Ideas: Dr. King's Forgotten "Dream" of Economic Justice

I wrote an Opinion piece for the Omaha World Herald reflecting on Dr. King's vision of economic justice.

The essay ran on Monday, January 25, 2010, under the title, "MLK: Justice Requires Economic Transformation."

On Tuesday, an older man called me at my office in Lincoln to let me know that he thought the ideas in the article were "communistic."

Judge for yourself. Here are a few excerpts...

King believed poverty was primarily the result of systemic economic failure and “ongoing economic exploitation,” not individual personal failing. The poor were “damned” to segregated, ghettoized neighborhoods, chronic unemployment and low-paying, meaningless jobs. “Pervasive and persistent want” demoralized the poor, undermined human dignity and led to family disintegration, drug and alcohol abuse, violence and crime.

* * * *

King linked urban poverty with suburban plenty. “The poor and discriminated huddle in the big cities,” he said, “while affluent America displays its new gadgets in the crisp homes of suburbia.” King called suburbs “white nooses around the black necks of the cities.” “Housing deteriorates in central cities,” he groused, while “suburbs expand with little regard for what happens to the rest of America.”

* * * *

Disillusioned with piecemeal reforms, King believed structural change in the economy was essential to end poverty. “True compassion,” he said, “is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

* * * *

King advocated “democratic socialism,” a mixed economy where citizens, through democratic processes, insert human values into the economy to temper the harsh edges of unbridled free markets.


He fought for an “economic bill of rights,” a $30 billion package guaranteeing full employment, a livable income and increased construction of low-income housing. King called for “massive public works programs (to build) decent housing, schools, hospitals, mass transit, parks and recreation centers.” These public investments would “enrich society” and spur private investment.

* * * *

In an era of ballooning military budgets, billion-dollar Wall Street bailouts, home foreclosures, double-digit unemployment and continuing urban crisis, perhaps we might listen anew to King’s prophetic vision of economic justice.

* * * *

To read the entire essay, click here.
Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

1138 Reasons Equality Matters

You may wonder what, precisely, is the big deal about gay marriage? Why has marriage become a key civil rights issue within the gay and lesbian community? Why does it matter? Well, when it comes to our civil society, the way rights, privileges and resources are dished out, it matters A LOT. Here are 1138 reasons why full marriage equality matters. This is about CIVIL RIGHTS, plain and simple. As long as society confers all these rights and privileges to married couples, EVERYONE should have access to that institution and those rights and privileges.

Check it out. Spread the word...

Dr. King: Struggling Not to Lose Him

A passionate plea to reclaim the memory and legacy of Dr. King...

... and to put the challenging political strategist and activist that King was back into the story.

Take roughly 5 minutes and have a look:

What are your thoughts?

Dropping Knowledge

Can a single question make change?


What is your question?

This is what "Dropping Knowledge" is all about. Check it out.

Post your question and see what others have to say. Read other people's questions and post your response. Hear what some of the world's leading humanistic thinkers have to say in response to these questions, too...

Here is the original short film the people behind Dropping Knowledge made to introduce their idea and the website:


Here is a more recent 8-minute film on Dropping Knowledge, what it is all about, what they have accomplished so far and what they hope to do in the future:

Dropping Knowledge is very cool and inspiring. I hope you will spend some time with the website and will pass the link along to other people you know...

Majora Carter and the Sustainable South Bronx Project

Too many liberal/progressive/lefties spend a disproportionate amount of time complaining about the way things are, but relatively little time actually building concrete and creative grassroots solutions. Lots of talk, not so much walk. So, I have begun collecting interesting models of social justice activism at the local level to serve as "idea incubators" for others. Periodically I will post about some of these models, with the hope that someone out there might find something useful in their own context. Today, I want to let folks know about Majora Carter and the Sustainable South Bronx Project she started... (Click here, too)

Majora Carter is an AMAZING WOMAN and I hope you will take some time and watch a relatively brief, but incredibly emotional and inspirational TED talk she gave not too long ago on her "Sustainable South Bronx" project. In it, she "details her fight for environmental justice in the South Bronx -- and shows how minority neighborhoods suffer most from flawed urban policy." She's working not just to hold back the polluters who target poor neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color like hers, but to bring back the green.

Carter is a visionary voice in city planning who views urban renewal through an environmental lens. The South Bronx native draws a direct connection between ecological, economic and social degradation. Hence her motto: "Green the ghetto!"

With her inspired ideas and fierce persistence, Carter managed to bring the South Bronx its first open-waterfront park in 60 years, Hunts Point Riverside Park. Then she scored $1.25 million in federal funds for a greenway along the South Bronx waterfront, bringing the neighborhood open space, pedestrian and bike paths, and space for mixed-use economic development.

Her success is no surprise to anyone who’s seen her speak; Carter's confidence, energy and intensely emotional delivery make her talks themselves a force of nature. (The release of her TEDTalk in 2006 prompted Guy Kawasaki to wonder on his blog whether she wasn't "every bit as good as [Apple CEO] Steve Jobs," a legendary presenter.)

Carter, who was awarded a 2005 MacArthur "genius" grant, now serves as executive director of Sustainable South Bronx, where she pushes both for eco-friendly practices (such as green and cool roofs) and, equally important, job training and green-related economic development for her vibrant neighborhood on the rise.

"We could not fail to be inspired by Majora Carter's efforts to bring green space for exercise to the South Bronx. We need more ideas like these to bring solutions to minority communities."
Time Magazine

This 18 minute presentation is WELL worth the time and effort.  Check it out. Seriously!



And, as always, if you know of any interesting, creative and effective grassroots work going on in your area, please post something in the comments...

Prop 8: The Musical

From the Folks at "Funny or Die," a star-studded protest of Prop 8... and it is a musical, too!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Olbermann Special Comment: Gay Marriage

This speaks for itself:

Will Obama Surge Hurt Gay Rights At Ballot Box?

Susan Donaldson James of ABC thinks so. In short, her piece points out that a large number of minority voters are also social conservatives. Thus, the logic goes, the increase in participation among African Americans and Latinos will also drive up the number of anti-gay voters this cycle. The tension between social justice and conservative social values has also created some fragmentation within the black community between civil rights organizations, like the NAACP, and black churches.

Ever Wonder Why Everything Sucks So Bad?

If so, watch this and it will all make sense:

The Spiritual Audacity of Abraham Joshua Heschel

It's Sunday, time for another exploration of some random aspect of spirituality that I find interesting! This week, I hope you might take some time to listen to an audio program by the people who create NPR's "Speaking of Faith" on Abraham Joshua Heschel. Who the heck is that, you ask? Here is what the folks at SoF write:

"Abraham Joshua Heschel insisted that the opposite of good is not evil, it is indifference. Born into an esteemed Hasidic family in Poland in 1907, he was a mystic who wrote transcendent, poetic words about God. At the same time, he marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and organized religious leadership against the war in Vietnam, embodying the social activism of the biblical prophets he studied. We explore Heschel's teachings and his prophetic legacy — his "spiritual audacity" — for people in our time."

Check out the whole program. Make it today's meditation. Heschel is a fascinating person with a relevant spiritual perspective for our desperate times...

Any thoughts? What lesser-known spiritual figures do you find insight from?

"Blood Done Sign My Name"

I was extremely fortunate as a graduate student to be advised by an amazing historian, Tim Tyson. Tim is a fantastic and compassionate man, a crusader for social justice, and a hell of a lot of fun. My M.A. research contributed to his first (and award-winning) book, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power. This book revolutionized the way scholars look at Black Power and armed self-defense during the civil rights era and spurred a slew of new research, including my own work on race relations and civil rights insurgency in Milwaukee. Tim is both a rigorous academic historian as well as a beautiful and poetic writer. His books are darn good reads!

Tim's second monograph, Blood Done Sign My Name, is another gripping, award-winning page-turner, part history, part autobiography. The story focuses on the 1970 murder of an African American veteran in Oxford, North Carolina, and the fallout from this injustice. Recently, the book was optioned as a movie and it has now begun shooting. Very cool!

Here is Tim talking about the book on NPR.

Here is a brief Youtube video from the set of Blood:


Keep your ear to the ground and check out Blood Done Sign My Name when it hits a theater near you. In the meantime, pick up one of Tim's books and give it a read. You won't regret it!

Power to the Poster!

My good pal (and brilliant graphic designer), Justin Kemerling, is a co-creator of a really great public political poster project over at The Match Factory. The project is called "Power to the Poster." The idea is to encourage people to create interesting, challenging and provocative political posters, post them to the web, and allow anyone to download, print and post these pieces of political art in their communities. Here is how Justin and his co-conspirators describe it at the site:

A graphic design democracy project.

There is a restless, hopeful movement with eyes set on new possibilities for change leading to the prosperity of the collective.

And, of course, there is the clutter-ridden madness of a constant control room information flow.

Power To The Poster is the former taken to dismantling the latter.

This website is for people to use a ready supply of well-designed, wild postings that comment on the issues of our time. These 11x17, B/W posters in PDF format are for anyone, anywhere to download, print and post. Here's how:

• Download a Poster in 11 x 17 PDF format from our downloads page.

• Open your Poster in a PDF viewer program on your computer. One such program is Adobe's Acrobat. Totally free.

• Print your Poster on any printer capable of printing at 11 x 17 inches. If you don't have a printer you can print it at just about any copy center. Also, if you can, you should always print your posters on some serious FSC recycled, chlorine free paper.

• Take your new Poster print to a high traffic area. Maybe its at your work, maybe a wall in your neighborhood, maybe a coffeehouse, maybe its your refrigerator. (Respect people's property, of course).

• Post it and watch heads turn.

• Repeat.

Here are some more great and FREE designs (click any image to enlarge):










Now, go download, print and post...

... and TELL A FRIEND ABOUT THIS GREAT PROJECT!

Yuri Kochiyama's Revolutionary Spirit

Most USians have never heard of Yuri Kochiyama. Her story is not taught in most schools. The lessons of her experience go unlearned. That is a real shame because Kochiyama has been one of the leading social justice advocates in the United States for more than 40 years:

• In a 1965 Life magazine photograph taken moments after the assassination of Malcolm X, Yuri is the woman in thick black glasses cradling his head in her hands as his bullet-riddled body lies splayed on the floor. As a longtime resident of Harlem, Yuri, a petite Japanese-American woman and mother of six, fought for black nationalism and Black Power.

• In 1977 Kochiyama was one of thirty people who stormed the Statue of Liberty and held it for nine hours to bring attention to the struggle for Puerto Rican independence.

• In the 1980s, Kochiyama and her husband -- whom she met at a World War II internment camp -- lobbied for reparations to Japanese Americans who were imprisoned by the government during that war.

• In recent years, Kochiyama has been a passionate critic of American foreign policy, drawing links between her internment during WWII and the detainment and harassment of thousands of Middle Easterners since September 11.

A 2002 article in the East Bay Express explains, "To mainstream America, the Movement may be dead, little more than textbook photographs of protesters marching arm in arm. But to Yuri Kochiyama, the Movement is alive and well and living in the Bay Area. And one of its most emphatic voices comes not from an idealistic Berkeley student, but from an eighty-year-old who gets around with a walker."

So who is Yuri Kochiyama? What is her story?

Yuri Kochiyama was born in 1921 in San Pedro, California. As teenagers, Yuri and her two brothers lived a red-white-and-blue, oh-so-apple-pie existence. Yuri taught Sunday school, volunteered for the YWCA and Girl Scouts, attended every football game in a town where high-school sports mattered above all else, and even joined the Women's Ambulance and Defense Corps of America, which preceded the Women's Army Corps.

Religious and baseball-obsessed, Yuri grew up as Mary Yuriko Nakahara in San Pedro, a port town just south of Los Angeles. Her father had come to America by himself, later returning to Japan to find a wife. He found her teaching at the school where his father was principal. In San Pedro, Seichi Nakahara owned a fish market. He often did business with Japanese steamships and sometimes brought ship officers home for dinner.

Most of the residents of Terminal Island, located just across the bay, were Japanese immigrants, but in the town where the Nakaharas lived the population was mostly white, working-class Italian and Yugoslavian immigrants. "We Japanese kids never felt embarrassed that our parents couldn't speak perfect English, because no one's parents spoke perfect English," Yuri said.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor radically changed Yuri Kochiyama's life:

But all that changed on December 7, 1941. Yuri had just returned home from Sunday school when a knock came at the door. Three FBI agents wanted to see her father. He was sleeping, having returned just the day before from the hospital where he underwent an ulcer operation. Within minutes, though, the agents rushed him into his bathrobe and slippers and whisked him away. The Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor.

The next day, agents returned and rifled through everything in the house. For days the family didn't know where their father was. Finally, a lawyer located him in a federal prison across the bay on Terminal Island. Yuri's mother pleaded with authorities to take him to the hospital and send him back to jail when he was better. Meanwhile, Yuri's twin brother Peter, then a student at UC Berkeley, hitchhiked home, since no one would sell him a train ticket. By December 10, both her brothers tried to sign up for military service. Peter was accepted even though his father was accused of spying.

When Seichi Nakahara was finally returned to a hospital, his bed was the only one in the ward bearing the sign "Prisoner of War." The children were allowed to visit only once. Peter came in his uniform, and his father quivered when he saw him. Unable to recognize his son, he thought that someone had come to interrogate him. A week later, on the evening of the 20th, the hospital sent Seichi home in an ambulance. Overjoyed at first, the Nakaharas soon realized he was dying.

"Because he couldn't talk, we didn't know if he could hear," Yuri said. "We waved our fingers in front of his eyes, but he didn't move."

By next morning he was dead at age sixty. The FBI called to warn that anyone attending the funeral would be under surveillance. Friends defied the five-mile travel ban placed on Japanese Americans to show up at his service. FBI agents stood at the doors.

And, of course, internment made a deep and lasting impression on Kochiyama:

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066, authorizing the military to remove people of Japanese ancestry from their homes to prison camps. Yuri considers her family lucky because they had more than a month to prepare, while some only had forty-eight hours. After being forced to live for six months in a horse stall at the Santa Anita racetrack, Yuri, her mother, and oldest brother were tagged, numbered, and loaded onto cattle trains. No one knew where they were going. The Nakaharas ended up in a concentration camp in Jerome, Arkansas. Two of Yuri's brothers joined the U.S. military during the war.

They lived in barracks, twelve to a block. The camps ran self-sufficiently. Everyone had a job. First-generation Issei women ordered cloth from the Sears-Roebuck catalogue to make curtains for the toilet stalls. Yuri continued to teach Sunday school. Many of the second-generation Nisei GIs were stationed in the south and would visit by the busloads on the weekends. The young women formed their own USO in the camp for them.

Here is Sandra Oh reading the words of Yuri Kochiyama from Howard Zinn's Voices of a People's History:


Because of her experiences during the Second World War, Kochiyama is most riled by unjust imprisonment -- whether of Movement revolutionaries, Iranians during the Iran-Contra affair, or Middle Eastern immigrants today. She tirelessly follows hundreds of cases of Americans she considers political prisoners, including Mutulu Shakur, Yu Kikumura, George Baba Eng, Bashir Hameed, Abdul Majid, Oscar Lopez Rivera, Mumia Abu Jamal, Ed Poindexter, Mondo we langa, and others. She writes regularly to many of these prisoners and publishes her own newsletter.

Here is a nice segment from Democracy Now! that features Yuri Kochiyama discussing her internment during WWII as well as the assassination of Malcolm X:


She is also featured in a documentary, titled "Freedom Fighters":


So, what makes Yuri Kochiyama unique?

First, as an Asian American, she represents a history, a set of experiences, a perspective, a community that is often ignored, or overlooked, both in the broader U.S. culture, as well as in Movement annals.

Similarly, the same could be said about the fact that Kochiyama is a female activist/organizer/leader. Although we know that women were integrally involved in all of the social movements of the 1960s-era, their contributions are often ignored altogether or overshadowed by male public leaders who hogged the limelight.

Third, Kochiyama is "unusual even among activists. While many pay lip service to the notion of diversity, few, if any, have worked for so many causes and embraced so many distinct ethnic groups. 'I don't think there are too many people you can really say were involved simultaneously in cross-cultures in a real day-to-day basis,' said family friend Nyisha Shakur, who used to make prison visits with Yuri on the East Coast. 'I don't think I know of any others.'"

Here is a good video clip on this point:


Fourth, Yuri Kochiyama's is a profound example of a "life led in struggle." She embodies "a revolutionary spirit," a total commitment to social justice.

More should know about her. Spread the word...

Costs of War

I found this little piece of video over at the Nebraskans for Peace website. Please take 1 minute and 30 seconds to watch:

CIVIL RIGHTS ALERT! CA Supremes Do the Right Thing...

California's Supreme Court struck a blow for civil rights and full equality for all citizens today when it overturned that state's ban on gay marriage, making California the second state where gay and lesbian residents can marry. Kudos to the left coasters for getting with the program. 2 states down, 48 more to go...

Here is the L.A. Times article on the decision.

Here is the NYTimes article on the decision.

Here is the San Francisco Chronicle article on the decision.

"The Dream Reborn"

When I first launched this blog about a year ago, I wrote that in a time of despair and real darkness across the political, social and economic landscape, I wanted the blog to offer a critique of the way things are, but also highlight the constructive, the proactive, the hopeful, the new ideas and ways of being, that might actually begin to point the way to something fresh and alternative, a way out of this mess, a way forward, toward the way things might be...

In that vein, I want to let you all know about Green for All, a really positive new approach to political mobilization, community organizing and social change. Here is what they say for themselves in their vision statement:

We believe a shift to clean energy can improve the health and well-being of low-income people, who suffer disproportionately from cancer, asthma and other respiratory ailments in our dirty-energy economy.

Also, we believe it can create entrepreneurial, wealth-building opportunities for those who need new avenues of economic advance.

In other words: we believe that the national effort to curb global warming and oil dependence can simultaneously create good jobs, safer streets and healthier communities.

For us, our highest calling is to ensure that the clean-energy economy in the 21st century in fact does all of these things. Indeed, we would say that America’s chief moral obligation is to build a green economy that is strong enough to lift many people out of poverty.

Green for All recently held a conference, titled "The Dream Reborn." Here is a brief video about it that also gives a good intro to their ideas and approach. It is very inspiring and righteous...


In this video, conference attendees share their dreams...


Get involved. Spread the word...

(Thanks to my good bud, Justin, for originally turning me on to Green for All...)

Fact Check: Barack Obama's Church

There has been much controversy surrounding Barack Obama's affiliation with Trinity United Church in Chicago. Past comments by the out-going minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, which recently appeared on YouTube, have stirred rancor, leading Obama to publicly repudiate those comments and Wright to leave his symbolic post in Obama's campaign. I don't want to jump into the specifics of Wright's comments here at this time, but do want to offer some broader context on Obama's faith and his Church...

Before I do that, allow me to make a somewhat obvious point: Hopefully, the silver lining in all of this hoo-ha over Rev. Wright and Trinity United is that it should put to rest once and for all the bogus smear that continues to circulate on the internet and in gossip that Obama is a Muslim. Very clearly he is not and has never been Muslim. Ok? Got it? Good. Tell your friends...

Now that that is out of the way, let me go further and write the while Obama is not a Muslim, but a practicing Christian who believes that Jesus is the son of God, if he were Muslim that should be immaterial to his candidacy. Just like belief in Christianity should not be a prerequisite to elected office, in general, a belief in Islam should not rule any citizen out from running for office or serving his or her country in the political sphere.

Anyway, on to the main reason I am hitting this topic this morning...

First, here is Barack's statement yesterday about Wright's comments and his own faith journey:

Barack Obama, "On My Faith and My Church"

Second, here is a nice YouTube by a white minister who also attends and ministers at Trinity. It is significant that she is white considering the belief out there in the media-ether that Trinity is a black-only church. It is not:



Last, here is an EXCELLENT article on Trinity, situating the church within a broader context of race and faith stretching back to the civil rights/Black Power era. I've posted this one previously, but it is well worth another look:

Jason Byassee, "Africentric Church: A visit to Chicago's Trinity UCC"

So, take a little time to look a little deeper into Trinity's faith community. Do some exploring for yourself and I think you will find that on balance, this is a very positive, inclusive and spirit-filled church that situates social justice at the forefront of their theology.

"We Must Name the System"

Paul Potter, former President of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), originally delivered this renowned speech at the April 17, 1965 March on Washington. Potter offers an insightful critique of our government’s use of the rhetoric of freedom to justify war, and calls for citizens of the United States to create a massive social movement to build a “democratic and humane society in which Vietnams are unthinkable.” Needless to say, it remains relevant today...

This reenactment is a part of the very cool The Port Huron Project, which stages reenactments of protest speeches from the New Left movements of the 1960s and '70s. Each event takes place at the site of the original speech, and is delivered by a performer to an audience of invited guests and passers-by. Videos, audio recordings, and photographs of these performances are presented in various venues and distributed online and on DVD as open-source media.

Check it out (it is well worth it) and spread the word...

Fight the Power: A New Movement for Civil Rights?

In the following article, Jeff Chang (who is the author of a great history of hip-hop, Can't Stop, Won't Stop) asks, "Can hip-hop get past the thug life and back to its radical roots?"

In one of the more hopeful passages:

But now, with the industry on the ropes and the political sphere energized, the transformative power of hip-hop may finally be reemerging. Over the past decade, hip-hop-based community groups have recharged the social justice movement and launched get-out-the-vote campaigns in neighborhoods most candidates and parties wouldn't touch... Even moguls such as Jay-Z, Simmons, and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs have thrown their weight behind voter outreach. And while the results are hard to track case by case, one massive shift is undeniable: In 2004, half of the 4 million new voters under 30 were people of color—a demographic watershed largely overlooked by the media...

He concludes:

Can hip-hop grow into its potential? Can rap sell activism as well as it has $150 sneakers, bottle service, and grill work? Can the very people who've made vast fortunes off selling stupid help reform the industry? "The thing I love about hip-hop," says Chavis, "is that it is evolutionary. It replenishes itself. I get in trouble all the time for saying this, but hip-hop is doing what the civil rights movement was only dreaming about."

What do you think? Can hip hop find its way back to its roots? Can hip-hop be a force for social change, or is this all a lot of talk? What is the real potential here? Can hip hop untangle itself from the damage and distortion done by its relationship with corporations? Or, can it sell sneakers and activism, as Chang asks? Is hip hop doing what the civil rights movement only dreamed of, as Chavis claims?

And, this leads to a bigger question: How effective is culture as a vehicle for social change?

Here is the whole article:
Jeff Chang, "Fight the Power: A New Movement for Civil Rights" (published in Mother Jones)

Nancy MacLean on "the scary origins" of the Supreme Court's recent anti-integration decision

Nancy MacLean, a well-known History professor at Northwestern University, has written an excellent article over at History News Network on the ideological origins of Chief Justice John Roberts's recent decision to oppose the use of race in public school integration plans. According to MacLean, "[Roberts's] opinion has its lineage in a well-documented conservative strategy to hijack civil rights rhetoric to roll back advances toward substantive equality." She continues, "[Historically, conservatives have] used their peculiar readings of the Constitution to limit what democratic government could do for its citizens, an approach embraced today by the Federalist Society and the conservative block on the Supreme Court. [Conservatives] fought the quest for social justice at every turn. They urged the defeat of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and every measure to promote true fairness thereafter."

I think MacLean wants us to see the new conservative majority's ideology for what it is. Abstract theoretical arguments between "strict constructionists" and "liberal constructionists" aside, the fact is that conservative jurists have consistently thwarted attempts to create a more just, inclusive and egalitarian society. Their decisions have catered to large wealthy interests over the interests of ordinary Americans, private property over the common good, inequality over democracy. Folks can try to dress that legacy up in whatever rhetorical jujitsu they'd like, but the facts remain.

Take a look at MacLean's full article here...
Nancy MacLean, "The Scary Origins of Chief Justice Roberts's Decision Opposing the Use of Race to Promote Integration"