Dr. Martin Luther King on questioning capitalism; Dr. Cornel West questions President Obama’s use of MLK’s Bible

“One day we must ask the question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America?’ And when you begin to ask that question, you’re raising a question about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy.”

— Dr. Martin Luther King, “Where do We Go from Here?” (1967)

Also, please take five minutes and watch Dr. Cornel West’s take on he takes issue with President Obama’s use of Dr. King’s Bible at today’s inauguration:

“So I say to myself, Brother Martin Luther King, Jr., what would you say about the new Jim Crow? What would you say about the prison industrial complex? What would you say about the invisibility of so many of our prisoners? So many of our incarcerated, especially when 62% of them are there for soft drugs, but not one executive of a Wall Street bank gone to jail? Not one! Martin doesn’t like that. Not one wire-tapper. Not one torturer under the Bush Administration. What’d you say about the drones being dropped on our precious brothers and sisters in Pakistan and Somalia and Yemen? Those are war crimes just like war crimes in Vietnam. Martin Luther King, Jr., what would you say?”

— Dr. Cornel West

Alex Steed

About Alex Steed

Alex Steed has written about and engaged in politics since he was an insufferable teenager. He has run for the Statehouse and produced a successful web series. He now runs a content firm called Knack Factory with two guys who are a lot more talented than himself.