic tracks that all too often end up in a chat with a military recruiter.

And there is the simple truth King declared 40 years ago—racism, poverty, and militarism are inextricably linked. They feed on each other. They control our lives together, and they create our destiny. If we have the courage that John Edwards lacked, we can set about freeing ourselves first from the idea that we are helpless to do anything about the world in which we live.

That was, finally, the most profound gift King gave us. Perhaps the best way we can honor his life is to declare ourselves. We do not have to be enslaved by militarism; we do not have to be bound by the power of racism in our society; we do not have to be held captive by the consumptive lifestyle that impoverishes some so that we can live rich. We can, in Dr. King’s words, begin to hew out of the mountain of despair the stone of hope.

The first step is acknowledging the challenge before us. Then we can create our destiny.