Boyce Watkins, PhD, BlackVoices, May 26, 2009
{snip}
{snip} The black unemployment numbers, while typically absurd, had reached (in TSA language) threat level orange. During the month of April, while white unemployment nation-wide rose by only .1% (to 8.0%), black unemployment rose by a shocking 1.7% (to 15%). This means that black unemployment grew by 17 times more than white unemployment and is nearly double the rate of white America. Yes, it’s time to be alarmed.
Unemployment has dropped in 21 states. {snip} Yet, black America is getting hammered relentlessly by the economic downturn. Not trying to bother you President Barack Obama (I know you’re kind of busy with that whole North Korea thing), but do you have anything to say about this?
President Obama has created a task force on the middle class. He has formed a task force for the automobile industry. His administration has issued bailouts left and right to banks, insurance companies and Wall Street executives. And although the black community does not represent the majority of President Obama’s constituency, one might argue that a task force on black unemployment could be worth the time it takes to sign a document.
Given the fact that black male unemployment in some urban areas is as high as 3-4 times the national average, President Obama would even be well-justified in forming a task force on the state of the black male in America. When black males are struggling, black families are struggling. As a black man himself, President Obama cannot forget that.
{snip}
I believe in the president and I want him to succeed. I even challenged my respected brother Tavis Smiley when he spoke ill of Barack Obama last year. But Tavis is correct in the sense that accountability must always be present when evaluating our political leaders. We cannot fall asleep at the wheel and assume that our interests are going to be consistently represented by politicians who have no incentive to do so. {snip}
When America sees its unemployment levels rise to 8%, there is a panic and demand for government accountability. When there is a natural disaster, we expect to see Homeland Security in our state. When a major corporation fails, executives arrive hat-in-hand, asking for Congressional support. Some African Americans, on the other hand, see requests for government support to be a sign of weakness, while forgetting about the fact that we pay taxes too.
President Obama is likely a man who cares for people of color. I am even willing to try to make sense of his decision to allow for a significant cut in funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)—even though this fact has become disputed. The challenge is that we must remain mindful of the tradeoff between symbolism and true opportunity, as we enjoy the spoils of having a black president. Black unemployment of 15% should be enough to get our president’s attention, and it should be OK for him to actually acknowledge that the black community has a unique set of challenges. African Americans cannot continue to be the mistress that the president sneaks in the back door, for I am not sure of the last time I’ve heard the president use the words “black man” in public.
{snip} Black America must make its voice heard, and Obama must be the one to hear it.
Original article
(Posted on May 28, 2009)
Comments
You want a summit on unemployment among black men?
Here you go:
(1) Too many felons. A felony rap is a major hindrance when it comes to employment.
(2) A lack of desire for “chumpy” “white man’s” work
(3) Many already do have jobs — it’s called drug dealing. Illegal, illicit, yes. Immoral, unethical, depending on your faith and moral code. But a job nonetheless.
(4) Many many many “guest workers” here to do the jobs that many black men who want to work would like to do.
“During the month of April, while white unemployment nation-wide rose by only .1% (to 8.0%), black unemployment rose by a shocking 1.7% (to 15%). This means that black unemployment grew by 17 times more than white unemployment and is nearly double the rate of white America. Yes, it’s time to be alarmed.”
Notice that this pudgy, black purveyor of selected facts doesn’t even once mention anything about black unemployment in relation to Hispanics, yet they are responsible for black unemployment far, far more so than whites.
Blacks and whites do not vie for the same kind of jobs for the most part. But mestizos and blacks do.
Hispanics are taking black jobs and any kind of task force appointed to checking into such nonsense isn’t going to change things one iota.
Much of what blacks whine about is pretty humorous.
Why just black voices? What about ALL Americans who are losing their jobs and getting screwed over in this economy???
My opinion on this is simple. You cannot create a meaningfull task force on Black umemployment, when President Obama, and the Black power structure continues to support massive, unrelenting illegal and legal immigration. It is the low end jobs that illegal aliens have driven blacks out of by the hundreds of thousands. Janitors, dry wallers, garbage collectors,(sanitary engineers in San Francisco),etc. are only a few that come to mind.
“The challenge is that we must remain mindful of the tradeoff between symbolism and true opportunity, as we enjoy the spoils of having a black president .”
Well, someone finally put in print what they’ve been thinking all along. ‘To the victor, the spoils’. And they’re still waiting for their pay off.
I guess abuse of power and privilege is contingent on who has the power and the privilege. ‘White supremacy’ bad, black supremacy, good.
“Some African Americans, on the other hand, see request for government support to be a sign of weakness”.
Just where are these mythical creatures he speaks of? Blacks may face high unemployment but they don’t have any trouble seeking assistance.
Perhaps a more accurate and honest way to look at this is to say that unskilled workers have been hit the hardest by unemployment. To define it by race implies that race is the underlying factor causing the disparity and not skill level. This is a very good example of the liberal propaganda tactics so often used.
That’s just not true. I know a black man personally - and he IS employed! In fact, he’s more employed than some white people I know. Therefore those statistics are clearly biased.
All this talk of blacks being unemployed is nothing but stereotyping and we must be careful to avoid stereotyping, right?
I am a middle-aged WASP female residing in metro Atlanta, and I would hate to tell you how much time I’ve spent out of work and not even always getting UI since 9-11. I was in the travel business but was a victim of discrimination (personal, not gender, race, or religion, etc.)
you know an employed black? i know quite a few!Im even on good terms with them! Congratulations!
I’m glad to see teen unemployment is down. For a while it seemed like every high schooler was being replaced with an Hispanic. I grew up fairly privileged but my parents still made me get a job lest I fail to understand the value of hard work.
Militant blacks and liberal whites can’t have it both ways. They claim we shouldn’t stereotype non-whites, yet the apply all negative conditions (unemployment, incareration, gaining weight) to blacks and hispanics. Not only that; they try to suggest the reason they are in these predicaments is because of white racism.
A black unemployment task force? He’s kidding right? Obama is not that stupid. If he did that, it would be political suicide for him. I have faith that white people in this country would not stand for this for a second. And really, what does he think Obama can do to find jobs for black people? I don’t know what blacks were thinking when they showed up in record numbers to vote for him. He can’t give them an easier ride than they already have.
Hasn’t this character realized Obama is a one-man employment development dept.? He fills just about every job opportunity that comes across his desk with a black person. He is the most obvious racist I have seen in a long time; I’m sure if he actually knew of a capable black jurist that Sonia would still be ruining the lives of NYers.
Just what we need. Another task force to study “the state of the black male in America.” I think anyone with a heartbeat can tell you exactly the state of the black male in America. And what, exactly, will some task force do - besides spending thousands of white taxpayer dollars? I’ll tell you - it will come to racist, afro-centered conclusions which blame everyone but the black male for the sorry state.
The author of the the original article, Boyce Watkins, wrote “Financial Lovemaking 101: Merging Assets with Your Partner in Ways that Feel Good.”
What more can you say?
(3) Many already do have jobs — it’s called drug dealing. Illegal, illicit, yes. Immoral, unethical, depending on your faith and moral code. But a job nonetheless.
It is difficult for the civilian job employers to compete with the money a black drug dealer can make on the street. I remember a 60 Minutes article with a 13 year old black kid who said he makes $15,000 a WEEK! so why should he go to college he says to the interviewer. The kid also had the savvy to say he would retire before he turned 18 so he could never be prosecuted as an adult….
in other words, Barry isnt delivering on the jobs so its time to look for scapegoats.
Yup , a black president is more concerned with his own kind .
Better yet , whites need to form their own nation , that would put an end to all these problems and it would be a wonderful nation .
Barack Obama holds a 2 to 1 edge over Republican Sen. South Africa
An unusually high incidence of Black unemployment can also imply too many Blacks PREFER NOT TO WORK! And you can take that comment as it reads. That they’ve also been conditioned by liberals and the Democratic Party into a life-long dependency status. For the sole purpose of being brainwashed to vote the straight Democratic ticket.
“…President Barack Obama (I know you’re kind of busy with that whole North Korea thing), but do you have anything to say about this?…”
Obama replies:
Yes, let’s open up the borders completely and allow more unskilled, uneducated hispanics to displace blacks in the job market and violently ethnically cleanse blacks out of their own neighborhoods. And, I have the full support of the pro-immigration CBC to back me up. I’m sure the new SCOTUS nominee, La Raza Soto, will agree, after all, her organization strongly promotes the following:
“… La Raza movement includes the ethnic cleansing of Americans of European, African, and Asian descent out of ‘Aztlan.’…ethnic cleansing would commence: Non-Chicanos would have to be expelled—opposition groups would be quashed because you have to keep power…”
In California, this ethnic cleansing has already started. It is violent and is directed at blacks.
Bon
a german among you, I was hoping that my sarcasm would be obvious. Apparently it was not. My above post was meant to be a mockery of “leftist-think”. When we cite statistics showing how blacks are, on average, less intelligent than whites, the typical leftist response is something like “the smartest man I know is a black man”. When we cite crime statistics showing how violent blacks tend to be, in comparison to whites, they leftists will question the credibility of those statistics by calling them “stereotypes” and “racist”. So I was just giving them a taste of their own medicine.
Like every other tax-funded “study” that purports to explain black dysfunctionality, this “task force” is really just a program to provide do-nothing, makework jobs for a handful of liberal lackeys who, deprived of this method of making good livings at the public trough, would be quickly revealed as the empty suits they are in any corporate environment.
The truth of the matter is that the welfare state has ensured that black men do not need to work, because the needs of black women and black children are taken care of with tax money extorted from working whites.
Skip:
These kinds of things are always subject to exaggeration and bragging. But let’s be ultra-suspicious and say that this black kid is 90% bragging. This means he makes $1,500 a week tax free. That means $78,000 a year. You would probably need a salary of $130,000 a year to clear 78, that would put you within the top 5% of wage and salary earners.
The reason I point that out is that the Federal porkulus package that President Obama wanted so much is claiming to create 150,000 jobs. Turns out at least 12,000 of them will be for youth summer make work, based on the pretense that there is youth crime because they have no jobs. At least here in Southern Illinois, these summer jobs are going to pay either $8, $8.50 or $9 an hour for 20-32 hours a week, your wage rate is based on whether you have only a high school diploma or less, some college credit, or a 2 or 4 year college degree or graduate degree, respectively. I wonder what is so complicated about this Federal make work that you get a higher wage rate for more education. When I asked about this on my blog, a reader of Pennsylvania e-mailed me to speculate that those with either some college credit is presumed to have student loan debt, and those with an actual degree has even more student loan debt. If you don’t make your loan payment, they’ll garnish. She thinks that the reason those with more education get paid more is so that they can either pay their student loans or that money will be garnished, either way a reward for the Education-Industrial Complex, an arm of the Democrat Party.
What dope dealer is going to want to take an $8 an hour job?
These kinds of things are always subject to exaggeration and bragging. But let’s be ultra-suspicious and say that this black kid is 90% bragging. This means he makes $1,500 a week tax free
I wasn’t always Mr. Nice guy and I did in fact, know drug dealers in 70s L.A./S.F. areas making $15,000 a week. Week long parties were on them often, they supplied the drugs (I’ve personally never been into drugs, my vice has always been weapons)drinks and the free love attitude usually made for some great parties. Like many posting here, I have many stories NO ONE but the police would believe.
The poster above who mentioned blacks and felony convictions is correct; that does make it harder to find decent work, as I can attest. After my release from federal prison, I quickly discovered that most temp agencies will not place a convicted felon, and those that do typically want your conviction to be more than ten years old. In order to keep my P.O. happy (and not po’d), I took the first fast-food job I was offered. With 79 US and foreign patents awarded, I was making sandwiches at Subway six days a week, for $6.25 an hour.
“…I wasn’t always Mr. Nice guy and I did in fact, know drug dealers in 70s L.A./S.F. areas making $15,000 a week…”
Skip:
On another note: The deans in the school district where I work tell of busting 12 year old kids at school with $1,000 in cash in 100 dollar bills wadded up in their pants pockets or $5,000 in their backpacks. Other kids stupidly sport Rolex watches, high-end designer clothing, expensive cell phones and $200+ athletic shoes at school—remember, it’s all about the bling . Can’t buy those pricey ‘status symbols’ on $8, 9, or 9.50 an hour. And yes, they may be fakes bought from the swap meet—but then again, maybe not.
We constantly had reports of robberies with some kid whining about someone ‘jacking’ his $500 pro-sports jacket, either at the school itself or on the nearby streets, often at gunpoint.
High school-aged thugs in inner-city schools have no interest in working any job paying $8-10— they call these loser jobs for ‘chump change.’
This of course fits in with their genetically-driven short sighted time frame of living in the here and now, an inability to plan past the next minute and a non-existent work ethic. This is coupled with the firm belief that The Man Owes Me—so they will find a woman, however temporarily, with Section 8, food stamps and a cash grant and move in.
One of my older colleagues regales us with tales of his days working in the old Job Corps Program training blacks to enter the job force. We shriek with laughter at his stories, told behind closed doors among trusted friends, but they really are typical of the intractable attitudes that many blacks have about work.
He says it is not possible to teach blacks a sense of responsibility to an employer, to have a work ethic, to show up on time, to have to submit to a boss (what they call being ‘punk’d).
At the end of each training session, said colleague would twist the arms of long time acquaintances in the construction trades to give the top four guys a job. He told us after the last training session, before he quit, he managed to land jobs for four blacks who had completed the program and showed the most promise. Two refused to come out of the house when the trainer drove to their homes to take them to work, of the other two, one quit before lunch and the other at the end of the first day. More wasted federal fiat dollars.
Of course, blacks who don’t work out in the working world will blame racism and an oppressive White system.
Bon
I was once selling newspaper subscriptions from a kiosk in a black neighborhood. I had decent black people buy from me and their credit cards went through. Then I had some young black guy that assumed I was a racist and said, “I betcha don’t think I can afford to buy any of that stuff, so too late.” What a jerk. Probably made his ‘money’ selling drugs or doing illegal activity.
