Economic Leverage Next Step to Equality : King Would Exhort Blacks to Unite Until Dream Becomes Reality

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. Or was it a fantasy? He told us that his dream was of a nation that would live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

More than two decades have passed since King told us of his vision of a nation free of social injustice, where blacks and whites would be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

With the faith of a minister, he told us of a land where the black man would not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.

At the conception, King’s statements were bold prophecy--made in a progressive era in the nation’s struggle for social justice. But given the test of 20 years, many of King’s words are still no more than a dream.

The years since King’s death have seen the steady erosion of the principles he stood for, lived for, and ultimately died for. In 1978, the Supreme Court told us with the Bakke decision that the nation had tired of giving special attention to the plight of blacks. In San Diego, as in the rest of the nation, ambitious social programs have fallen under the budget-cutting knife time after time, and the protests have become fainter and fainter.

In 1982, the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 was nearly swept under a rug of apathy by a blatantly disinterested Administration. But far worse than any high court decision or administrative policy was the quiet acceptance by all levels of society of the plight of blacks and other minorities. Words like “progress,” “opportunity,” “equality” and “unity” simply fell out of use. It’s 20 years later, and the few gains blacks have made have been negated by a society structured to suppress the underprivileged.

But what was the ultimate barrier that prevented blacks from continuing to reap the successes of the King years? What was the wall that halted progress and allowed for the apathetic erosion of civil rights? Blacks in 1968 had no economic leverage. And blacks in 1984 still have no economic leverage.

In the land of opportunity, blacks today are still struggling to break free from stereotypes of high unemployment, dead-end jobs and welfare. Today blacks can dine at any restaurant, shop in any store and live in any neighborhood. Blacks can speak out against economic inequalities, but to date this has led to little improvement.

That is not to say that there have not been some modest victories by blacks in recent years. An organized and persistent boycott of Coors beer pressured the company to provide keys to the executive washroom for blacks--other than janitors.

In an issue not yet resolved, image-conscious McDonald’s yielded to a firm stand by the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People that more franchises be made available to minorities.

And even the threat of a boycott against companies sympathetic to apartheid in South Africa has resulted in the promise of change for blacks in that country.

If King were alive today, he no doubt would have drawn the battle lines at the economic front, using Coors, McDonald’s and apartheid as battle cries for a string of victories for blacks.

In 1985, King would dust off a cliche called unity and make it work. Black businesses would be encouraged to patronize other black businesses. Black consumers would be urged to do the same. An entire foundation of black financial clout would rise out of the rubble of decades of discrimination.

As the base of support grows, political clout will follow. Politicians will heed blacks’ words, not out of sympathy but out of necessity. Blacks will be able to alter the system that for so long was their biggest obstacle.

In the 1960s, blacks scratched and clawed for social equality. In the 1980s, with the same conviction, blacks must fight for economic equality. With blacks taking control of their own destiny--united--everything that King strived for will be won.

King had a dream--the American dream. And he died because he believed that the dream should be shared by all Americans. Unfortunately, black Americans will have to struggle for it more than others.