For the comic books by this name, see Two Americas (comics).
Two Americas is a phrase used by Martin Luther King Jr. in his speech "The Other America" to describe the differences in what life is like for Black/African-Americans and Whites due to the lack of equal protection under the law and the racial class system designed to keep people with African and Native ancestry from equality and freedom. Dr.King also refers to a lack of opportunities, jobs, minimum wage and support for poor citizens.To support his claims, he lists the hardship of Black people: unemployment rates, annual income, lynchings, voter suppression, church burnings/bombings, lack of training and educational opportunities and compared it to the bountiful resources and supportive conditions of White Middle America United States.[1]
He gave this speech multiple times, including on April 14, 1967 at Stanford University.
[2] In the speech discusses the connections between racism and economic oppression and concludes that a Universal Basic Income is necessary to solve these problems:
I use this subject because there are literally two Americas. One America is beautiful for situation. And, in a sense, this America is overflowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of opportunity. This America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies; and culture and education for their minds; and freedom and human dignity for their spirits. In this America, millions of people experience every day the opportunity of having life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in all of their dimensions. And in this America millions of young people grow up in the sunlight of opportunity.
But tragically and unfortunately, there is another America. This other America has a daily ugliness about it that constantly transforms the ebulliency of hope into the fatigue of despair. In this America millions of work-starved men walk the streets daily in search for jobs that do not exist. In this America millions of people find themselves living in rat-infested, vermin-filled slums. In this America people are poor by the millions. They find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.
^
King, Martin Luther (January 12, 2016). The Radical King. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-080703452-1.
^50 Years Ago: Martin Luther King, Jr., Speaks at Stanford University
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