Civil Rights Need Economic Justice
I believe civil liberties is what defines America. We (United States of America) got our start almost 250-years ago with the Declaration of Independence talking about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that these rights are unalienable.
What would life be like if we didn’t have freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion? Pretty bad right?
George Floyd’s murder caused me to think more deeply about civil rights, especially their connection to economic justice.
I’ve been hearing about economic justice for quite a while, never took the time to deeply consider its linkage to civil rights. I had thought of them (civil rights and economic justice) as two seperate areas. Today, I believe that they are linked at the hip, civil rights need economic justice.
What led to this realization? Well, I started from scratch, reading articles about economic justice and civil rights— here’s some articles that I found to be helpful:
Back in my MBA school, I learned about Maslow’s hierarchy. If people’s basic needs aren’t met, they aren’t going to focus on anything else. Or as Dr. King said “Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know now, that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t have enough money to buy a hamburger?”
I hope you’ll read on this topic, and/or ponder Dr. King’s statement — hopefully, you too will come to the realization that civil rights need economic justice.
