MLK ESSAY
Concerns: flawed economic system, separation of humans, materialistic driven world,
selfish/disconnected world
MLK’s suggestions: devote more of our resources to address global poverty without
intending to control poor nations, a colorblind world, experience a revolution of values,
restructure economic system, steer away from preoccupation with individual wealth, shift
from a thing oriented society to a person oriented society, place people over profits,
construct the world house, work out racial differences/come to terms with our tortured
history
In his book, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed many different concerns for the future of
not only America and the world, but for mankind. The clear concerns of race were
obvious, as King is known as possibly the most influential person in the Civil Rights
Movement. Due to the fact that King lived in the midst of the civil rights movement, he
had a clear concern for the segregation of blacks and whites. King points out that if
blacks and whites were ever to live peacefully together, they must first work out their
racial differences and then come to terms with what happened in the past. The evidence
that American society has addressed this concern can be seen on a daily basis in 21st
century America. King realized that his concerns could not be addressed over night, but
in terms of segregation, American society has come a long way since 1967. The
government has attempted to enact policies that would address these concerns, such as
brown v. board and affirmative action, but the only way for segregation to change was to
first begin to change the ways that citizens think.
Aside from the separation of whites and blacks, one of King’s greater concerns was the
separation of humans. King began to realize that humans were too focused on
nations as the wealthy nations are still competing to be the most powerful and wealthiest
nation.