We are the Beloved Community
Recent events make clear that the disease of racism is still infecting our nation and that Martin Luther King Jr. Day needs to be a rallying cry to continue fighting the disease of racism rather than just another American holiday. The incidents that followed the 2020 elections should be a wake-up call for all Americans who gained their full rights of citizenship during the 20th century. Attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election by targeting black voting blocks brings back memories of the Jim Crow era. If Dr. King were alive today, he would be deeply saddened by the plight of African Americans in the 21st century. We are overrepresented in every negative societal indicator.
One area that is particularly troubling is homelessness. Housing is a human right. One of Dr. King’s fervent civil rights advocacy platforms was fair and adequate housing for all Americans. Dr. King envisioned what he defined as the “Beloved Community”. King’s beloved community is a community in which everyone is cared for, absent of poverty, hunger, and hate. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. popularized the term during his lifetime of activism and imbued it with new meaning, fueled by his faith that such a community was, in fact, possible.
Circa 2021, African Americans, despite making up just 13% of the U.S. population, account for a staggeringly disproportionate chunk of the nation’s homeless population, according to the federal government. In 2019, an estimated 568,000 Americans experienced homelessness, with African Americans making up about 40% of that total, according to the annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. The report found that poverty was a strong predictor of homelessness and noted that African American households are much more likely to experience poverty than their white counterparts. About 21% of African Americans live in poverty which is, 2.5 times the rate of whites. In San Antonio, a housing activist began a hunger strike on January 21st in protest of the city’s inaction regarding having a developed plan ready to house all those facing evictions on the 31st of January, when the moratorium was scheduled to end. The Biden Administration has since extended the moratorium but that does not address the systemic problems.
In his rise to power, President Trump turned racially based pleas directed at a long-simmering base of angry White voters into a political art, one that fueled a racially divisive movement that has threatened the very birthplace of American democracy. There is a striking parallel between 1968 and 2021. In both instances the nation has found itself at a political crossroads defined by ongoing debate and struggle between building a beloved community or retaining a status quo grounded in racial injustice, economic inequality and the marginalization of groups lacking in privilege and power. The Beloved Community is fair. The Beloved Community is just. The Beloved Community is built on love. Not just any love, but as Dr. King said, “the love of God operating in the human heart.” That is a practical love that requires participation. When that love is truly and fully present, it compels one to act.
The pandemic for African Americans is political wake up call. Politicians who believe that a mere stimulus check will sedate us into inaction are mistaken. The actions by the Texas State Attorney, and the two Texas US Senators should awaken all people of color. Dr. King’s work is not complete, it is more than simply the fact that not every person’s heart has embraced Dr. King’s dream. Their intent is to institute practices that work against a just and equitable society. There are more examples, but one can only eat an elephant “one bit at a time”.
There are local elections in May of 2021 and midterm national elections in 2022. Keep King’s legacy alive! Support the least of us and vote in every election! Support those who need housing! Stay safe and wear a mask!
