King’s revolution of values links racism to economic materialism

Evidence

The sad thing is, we had a chance. Dr. King urged the nation to undergo a revolution of values. The United States needed to shift, he said, from “a thing-oriented society” to “a person-oriented society,” to see that the gap between the rich and the poor reflected an economic order that stripped millions of people of their ability to even imagine a decent living, and to understand that war (and the monies used to execute it) put us on the road to “spiritual death.” A revolution of value would demote our interests in material toys, would challenge those who believe that money rules everything, while honoring the sanctity of life and the dignity of work. As Dr. King put it, “When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the great triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” We have to upend our current way of valuing the world, and for me, that begins with closing the value gap. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 561