How to Tell You've Gained Equality

The question of whether or not we've accomplished the goals that Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke of in his "I Have a Dream" speech is difficult to answer. But how are we able to tell if our citizens are equal when the definition of equality calls for different things than it did before? How are we able to see how far we've come when we are not sure if we've been fighting for the same things? An article on CNN that I found suggests that people identify with their class now more than ever, and that it has almost become more of an issue than race when it comes to equality. You can read more of it here. 

The author says " It's not that all battles for racial equality have been won -- they haven't -- or that we live in a post-racial society. But, in some remarkable and troubling ways, class has become an increasingly significant barrier to equality in modern America. The gap between rich and poor has been growing in the United States since the late 1970s, and our level of income inequality, one proxy measure for that gap, is now on par with many sub-Saharan African countries." I think that the reason people see class as something that is so a part of them is because it effects so much of our lives. While before we were fighting for equal rights for everyone in America, we are now starting to realize that even with all of the rights we are guaranteed, it is not enough. The gap between the rich and poor is making the income inequality impossible to ignore. It is making the ladder of class harder to climb and it's making it easier for people to fall into poverty. This is why class has become something that is as important as race, because it is becoming harder for people to be where they want to be financially. 

In a recent speech that Obama made he said, "we must remind ourselves that the measure of progress for those who marched 50 years ago was not merely how many blacks had joined the ranks of millionaires; it was whether this country would admit all people who were willing to work hard, regardless of race, into the ranks of a middle-class life," How are we supposed to not acknowledge the fact that class is something that determines who we are friends with, where we live, what we look like etc? I think that class has possibly become the new race because it is so hard to say you are fighting for equal opportunities when the main deciding factor on what opportunities you get is how much money you have and what your money can do for you. Race is no longer the main issue when it comes to the things you are able to do in life.