Martin Luther King declared "I Have a Dream"[/caption]Carol Forsloff---Fifty years ago thousands of people gathered together in Washington DC to demand justice for those who had been segregated and treated unjustly in social and political affairs, as well as the workplace, for generations. That March on Washington produced a movement that transformed the nation, according to historical accounts. But has the nation been transformed as Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream maintained it could be?
Many people say racism is a thing of the past in the United States, that the civil rights legislation once considered essential to prevent discrimination is no longer useful as equality in the way King expressed it to the multitudes there in Washington DC five decades ago has been reached. Yet others declare there remain inequities that should be addressed with new laws and additional understanding of the plight of minorities in the United States.
Racial disparities exist in the US prison system. The NAACP cites these statistics:
African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population
African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites
Together, African American and Hispanics comprised 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population.
The unemployment rate for African Americans is 12.6% as of July 2013, nearly twice that of whites.
Only 54% of African Americans complete high school, compared with 77% of whites.
Favoritism allows whites to move past African Americans substantially in the employment and social sectors. favoritism. As the New York Times pointed out that favoritism means help from family and friends is a hidden force behind inequality that has a strong racial component.
So while many people proclaim equality has been won because the United States has an African American President, the facts remain there are great discrepancies in social, educational and employment areas that remain part of the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King that remain unrealized.