By Vincent L. Hall
Columnist
Just three weeks before James Earl Ray assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, he delivered a speech that he could offer today. Dr. King stood erect at the podium of Grosse Pointe High School near Detroit. All of his speeches, sermons, and homilies wore titles. On this day, the title was “The Other America!”
Here is what Dr. King said:
“There are two Americas. One America is beautiful for a situation. In this America, millions of people have the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality flowing before them. This America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies, culture, and education for their minds, freedom, and human dignity for their spirits. In this America, children grow up in the sunlight of opportunity.
However, there is another America. This other America has a daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair. In this other America, thousands and thousands of people, men, in particular, walk the streets in search for jobs that do not exist. In this Other America, thousands of young people are deprived of an opportunity to get an adequate education.”
In 2021, too many people live in King’s “Other America.”
The Other America of today is reeling from a health pandemic that ravages the poor and uninsured. In this Other America, the lack of insurance and access to affordable health care kills thousands daily. Poverty is both a pre-existing condition and a stated cause of death.
As if the loss of life was not enough, a moribund U.S. economy came with the disease. Black communities, who have historically faced unemployment at thrice the rate of others, are left looking for jobs (as King bemoaned) that do not exist.
The Other America suffered a brutal race pandemic before COVID-19 showed up. The eight-minute video of George Floyd’s execution by the Minneapolis police went viral and shocked the entire world. However, it was business as usual in the Other America.
That video, like the ones capturing the demise of Philando Castille, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, came as no surprise to the Other Americans.
Atatiana Jefferson, Sandra Bland, Botham Jean, and 12-year-olds Tamir Rice and Santos Rodriguez never had a videotape to go viral. Still, their names are on the Top 100 “Best-known” list of unarmed minorities killed by trigger-happy police. In the Other America, police abuse and unintended homicides are a daily staple.
In the Other America, any one or group of protesters brazen enough to scale the Capitol Building in Washington D. C. would be executed, post-haste. In the Other America, you cannot break into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, prop your feet up on the desk and post the picture on Twitter.
Martin King asked me to remind you that Miriam Carey died in a hail of bullets when she got confused near the White House. In this Other America, she died at the gate with a one-year-old infant in her back seat. And by the way, in the Other America, there ain’t nobody standing in line to adopt Black and Brown babies, adolescents or teens.
In “America the Beautiful,” the stock market is high, profits are higher, and the tax rate is low enough to fire your accountant. However, in this Other America, tens of millions are unemployed, near eviction, and hungry. The only thing they have in excess in the Other America is homelessness, mental health issues, and a lack of healthy food choices.
On March 14, 1968, Dr. King rushed past more than 200 “conservative picketers” to deliver this message. He addressed a group of citizens concerned about fair housing and education. Fair housing and education are still issues in the Other America, 53 years later.
There are Two Americas, but the Other America has little milk or honey to speak of. This Other America is a national disgrace!
Vincent L. Hall is an author, activist, and an award-winning columnist
