Now I’m workin’ on a world I may never see
I’m joinin’ forces with thе warriors of love
Who came beforе and will follow you and me
I get up in the mornin’ knowing I’m privileged just to be
Workin’ on a world I may never see
I don’t have all the answers
To the troubles of the day
But neither did all our ancestors
And they persevered anyway
When I see a little baby
Reaching out its arms to me
I remember why I’m workin’ on a world
I may never see
by Iris DeMent; Released February 24, 2023
When I used to blog frequently, I would often end a blog with appropriate lyrics. I stopped blogging, at least monthly, after #110 in March 2021. In commemorating the 60th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. landmark “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963, it seems more appropriate to start with these lyrics from DeMent.
As a former board director of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, I was pleased to see its report with the Institute For Policy Studies, STILL A DREAM: OVER 500 YEARS TO BLACK ECONOMIC EQUALITY by Dedrick Asante-Muhammad [@DedrickM], Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo and Sally Sim.
“Sixty years without substantially narrowing the Black-white wealth divide is a policy failure. But just as federal policy helped create the racial wealth gap, it can also help close it.”
In a few areas, African Americans have made substantial socioeconomic advancements since the 1960s.
Yet there has been minimal progress in most socioeconomic indicators. At this pace, the report concludes “it would still take centuries for African Americans to reach parity with white Americans.”
Among the five solutions necessary to narrow the racial economic divide that they believe would make the most difference, the first two are: Push for Full Employment and Guaranteed Jobs; and a massive Land and Homeownership Program.
“Expanding access to land and home ownership is a critical intervention in reversing the multi-generational nature of the Black-white wealth divide. As our report has shown, the legacy of discrimination in mortgage lending, redlining, steering and appraisal differentials has thwarted progress.”
To restore progress, the report advocates for:
- targeted federal housing policies like the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, which would provide down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers living in formerly redlined or officially segregated areas.
- Federal legislation like the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, which would create a federal tax credit to cover the “appraisal gap” that significantly devalues homes in majority-Black neighborhoods.
- Luxury transfer taxes on extremely high-end property sales to fund affordable housing.
I opened a March 26, 2014 review for SHELTERFORCE of Joseph Stiglitz’s The Price of Inequality with this quote:
“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, Jr. August 28, 1963 “March for Jobs and Freedom”
Dr. King’s promissory note is still waiting to be cashed. Sixty years later, it is again time to revisit the issue of reparations. Inequality is not only morally wrong; it’s too high a price to pay.
We need to be joinin’ forces with thе warriors of love Who came beforе and will follow you and me
Still a Dream… Still need to be WORKIN’ ON A WORLD WE MAY NEVER SEE; 60th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. landmark “I Have a Dream” speech. Inequality is not only morally wrong; it’s too high a price to pay.
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