Paul Krugman: How Fares the Dream?

[marmar]

from the NYT:



How Fares the Dream?

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 15, 2012


“I have a dream,” declared Martin Luther King, in a speech that has lost none of its power to inspire. And some of that dream has come true. When King spoke in the summer of 1963, America was a nation that denied basic rights to millions of its citizens, simply because their skin was the wrong color. Today racism is no longer embedded in law. And while it has by no means been banished from the hearts of men, its grip is far weaker than once it was.

To say the obvious: to look at a photo of President Obama with his cabinet is to see a degree of racial openness — and openness to women, too — that would have seemed almost inconceivable in 1963. When we observe Martin Luther King’s Birthday, we have something very real to celebrate: the civil rights movement was one of America’s finest hours, and it made us a nation truer to its own ideals.

Yet if King could see America now, I believe that he would be disappointed, and feel that his work was nowhere near done. He dreamed of a nation in which his children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” But what we actually became is a nation that judges people not by the color of their skin — or at least not as much as in the past — but by the size of their paychecks. And in America, more than in most other wealthy nations, the size of your paycheck is strongly correlated with the size of your father’s paycheck.

Goodbye Jim Crow, hello class system. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/opinion/krugman-how-fares-the-dream.html?_r=2

[chervilant]

1. The mere fact that

Martin Luther King walked this earth gives me hope for the future of our entire species.

[Loge23]

2. Many still don't get it. Actually most republicans.

One needs to look no further than their local newspaper's Letters to the Editor (LTTE) to see that many in this country still don't get the message on racism.
While it great progress to see President Obama and his family in the White House, the right - and let's call this as it is - still keep the flames of intolence and race baiting alive and well.
Just check the LTTE's - the immoral minority just can't help themselves with their hatred of the President based on their thinly disguised hatred of his heritage. The majority of the anti-Obama letter writers cannot back up their arguments with any objectivity. They rant about his "socialism", his vacations, his wife, his birthplace, his optimism, and his name - anything to avoid saying what they really think since it is no longer - and thank you Dr. King for this - acceptible to actually wear the hood in public.
This election cycle has accurately framed the republicans as protectors of the 1%, but make no mistake about it. Despite their best efforts to publicly show as many non-whites as possible in leading roles, the republicans still only grudingly accept the message of Dr. King and still do not recognize non-whites as equal to their core constituency.

[Nye Bevan]

3. He would be thrilled that we elected a Black President.

If he could see the photos of the beautiful First Family he would be truly proud of the progress our nation has made.

[marmar]

4. But he'd be very dismayed by the inequality, which sadly is tracking backward.

nt

[Nye Bevan]

5. Well, we haven't reached utopia yet.

He would probably also not be happy about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

But he would have been ecstatic about an intelligent young black man being elected to the Presidency, carrying states like Virginia and North Carolina.

[drynberg]

6. I'd like to agree, Paul...

Oh my, we are still in a Nation of Institutional Racism I contend, sadly:
1. SubPrime loans were largely to racial minorities.
2. Voter suppression is thriving in dozens of states where picture ID is required, whereas many poor and therefore largely minority voters will be deprived of voting if they don't have a driver's license or other picture ID.
3. We also are moving in many states to deprive felons from ever voting again. How do they get to be felons? I just heard that 90% of NYC citizens who are stopped and searched are of color...this leads to more arrests for many reasons, drug possession a key reason why these targeted folks are ordained "felons" (although illegal drug usage is seen as very similar for all races).
4. Police still stop drivers who drive while being brown (black), once again showing targeting and racial profiling and thus institutional racism.
5. If we review police brutality cases, we would see a great majority of victims being of racial minorities.
This list is incomplete, I'm sure. I'm just a white guy living in Maine, that can't help but have at least some awareness of this prevalent racism we live with in 2012 in the USA. It's not ok with me and I stand aware of "calling" anyone I deal with when they use a racist phrase or wording. For example, a supervisor of mine was using a racial slur when referring to a racial group and I said, "you know, my grandfather was black". He turned scarlet and never used that language around me again.

[WillyT]

7. K & R !!!

[Fearless]

8. I disagree...

I think he would be happy for how far we have come and also determined to see it through. I don't think he would have used defeatist language, but strong empowering language focusing on the good and not the bad.

IMHO, of course.

[DallasNE]

9. Krugman Points To 1980

As the statistical time that things started to go south in terms of inequality. Duh. That came on the heels of a recession which always hits the poorer people harder followed immediately by the election of Ronald Reagan and his trickle down economic policy.

Krugman is concerned that people will meekly accept their new, lower standard of living. I think we are already seeing considerable push-back so Krugman needs not worry, thanks to Occupy Wall Street. Just wait for warmer weather and spring break if you think otherwise. 2012 could well reverse the abuses ushering in by Ronald Reagan in 1981.

[endcorporatecontrol]

10. BeYourGovernment.org launches on MLK day

Today on MLK day, the day celebrating the leader of the most successful protest movement in american history, the social networking site http://beyourgovernment.org launched. Our purpose is to elect candidates who refuse corporate donations using social and free media, please take the time to take a look. A great video about the project is here-

[MWeyez]

12. The most heartening thing I've seen in a while

There are times when I'm ready to leave the country and move to a place that treats its citizens with integrity and then I see there are people here who are fighting to create real change. This needs to spread.

[The Wizard]

11. NY Times book review 1982

A prescient satire about the effects of Reagan

Among the 80,000 things that happen in Ishmael Reed's wild new novel, the President of the United States, a male model with the name Dean Clift, visits hell in an elevator with St. Nicholas. On various levels of this hell, the President meets Dwight D. Eisenhower, who is haunted by the murder of Patrice Lumumba; Harry S Truman, who is haunted by Hiroshima; and Nelson A. Rockefeller, who is haunted by Attica.

Does this seem a little heavy-handed? Not at all. Of course, ''The Terrible Twos'' refers not only to greedy 2-year-olds but also to our bicentennial as a nation as well. Dean Clift -an elaborate joke I won't explain -leaves the White House, ''a house of slaveholders, Indian killers, apartheid advocates, crypto-Ku Kluxers, and other eminent landlord types,'' for a Holiday Inn to write his own speech for the first time.

Meanwhile, Santa Claus, an actor hired by the North Pole Development Corporation, which owns all the rights to Christmas, is kidnapped. A fake Santa Claus, who may or may not be the real St. Nicholas and seems to be under the control of a bellboy named Black Peter, calls off Christmas on account of greed. Various television personalities, plutocrats and pimps are in on the action. So is a private detective, Nance Saturday, and a good-looking journalist, Jamaica Queens. There are also several important trees.

Mr. Reed has been revising the authorized edition of American history in all of his novels, to give the ghosts a chance to talk, and in ''The Terrible Twos'' he achieves a kind of jive transcendence.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/06/14/specials/reed-twos.html

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

13. The sign I carried in a MLK parade in San Diego read,

REMEMBER THE DREAM !

LIVE THE DREAM !

Something I try to do daily.

Thanks Martin, you gave so much, we do remember.

[freshstart]

14. Good video from AFSCME

[ellisonz]

15. More change to come...

[DonCoquixote]

16. King knew he might not get there with us

but to butcher the "mountain top" speech, one way or another, we ARE the people who will get to the promised land. I would humbly add, in my own agnostic way, that we will do so even if we have to fight the infernal and heavenly hosts to do it!