Poverty, the racial divide and social injustice do not impact only those who suffer most visibly. Alleviating poverty and injustice is a responsibility we must never forget or abandon.
Interpretation
Poverty and social injustice affect everyone in society, and we all have a duty to address and alleviate these issues.
Marc Morial emphasizes that poverty, racism, and social injustices are not confined to those who are directly affected; rather, they impact the entire society. He highlights the collective responsibility of individuals to combat these issues and advocates for continual efforts towards justice and alleviation of poverty, suggesting that we must not overlook these moral obligations.
In practice
During a speech on social justice, one can quote this to highlight the importance of collective responsibility.
Once labeled a felon, you are ushered into a parallel social universe. You can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits - forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind.
The consumer boycott is the only open door in the dark corridor of nothingness down which farm workers have had to walk for many years. It is a gate of hope through which they expect to find the sunlight of a better life for themselves and their families.
When a country doesn't respect Black lives, maybe it doesn't deserve to be entertained by Black athletes.
When money, instead of man, is at the center of the system, when money becomes an idol, men and women are reduced to simple instruments of a social and economic system, which is characterized, better yet dominated, by profound inequalities. So we discard whatever is not useful to this logic; it is this attitude that discards children and older people, and is now affecting the young.
When we let cops talk about themselves as a separate community, then we are letting cops wall themselves off from the rest of us. We don't generally do that with any other jobs. We don't talk about the barista community or the Wal-Mart greeter community.
Who is affected more when it's cold? Poor people. Who is affected more when it's hot? Poor people. Who is affected more when it's wet? Poor people. Who is most affected when the economy is bad? Poor people. Poor people are the most fragile.
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