The world and our nation have permanent underclasses – people with little wealth and few opportunities for education or upward mobility. Their attempts to draw attention to their needs are often met with contempt or repression.

By 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr had expanded the scope of his work to encompass economic justice; and he addressed that concern in Memphis with the last speech before his assassination. He talked about victories over social and economic injustice beginning with “…God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt…across the Red Sea, through the Wilderness and on toward the Promised Land.”

With verbal stops at Mount Olympus, Rome, Johannesburg and Atlanta Dr. King spoke of fitful progress throughout human history and added this prophetic warning. “…if something isn’t done, and done in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed.” He talked about what the poor can do for themselves then used the biblical story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate responsibilities of privileged classes. His message can help us understand troubling current events.

The world and our nation have permanent underclasses – people with little wealth and few opportunities for education or upward mobility. Their attempts to draw attention to their needs are often met with contempt or repression. Demonstrations and protests may meet irresistible military or police forces. Seen through the eyes of people privileged to live in safe neighborhoods with good schools and good jobs, the underclass may appear lazy and shiftless. Seen through the eyes of the underclass, the privileged may seem untrustworthy and unjust. Those perceptions are the realities on which actions are based.

Palestinians in Gaza’s underclass see Israelis who took their grandparents’ land and homes to establish a Jewish nation. Confined to the tiny Gaza strip, they are not even allowed to control their own ports. When they lash out with rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, the privileged part of the world ignores the Palestinian civilians who were driven from their homes but harshly judges their descendants who are confined to Gaza with their freedoms and opportunities limited at the discretion of Israelis.

A black underclass in Ferguson, Missouri sees fewer jobs and declining wages. Opportunities, especially for youth, are very limited. An unarmed black teenager is shot to death by a white police officer. The under-employed underclass demands information and justice but neither is quickly forthcoming so they march and protest loudly. A few people add violence and looting. The government response looks like a military invasion.  Mutual distrust grows.

Undocumented Hispanic immigrants are treated as criminals while agribusiness and construction contractors who hire the undocumented insist that they must have a “guest worker” program for “jobs that Americans won’t do”. Wages stay low while unemployment stays high among the black underclass. Conditions among the easily abused “illegal” Hispanic underclass are unmeasured. This is not new. Dr. King and Cesar Chavez were battling the same kinds of abuses. Mutual distrust continues to grow.

Events in Ferguson are rooted in perceived economic and racial injustice and that is not surprising to anyone who understood Dr. King’s message. Across the nation residents of underclass neighborhoods don’t trust police, courts and institutions operated by the privileged class. Key issues include jobs, wages, schools, public safety, upward mobility, trust, and respect. They exist in cities, towns and rural areas across the nation. As distrust increases, desperate and radical responses of those with limited opportunities become more common.  Like Ferguson this year or Cincinnati in 2001, a single event can fan smoldering resentment into flames. The world becomes aware of underclass frustration when it turns to rage, and the outcome of that rarely benefits anyone.

I stopped feeling hopeless after reading Dr. King’s speech. He called for actions that are within the power of individuals and small groups – organizing to improve hiring practices, education and wages – methods in addition to government programs that can improve conditions. There are many wounded Americans lying along our 21^st century road to Jericho. Dr. King called for the privileged to become Good Samaritans, helping one person at a time. Like Jesus before him, he believed the radical notion that people who acknowledge and assist each other will build trust and solve problems. It can be done. The choices are personal.