Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Posted on by Tomas Aguilar

Martin Luther King Jr. made the world a better place through the power of vision, determination, and powerful community organization. But even in his time he recognized that the fight for justice was only beginning. I would like to take this day to see how far we have come as a nation and how far we still have to go to by compiling a small list of various enlightening or inspiring links related to this topic. Enjoy!

Up first in the list is an interview of Martin Luther King.
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/
This research paper by the Pew Foundation is an interesting study of American views in regards to racism.
It is quite something to watch these videos of Obama before he was president.
Racial Economic Inequality
This is report published by Inequality.org about wages and other forms of economic inequality that African-Americans currently face in the United States.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472910/systematic-inequality-economic-opportunity/
This is another report about a wider variety of systematic racial inequalities that also touches on economic inequalities.
This New York Times Op-Ed has found overwhelming evidence of increasing racial discrimination.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/18/blacks-have-made-gains-in-u-s-political-leadership-but-gaps-remain/
Lest we focus too much on economic issues, this article is about African-Americans in politics.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/25/enduring-whiteness-of-american-journalism This article is an interesting look at African American news and journalism presence in the U.S.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/09/18/theres-overwhelming-evidence-that-the-criminal-justice-system-is-racist-heres-the-proof/ One cannot discuss racism in the U.S. without discussing the disparity of injustice in the criminal justice system.

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/how-racism-costs-black-families-hundreds-of-billions-in-housing-wealth/ An interesting article on the history of housing discrimination and how it continues to impact African Americans today.

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/03/who-bears-the-costs-of-segregation/520863/ This link is about the impact of racial segregation on my hometown Chicago.

https://www.acponline.org/acp_policy/policies/racial_ethnic_disparities_2010.pdf The American College of Physicians also published a paper in regards to health outcomes of African Americans and found worse outcomes across the board.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190311152735.htm This research paper from Science Daily quantifies the different levels of PM2.5 Air pollution exposure by race but does not address other forms of pollution that ethnic minorities often experience at greater levels such as disproportionate contamination of their water, place of employment, and housing.

And, last but not least… What happened to Black Lives Matter? https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/darrensands/what-happened-to-black-lives-matter

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