understand the way things work.
Dr. King explains a few things that still have great resonance today. Namely, the double standard of white supremacy and the hypocrisy in it’s demand that people of color ”pull themselves up by their bootstraps” while centuries of welfare have buoyed and continue to buoy all segments of white America.
We must ask the question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America?’ And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy… You see, my friends, when you deal with this, you begin to ask the question, ‘Who owns the oil?’ You begin to ask the question, ‘Who owns the iron ore?’ You begin to ask the question, ‘Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two-thirds water?’ These are questions that must be asked…
Now, when I say question the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are triple evils that are interrelated.
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