President Obama's Success Masks Economic Tragedies for Black Men

With all the focus directed toward President Obama's Tonight Show appearance, and also with the likes of Eric Holder, Michael Steele and Richard Parsons making headlines, their positions of prominence tend to mask a harsh reality of this severe economic downturn: it's black men who've been the most beaten down by our worsening recession.

The January 2009 numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics is bleak. Nearly 12.6 per cent of all black Americans have lost their jobs since January 2008. Contrast that with 9.7 per cent of Hispanics and only 6.9 percent of white Americans.

Going inside the numbers, a survey by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston finds that employment among black men alone has dropped by almost 8 percent since November of 2007. In fact, over the last decade the employment rate for black men ages 20-24 has collapsed from 68 percent to only 51 percent.

Just barely half of all young black men are working. Just. Barely. Half.

For black American women the picture is a bit brighter. An article in the Christian Science Monitor notes that 120 black-American women are employed for every 100 black-American men. "The current size of the overall gap in employment between black women and black men is historically unprecedented, and black Americans are the only group for whom the gender employment gap is in favor of women." One reason for this disparity is that the college attendance rate for black women is about double that of black men. Consequently, black women have seen no net job losses when compared to black men.

Plain English: Not as much education, not as many opportunities. This at a time when way too many young black men have already given up on attempting to be the head of a household.

It's a downward spiral that's pretty much covered up every time somebody ends a discussion about lingering racial inequalities with "but Obama is president!"

Yeah. He is. And as far as I'm concerned he can't be on the "Tonight Show" or any other legitimate program presenting himself as an icon of accomplishment often enough.

But let's not allow the hype over the president to obfuscate the unique challenges that many young black males still face.

For more perspective please visit That Minority Thing.com

Comments

[EgyptianMysterySchool]

We know there's a massive mental health issue in our community as long as our women prefer to alter their natural hair so that it looks and feels like a Caucasian woman's hair.

[GrainOSand]

The rabbit hole of broken self-esteem is deep and dark.

[robXdion]

This is a wrap. It's been fun. But hopefully some people can read this and get a clue.

[RightWingMarine]

It is widely reported that 1/3 of black men are at some point of the criminal justice system but what is less reported is that only 1% of black women are. Racism does not explain this disparity. Even this article points out that black women are employed at a rate of 20% over black men and black women are enrolled in higher education at double the rate of black men. Racism does not explain this disparity either.

Everyone faces choices growing up. They can choose to follow the criminal glorification our entertainment sector provides and race hustlers such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton or they can follow the achievments of black leaders such as Bill Cosby, Walter E. Williams, Thomas Sowell and Larry Elders. Apparently women are making better decisions.

[papapj]

RWM

Please read the blog. You'll find that these disparities are explained more than once.

[Nommo]

No point there, papapj. The statement he makes betrays itself. It suggest that no matter how frequently he may read the blog, if he read it at all, the prism is locked on that viewpoint. His motivation is typical, the fear and hatred of Black men. Those who indulge that cannot explain it rationally, in fact, they won't own it at all.

It is amusing, though. I am always astonished when they have suggestions as to what Black citizens should do to achieve, who should be a model and who should not. It is monolithic thinking at its worse as if there is a formula. The prime motivation for his and other's obsessions with Black people is in direct proportion with the denial of pathological and anti-social behavior amongst whites, primarily that of denying humanity to people who are not white.

Goes back to what Dr. Fuller pointed out: "Most white people hate Black people. The reason that most white people hate Black people is because white people are not Black people. If you know this about white people, you need know little else. If you do not know this about white people, virtually all else you know will only confuse you"

That is from Dr. Fuller's "Textbook for Victims of White Supremacy (Racism)"

[returnofthejedi]

AA males and women share the same skin color, but not the same reaction from society at large. AA males are targeted by police more than any other group in the country. People that try to make the case that you are makeing always tend to leave that out. Question..­........Do you think racial profiling has anything to do with the high incarceration rae of AA men? Do you believe that Black men are just more criminal than everyone else? Which one is it?

[RightWingMarine]

While I know that racism exists and that the police forces are not exempt from this I believe more is made of it than there is. Are we to believe black police officers are targeting black men too?

Take a trip to your local library; are there more young black men inside the library or outside? Life isn't fair and some children, through no fault of their own, will attend substandard schools and will have to work extra hard just to get to the same level as other more affluent children. But, young black society denigrates those that attempt to get an education. This is the choice I mentioned earlier that these young men have to make. Bill Cosby, Walter E. Williams and Thomas Sowell have all spoken about the crushing poverty they experienced growing up but because of the choices they made they have all become successful.

Police racial profiling doesn't explain the dramatic difference in University enrollment between black men and black women.

[akrishn3]

OK before leaving the blog (after getting pummelled by GOS, Nommo, IGNSTHMD,RobXdoin) let me summerize my takeaway.
1. Shut up. how dare you talk about black problems; you are not a black.
2. you are an idiot, disrepectful (I forgot other names I have been called) for even suggesting to explore the problem, because I donot know the problem. problem lies in the past not in present.
3. there is no solution a non-black (how much ever liberal he could be ) can even think of because by difintion he is not part of the community.
4. for some reason the saem thing a black say it is more acceptable because he is black. (exactly like white's ice is colder only thi time the blacks strories are darker)
5.no matter how much uplift is tried , even reparation cannot solve this problem, only XXXXX can solve this. (I did not get what is XXXXX even after laboriously going through all those "tirade-scriptures" GOS wrote in this blog).
6. "Stay away from us" ( that applies to you too LiberalsrHeros)

[robXdion]

No, the problem is you're making insulting generalizations based on what limited knowledge you have and you resent being told otherwise. Posters in here have answered your charges up and down and you still crave bashing of the black community. Now you want to play the victim like so many others that have tried this tact. Nothing will educate you or change your mind besides SEEING what we're talking about. Ergo you must leave whatever ghetto you live next to and see more black people doing better. I'd suggest you tune into BET's Baldwin Hills, visit upscale sections of Atlanta, Prince George County, MD or pick up an Essence, Ebony, or Black Enterprise so you can learn other aspects of black positivity.

[papapj]

WORD!

Well said, bro. RobX.....

[akrishn3]

GrainOsand:
you are not giving an actionable item towards what you are suggesting. you long tirade seems to indicate whatever you do it is not not gogin to be complete becasue history is very dark and violent ....
you seem not take / not amenable to a course of action to further any path to salvation:
you know we have simillar situation in India, certain sect of people who donot not beleive that there is a path to success and keep delving into the past and demand only a "certain kind of reparation" which is not good for either the oppressed or the oppressor. we call them Naxalites. they wont let go the past and let the "yester year untouchables" go ahead with the new life they have still keeping them in tight teather of dark history.
this is not good, there is a path ***forward***. better education, bettern employment, better family stucture, better healthcare, better housing...
possible definitely possible, if the leaders / mentors like you let go of the past and do not keep the young reminding of the past which is totally not relevant ot them. any 20-30 year old is thrice removed from that past. Donot please Donot dig the wound jsut becasue it keeps the pain alive so that the kids will be furious and ... this is never ending destruction from within..

[Nommo]

No one is free from the past. Failure to comprehend history means that you set out uninformed, without respect to those who came before you, and the outcome is that you will make the mistakes that have already been taken on precisely by those who came before you. That is true of any endeavor, be it science, or whatever have you.

It is precisely the failure of education on all levels to create a sense of continuity. That is why the white posters keep parroting the cliches that those who came before them laid out---they do not know their own history, the ramifications of certain laws and the customs that derive from such laws,
how can they possibly know the history of those who have been written out of history. It gives them leave to think that they made it on their own when in fact, the laws put in place by their ancestors made it possible for them not to have to compete with certain other citizens who were legislated away from both education and employment. It means they do not have to countenance the doings of their ancestors who were bent on making certain that Blacks did not have access to those things that all were promised as gateways to progress.

[Nommo]

Pt. ll
If it suits you to forget history, you have every right to do so. To suggest that others do so is the height of ignorant arrogance. It has no place in the consciousness of a group of people who are still fighting for independence. Perhaps you should study your own people's fight for independence. And please don't tell me that you have and that you know all of that, because if you knew the story of your own people's struggle for independence you would have at least a semi-functional comprehension or appreciation for what it is that Black people have fought for 400 years in this nation.

[robXdion]

I think he's a lost cause. He doesn't want to be disabused of what he thinks he knows. And it seems as if race even plays a role in what advice people will tolerate. Some won't take accept blacks correcting their depictions of them, but someone white (Tim Wise for example) saying the same things gives them pause to reconsider. A white man's ice is always colder. Learning requires humility and submission to the teacher and some just can't bring themselves to do that with blacks. It's not even deliberate, just habitual.

[akrishn3]

ok for a moment take for granted I am ignorant. I donot know anything about history, neither your history nor my history (LOL, my great grand father was Gandhi's close disciple, jailed along with him several times and you are telling me I donot know history. Ok I will go along with that for a moment)
But what is your ****action****? how are going to proceed? either in "betterment of AA's life " or "undoing the wrong" or "righting the wrong" or "econo-reparation", "social justice".... any or all of these.
please elucidate me. my question is ***HOW***
I am not getting an answer for that.
by reading GrainOsands previosu blogs he want a "social ***INVERSION***.
Am I right ? is that the "right" kind of "righting the wrong"

[GrainOSand]

I gave you the most straightforward answer I could, one that calls for you to keep living your life as you do, and one that respected your right to do so. What more could you want than that? Malcolm X famously told a young woman when she asked what she could do to help the struggle -- Nothing (in a word)! He was wrong when he said it because he was being exclusionary based on race, and exclusionary thinking based on race, gender, hair color, lipstick shade or whatever is flimsy, it cannot be condoned. That said, I can tap into the mood of the times that would have made him tell the well-intentioned young lady to go take a flying leap. Now I am not telling you to take a flying leap but I am saying I know what you are saying. I accept it, I have heard it many times, and because of that I know you cannot tap into what I am saying. It is a question of full teacups really. I say enjoy the tea you got you “obviously don't want or need none of dis” [sic]. I respect your opinions. It is all good in this neighborhood. You need to check out some Mr. Rogers.

[akrishn3]

hmmm, at last I am getting some answers. I donot know you, how big of a man in black community you are (you are jsut faceless GrinOsand to me :-) and how big a public figure you are.
but looks like you have influence over the community.
And I start to understand the feeling a non-black proposed idea for a problem is by definition not complete since it did not connect with the history of the problem.
Is this rejectionism because of mistrust, historical betrayal... what?
even if I am the most liberal guy since I am not a black does it mean I cannot engage in a conversation to discuss the "wrongs" going on a community?
for e.g if I say teen preg was wrong; gansta rap is wrong . it would be considered offensive, but the sawm thing you can tell becsue you are "in the community"?

[GrainOSand]

Teen pregnancy:
Another education and love issue. The parents are the frontline defense against teen pregnancy. The reality of teens being too hot to wait has been with us for eons and is not specific to a race -- trust me. What is specific to the brown community may well be the use of condoms and general knowledge about the risk factors. The message of risk factors is more powerful when a community joins to embrace a child and say we love you and want you to make good decisions. If you need to talk we are here. When this message is combined with a strong message from parents -- change may ensue.
...

I could go on and on with solutions. I got paid very well for using my mind to provide solutions to complex problems. I do not say this because it means anything beyond...I am not just some idiot banging on a keyboard to be impressive. Many of my solutions revolve around community based initiatives and have little to do with a need for welfare or pity. My process has become to figure out how I can use the resources that I have and the energy, to try and make a difference. I take Mr. Obama’s call to service very seriously. I am in a situation of challenge and promise and so I am trying to manage the details such that I can be highly effective. I said “I am trying to manage” the details.

[GrainOSand]

Solutions:

There are households in America where the parents cannot read.
Problem Education: Engage these households, provide a means for the community to support their continued education in every way that is accessible and feasible.

High School Dropout rate:
I read your remarks on standardized test, I refer you to Reverend Wright where he talks about different not being deficient and then he masterfully breaks it down via music. I will use me as an example. By all testing I am a genius -- I am old enough to have taken an IQ test in school. I do not think I am a genius but by my score I am. Yet by the time I hit fifth grade, where I was previously excited (to the point of being double promoted) I was now disinterested. This is a complex problem requiring more than cute sound bytes. My math proficiency was off the charts, yet in high school I struggled with math, yet in college I picked right up where I left off in lower school in terms of ability to digest the information. I am not into excuses. People who charge that want a quick answer that serves as a quick dismissal of relevance and importance. I accept this game. I also recognize it and I will not be duped.

Fatherless homes:
This is an education and love issue requiring some intense hand-holding. But who has the time for that when I can just dismiss them as lazy and shiftless?

[GrainOSand]

You know why I am successful, because out of all of that I escaped with my heart intact. That is what I came here to do (get out alive), each has their own journey. Yours sounds like it is one of self-determination and success being the ruling/defining factor. Our paths are similar but for different reasons. Your message of self-reliance is a good one, but it dismisses a very real history, it ridicules a very real pain, it minimizes in trying to escape having to face what is not a pretty truth (why?) the importance of a true healing process for a savaged and ravaged people. Not pity, not excuse, not call for welfare, just a call for the brotherhood and the sisterhood of all people. This is my simple message, as raggedy, tacky, and small as it may be, this is the gift I bring through all interactions whether here or there. I have no interest in that which destroys yet does not replenish. I have no interest in feigned greatness. I am on board for real greatness manifest in our time, always was, always will be. Bring on the greatness...I know I am trying in my own life.

[GrainOSand]

Oh, and let me not leave out that between fifth grade and high school I saw more violence than one need see. I spent more time in fear of catching a bullet, being beaten down by gang bangers, or seeing something shocking and horrible, than any growing curious imaginative child ever should, and I had excellent parents who I love with all my heart to this day, who kept me out of harms way, taught me good values, and stressed the importance of hard work and self-reliance as well as having a spiritual connection. The stuff I encountered was unavoidable in terms of being exposed to it, it was everywhere -- a true nightmare scenario just outside my door. Repeat my story millions of times and throw in luck of the draw where it concerns parents, then throw in the history that does in fact shape today's reality and you get a real funky situation --- The Sooooooooo­oooooooouu­ul Train -- The hippest trip through the life and times of a people.

[papapj]

Liberalsrheros:

I said;

"all you know of Blacks is slavery...?"

To which you replied;

"huge deficit of logic in your comment."

Which I think is rather facile...unless of course you can provide proof.....?

[liberalsrheros]

no, you came to a conclusion based on one comment. that comment was not intended to be a comprehensive summation of my knowledge.

you made the accusation, you prove it. you can't.

let me guess, you've spent some time in this thread upbraiding people for making assumptions about blacks but you practice it yourself.

what is the point anyway? i'm not your enemy, i'm trying to tell you that, yet i'm belittled. then AG holder says we are cowards for not discussing race. try just to open a dialogue and be greeted this way, is it any wonder it is avoided?

[Tanyars5]

Liberal- what is the dialogue you would like to discuss? I am curious

[papapj]

Accusation? I only had what you said to go on and your first - and thus far only - reaction was to mention slavery. If you don't supply any other information how can you blame anybody for coming to that conclusion?

That is not a "huge deficit in logic" or an 'assumption' that's going with what you are given and unless you can prove you know more or at least provide additional information then my logic is sound, but you are obviously unable to express yourself clearly.

I'm waiting for you to provide additional information so that I may modify my opinion - I'm always open to correction, I too am human..............

[robXdion]

An apology from the infamous robXdion. . . . . .

I'm sorry for misjudging you and other white posters in this blog. It was wrong and hurtful, nor does it help edify relationships or understanding. (but just know if you commit "word vomit" and throw out some ole boooolsheeeet, I will make corrections). So if you are unsure of some aspect of black people it would help if you would ask questions so you can expand your own horizons. Because I DO have the advantage of knowing the majority as a mere 13% of the population. Deal?

Sincerely,
A mean ole knowitall black Marine named Rob

[GrainOSand]

...no wonder at all...birth (labor/tra­nformation­) is painful. Pulling that material off of an old wound to stare at it in the sunlight is a painful process. We have covered up the conversation so long the veneer of our BS has meshed with the scab. So when we try to pull back the veneer -- real meat gets torn -- ouch! But look at that wound we must...no matter how painful. All sides are welcome but on a subject like this, commenting can be risky business because emotions run high -- as they should.

[BEHM777]

I don't like this one bit. However, it starts well before these young brothers reach the age of twenty. It starts in the crib. Prime time athletes aren't the only young Black males being coddled, pampered and/or bailed out when they make bad choices. Education is paramount to success and too many Blacks have to deal with crappy urban school systems. Still, the sisters find a way.

My take on it is simply this: it starts with PARENTING. I worked in the DC public school system for a year and was APPALLED at what I saw. There was no way to compare it to the school system that had contributed to educating me. Then again, our parents were DEEPLY involved in what went on in that school building and in our neighborhood.

Black America has lost its sense of community. This is the real problem. Until that is fixed, the plight of young Black males will continue to be just that.

[GrainOSand]

"Until that is fixed, the plight of young Black males will continue to be just that."

End of story.

[IGNSTHMD]

inroduction to new environments may help

[IGNSTHMD]

I think it is because people have become more self involved due to demands on their attention and patience. Think of the driver that eats, talks (on the cell), drinks and speeds down the road creating a hazardous situation most people try to avoid; it's like our self involvement pushes others away and keeps them at a distance with inconsideration.

self -sufficiency is stressed far more than community roles and mores that would warrant the cohesion, solidarity and union one might find at a church now days, a real sense of enfranchisment is missing

technological advance has made the world smaller, but the erasure of communications inhibitions along with consumerism transformed conceptual consumers into transcendental consumerists

add in 2 parent workforces amongst other things and viable community turns to hash

facilities for adult socialization could spark group frenetics. Or like in cuba, what they did with literacy adults to the children had to learn and made great strides because of the solidarity. Mostly family structure I think will dominate this debate

[Haditup2here]

This is why I sometimes take caution when posting to sensitive topics like this. On one hand, the discrimination and racism that you get from being Black is real. However, on the other hand, some is inflicted on ourselves by our own. Take welfare for instance. Many people are against it due to the amount of taxpayer dollars that goes into the system. However, I am strongly against it because it has done very little for the Black family -- especially when the mother is not in the right frame of mind. When the mother is not in the right frame of mind, It provides a false sense of reality and doesn't provide the male child with any sense of purpose. The daughters, not knowing anything else continues the cycle. To be fair, this isn't all cases-- but too many to count. Secondly, it robs from the school system the ONE place where the playing field should be leveled -- but often is not. However, to this day, education doesn't seem to be a high priority in the Black Community. When I say this, I am not just talking about in general, but on both sides of my family..To me it is just baffling to say the least.

[GrainOSand]

akrishn3:

I wanted to answer what you are positing but space was getting sparse. Everything you are saying about what it takes to “succeed” is time-proven and valid. But, as I said, your omissions are as glaring as your indictments. You omit the history that affects the psychology, the esteem, the mindset, the state of the family in place and time. You demand excellence and self-determination and that indeed is the call. But I was told I would be lucky to see my eighteenth birthday, and where I lived this was not hyperbole. Now you might blame my parents for moving into a neighborhood containing such peril, they were not manifesting excellence in past moments such that they could bring a better life to bear for their children. I can accept such an insular view. Can you accept my mother and father were sharecroppers in the deep south during the late forties and fifties? When my mother and father should have been in school learning, they were picking cotton for the plantation owner as late as the fifties, and it was non-negotiable, there was no bonus in that contract. They saw lynching, intimidation, degradation, and they lived under a threat of hate unleashed I cannot imagine. That is one generation removed from me.

The greatest gift I have ever known, the greatest motivator, the most consistent of all friends has been love.

[akrishn3]

my father is a professor of english, my mother is a teacher of history. i have read lots and lots of "history" and "litrature" to what you incline to.
you yourself said 40s and 50s of your mother/ father time. past
what are we going to tell the 12-20 year olds. the depravity of your mother and father how ***When my mother and father should have been in school learning, ... there was no bonus in that contract. They saw lynching, intimidation, *** and tell them you are a product of this and you will have the same? is that real as of now, wont you be telling a lie if you told him "you will have the saem as they had"?
tell me if you want good life for the blacks in 20 year from now what do you want the 12-20 year old to do now?
read black history, listen ot black leaders who foment the same negetivity (though 200% real once upon a time) or use the oppurtunities provided now?
time for a call to pour water on the amber and quickly move forward to sieze the socio-econ­o-educatio­nal oppurtunites given to us.
why can't we do it?
Or do you think there should be reparation (has no meaning to the 12-20 year old) to acts of past. if so how? monetarily? education wise? or eye for an eye social justice?

[GrainOSand]

Your suggestions, your take on the situation is that people assert themselves and there should be no words after that. I agree. Again, varying states of existence provide for varying states of adherence to whatever. I do not want bull dung to smell, but it does, until it does not, if ever it does not smell. Men of tomorrow will be what their choices and choices of others are today along with the unforeseeable and the unknowable. That is not a fuzzy picture, that is the way it always is. Bad decisions today in most cases lead to bad outcomes later. We are not in disagreement, but you want to quiet the other aspect of what I am saying, which is the history. I cannot be quiet about that for it still resonates with me and I do not cite it as solution or excuse but a remembrance of motivation -- a promise of never again. Kind of like a typed memorial. Taps for the struggle -- in words.

[GrainOSand]

We are commenting beneath a main story talking about an alarming condition. You draw a line in the sand and say (imply) “This is what must be done, there are no excuses”. That is acceptable because ultimately, there are going to be people who adhere to your advice and there are going to be others who do not. They will fare as they do. All around them will continue to be a society or a governing environment. That governing environment will be what it will be in relationship to the loser class, the class that cannot get its act together, the class that we have given up on, and it will be as it will be. I know you think I am avoiding giving an answer, but you cannot be more clear than this. Ultimately it is up to the individual, no one should need a handout and I suspect most would not want one either. However in a very vacuous way I continue to submit that a historical kick in the hindquarters may reverberate through time to cause functional hemorrhoids.

[GrainOSand]

See here for my thoughts on reparations, this is but one sampling. My view on the subject is kind of complex (like most things).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/02/obama-opposes-slavery-rep_n_116506.html?show_comment_id=14486912

[GrainOSand]

You are only discerning what you want to discern not what I am actually saying. I cannot be more clear for you. I understand you perfectly for I have heard your dissection of the issue many times. Your view does not offend anymore than the view of a racist offends. What do I mean by this. The truth, what is really wrong is a hybrid of opinion. If you look throughout what I write there is a call for conservation as well as liberalism. You take such a call to be waffling. I say you cannot think about success unless you truly understand failure. You come along with your definition of success and try applying it to an observed or cited failure that you yourself have failed to fully grasp in terms of its’ origins and its’ dynamic. This is no put down of you, for I cannot expect to be you nor expect you to be me. The difference is though, I see the value in having educated parents and the value in having wise, loving, and caring parents, I allow for the practical as well as the history in formulating my thought. I utilize my own history for validation for the other history has the heavy hand of mankind on it, the manipulative tendency to self-aggrandize, to misappropriate the truth, to distort and bend to fit ones’ needs.

[GrainOSand]

I waited to submit this last comment to you akrishn3. Allow me to replay your words:

"the depravity of your mother and father”

Once I read that I knew you. I knew the futility in conversing with you. Alas, I tried anyway, because I care about the subject, you, and your parents. I shared what is a personal item about me and my family for purposes of illustrating a point. You took that, and through the filter of your twisted selfish agenda, turned my awesome, loving, sacrificing, hard working and wise parents into "depraved" people. My parents were far from depraved and I would suggest that maybe parents you think are accomplished could not have accomplished what they did under the same circumstances. Your written Freudian slip, revealed your broken nature... your dark heart. I say this not to put you down or embarrass you (which is why I waited), I say it with a deep sigh that such ignorance is so proud of itself and unaware of itself. I hope you never see this comment. But if you do, take it to heart and change, for you have some deep-seated issues of feigned superiority, yet you are blind and less than in so many ways. Your comment reveals a lesser not a greater quality of worthiness and life. Your comment reflects on you, not me or my parents. You have no heart so how could you know?

Sincerest regards to you and yours, enjoy life -- on the cheap!

[GrainOSand]

Which means I was rich before I ever made a dime and I was knowledgeable before I could read and write or utter a single syllable -- life was complete early. Perhaps my writing is vacuous to you because within it I am not advocating for more jobs (something practical, tangible, obvious) that is a subtopic of my main topic. I am going straight for the heart, mind, and soul of all questions and asking who are we and who do we claim to be? When you strip the love from the individual, the family, the society, the world, it gets very dicey. If we claim we are a free market and you are on your own, and there will be no consideration of a past history for that history has no bearing any longer, then I say any instance of police brutality is punishable by death. I say all who were involved in the subprime market be put to death. I say that anytime a prisoner is exonerated through DNA, the judge, jury, and prosecutor of that freed “victim” is put to death. I say let us have full disclosure of the money trail from slavery and let us have the forty and a mule. I say any teacher discovered not to being doing their job be put to death. I guarantee you if you did these things, you would never hear about race again. How free do you want to be and are we really free now?

[papapj]

Wow!

Well said bredrin.....

[IGNSTHMD]

what is freedom to you Imean if I a free and you are free then when my freedom crosses your freedom how do we know who's freedom is more valuable?

[GrainOSand]

Why are we competing? How come I cannot respect your right to be as long as that right does not extinguish my opportunity to be.

[IGNSTHMD]

lets start an alternative grading program were this group of intelectuals provide positive feed back and community service to schools that would be open to revision of academic indicators ( as opposed to standardized testing) we couldpoint out trends in utility and deficiency both while providing fodder for teachers and inspiration for children... or something like that.

[akrishn3]

WTF? already we are lacking in science and math and we had to import scientists, physicists, engineers, pharmocologists, computer analyst., semiconductor technologist..... from China , india, singapore and S.Korea.
now you are telling we should change the grading system instead of tightening it? based on community service? dude are you out of your mind, just to satisfy or prove that racism exisits?
changing standerdized test to supress the symptom does not solve the problem. In fact we should leave the standerdized tests as such , becasue it ***shows*** there is a dichotomy.
fix the problem / disease in its root instead of changing the thermometer.
we have opened up benefits / opputuniies for the past 50 years (1960s -JFK)
nothing has improved. more teen Pregs, higher illetracy, more crimes, poor health, more dependence on entitlement programs and increase in lazyness, more self promoting leaders, more gangsta rap, more female demeaning ...... all inspite of the fact every govet defintely tried to do more than the previous.
still we cry racsism. it is time we look into ourselves and get over with this and move on. there are lots and lots of programs and opputunity availabe for a self -confident AA.

[GrainOSand]

Your ommissions are as glaring as your indictments.

[EgyptianMysterySchool]

This article underscores the need to do for self. We have to be innovative and provide jobs for our children, our spouses and our families.

Has anyone ever heard of unemployment numbers for Jewish people? Of course the answer is no, because Jewish people aren't sitting around waiting for someone to give them a job. When you go into a Jewish almost all of the businesses are owned by Jewish people and almost all of the employees are Jewish. Then on top of that they keep each other in business by buying from each other first and selling to everyone else. I think this is a great model to follow.

Conversely, most of the businesses in our neighborhoods are owned by non-African Americans. We buy from everyone else and sell little to ourselves - it's inevitable that economic inequalities will continue. Entrepreneurship is the only answer to our employment and economic inequalities. We've got to push our children into being innovators and entrepreneurs, we've got to encourage business creation and self-sufficiency.

God bless the child that's got his own.

[returnofthejedi]

When you are in the thick of the jungle and know the way to civilization, what is now needed something to cut a path from the jungle so that you can get to civilization.

[IGNSTHMD]

lets start now, which direction?

[EgyptianMysterySchool]

If you realize that you gave birth to civilization then you know that you can create civilization no matter where you are.

Successful people are the ones that find the situations that they want and if they can't find them - they make them.

[Nommo]

EMS, your post reads like the center page of the old Muhammad Speaks Newspaper. Absolutely on point. I would like to draw your attention to another aspect of the matter. Study the incident that occurred in Tulsa, Ok in 1921. It is not the only such incident, perhaps just the most prominent. Then study the phenomena of redlining neighborhoods, the basis of which was nothing more than the having a Black tenant on a block. This was sufficient to redline a neighborhood. That meant that bank loans and insurance would not be available to any establishment in that neighborhood. Pres Obama has elucidated on this phenomena and how it inhibits wealth development.

To sum it up, America has made conscious efforts on all levels, inside of law and outside of law to destroy the accomplishments of Black America, and then they would blame us for being in pover

Study the plight of the Black farmers whose land was systematically stolen from them. Study the trickery involved. Then they would say that they were bad business men. Study the tricks they create to hide their criminality. How they blame our culture for their misanthropy. How they project their collective evil onto us. Then they want to talk about the pants some of us wear, not even noting how their youth mimic our styles. This goes back to rock and roll. If it ain't pants, its hair, if it ain't hair, its dance and so on and so forth.

[IGNSTHMD]

who is it that gives these blame games a platform?

[EgyptianMysterySchool]

I'm thoroughly familiar w/ all of the examples that you gave me, those stories must be kept alive, they must be studied - in order to overstand how to beat them and never fall victim again. That is our responsibility to the future. As long as our economy is dependent on theirs, which has shown itself to be corrupt and manipulate-able, then we will rise and fall w/ it - but we will always rise slower and fall faster, because it's rigged that way.

There's reason I sound like a Muhammad Speaks Newspaper - it's in my blood. My father was a member of BPP before he was a 20+ year member of The NOI. He's a card carrying member of the MST and a few years ago I brought him into the Nuwaubian Nation/ Ancient Egiptian Order w/ me - I've been a member for 15 years.

[noudidnt]

Excellent point...let's have some real pride.

[Lotus19]

Absolutely, positively.

[ProudMormon]

The big question is how much of the inequality is imposed by society, and how much is self-imposed.

Michelle Obama just talked about how she was ridiculed in her youth for "talking like a white girl".

When she went to college, she apparently had a chip on her shoulder and wrote about how she felt like some sort of second class citizen. As her senior thesis project she decided to quantify that discrimination by sending out surveys to all the black graduates. And of course, it was a colossal failure, with most respondents saying they hadn't experienced any discrimination at all.

On the flip side you have Justice Clarence Thomas, who vocally complains that affirmative action stigmatized him and all of his accomplishments during his education and early career. He went so far as to say that his Yale Law degree was tainted, and only worth 15 cents.

The Kansas City desegregation experiment proved conclusively that racial education disparities aren't caused by lack of money, or lack of resources. It's time for those being held back by their own culture and own choices to own up to those problems and try to solve them.

How many liberals have said that we never should have taken Saddam out, and that the Iraqis should have done it themselves? And yet, all you hear in this country is excuses for why one group or another can't address their own problems and needs government intervention.

[akrishn3]

well said , well said.
the black community has to have a revolution from within.
Potus and Flotus can help it happen.

[returnofthejedi]

First of all what the hell is a racial education disparity? Then we will go with; How on earth can you ever prove that a lack of resources is not a detriment to education and learning? That's just false on every level imaginable. I guess since you have good sentence structure and are able to put together sentences, that makes what ever opinion you put in the senence a fact.
By the way you could have done a lot better than Clarence Thomas if you want to take quotes from black folk. Furthermore, speaking of ivy league eduction, I wonder how many of the top brass at all these failing banks and insurance companies are ivy league grads? How many people that designed these bail out and stimulus bills are ivy league grads? America needs to end the culture of cosmetic favoritism.

[ProudMormon]

It's often called an "achievement gap". In Kansas City back in the late 70's there was a large achievement gap between white students and black students. The Kansas City schools were falling apart. The city residents repeatedly refused to vote for school bonds to fund repairs. So, the school board sued. The judge on the case reworked it and turned the school board into the defendant instead of the plaintiff, and then ruled that there was segregation in the schools that required massive government intervention.

You can read about it for yourself. Suffice it to say that it was an unmitigated disaster. They spent hundreds of millions of dollars, and didn't reduce the achievement gap one iota. In his final ruling, even the activist judge that originally thought up this brilliant scheme declared it a gross failure.

Just Google "kansas city desegregation experiment" and you'll find plenty of information.

[IGNSTHMD]

you site these high profile people and cases as if the were the end all or representative of blacks as a whole. Most black I know didin't do well in school found they needed money to pay bills they created for themselves and then struggle to find a job that either makes enough money to justify not lokking for something better or something that can actually draw on their natural abilities (as opposed to clock punching; which is a conciderable percentage). qualifications are substituted with connections and a history of working the system: making impressions, filling character roles and the like. I think lost opportunies at school could be recouped but that would not be the reality of our present condition. In our country now, failure for some is assummed because there is not enough opportunity to share and hoard privilage at the same time.

[IGNSTHMD]

continued

I think it is good That Kansas gave itself a chance to fail at such a monumental task it is unfortunate the failure qualified a presumptin that was on the tip of the tongue of many for whom the suggestion of black people actually overcoming their predicaments is unfathomable. And plus investing in children is not a blind act of faith kind of thing . They see you saying: ok, before you weren't worth it but your worth it now so live up to yourself ok. The children see through this kind of charade. It takes a special kind of teacher to reach a class of thirty unruly and disparaged children. it would have been interesting to talk with the teachers about the short comings of the program. Assuming a objective reality that isn't really objective is often subtlly assumed by those in a position to do so and a good example of how accountbility is thwarted. the fatigue of the mind to account for extraeous factors that underlie our assumptions is something we all share, but we don't all share the consiquences nor the history of disparagement.

[GrainOSand]

Here is my very self-actuating, very self-responsible view -- It does not matter what you think or what I think. We humans fail to arrive at justice and the truth -- often. We take and cite study after study and problems persist. There is an order beyond this earthly order and that order will bring justice. So, the irresponsible and the responsible need do nothing more than to keep on living and it will all shake out in the wash of time, people, pressure, friction, and the weight of what is on that which is unsustainable. Your suggestion is that there is no help and the people you indict are prone to failure (an inferior model). All is lost. There is nothing to be done (where it involves others helping others -- in any way) Let us just wait and see if your conclusions are -- The Truth. I have all eternity to wait for outcome. This race debate is a thing of time and place -- how humans mark the urgency of now. The cosmos don’t give a damn what we think about time, place, or color of face.

[Petras24]

Heck education at fault ? No problem ! Stimulus has an extra $100 billion for public-schools !

Obama's home State now spends roughly $13,000 per public-school student in Chicago...but the money has done little to reverse a dismal high school graduation rate of 51%.

The charter schools in Chicago take a demographically similar group of students and achieve 77% graduation rates, but Congressional Democrats have put a cap on more charters. Thank goodness Obama can afford to send his girls to an elite private school !!

So heck maybe increase border security ? and let black Americans do some of the jobs of illegal sorry undocumented workers ? No way !! Nancy Pelosi says American enforcement laws are unAmerican. Thanks Nancy for helping our black kids !

[politicky]

John, I think you have a fan at the LA Times?

Blacks lose ground in job slump
California has a 10.5% unemployment rate -- but 12.5% for African Americans. Nationally the gap is even wider.
By Ronald D. White and Marc Lifsher
March 21, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-blackjobs21-2009mar21,0,7991924.story

[akrishn3]

why can't the AA take the jobs the illegals are currenly working on; construction, horticulture, landscaping, food industry etc....
now donot tell me they pay lower.
some job is better than no job.
Can't you just walk into a Chevy's and tell I coming to "that" job from tomorrow?
or 10 AAs get together and start a landscaping / lawn mainitnance company?

[returnofthejedi]

Why can't the african americans take the jobs of the wall street execs that have run this country into the ground. I think that would be a more effective use of their time and space on the Earth . Do you? Never mind, obviously you don't. Why in your mind should blacks accept some job being better than no job? Why don't white people line up to do those same jobs? Why does the desire to keep an underclass reside so much in the minds of white people.

[Lotus19]

There's a story in the local paper, which made the news because the man snapped, on how a laid off construction worker went looking for work and was dismissed outright while the three mexicans that he was with were hired. He then called again looking for work and got nothing. Now that's just one example, but I'm sure there are others that haven't made the news. The point being that the solutions are not as clear-cut as you are trying to make them out to be.

[Kiabell04]

The author makes a vaild point. The struggle isn't over, and the black race is still having significant problems despite President Obama's successes. If people think that the problems within the black race were automatically erased on November 4th, then clearly you need to get out more.

[akrishn3]

***and the black race is still having significant problems despite President Obama's successes****

for a moment let us focus on a segment of black population. High school children. can you tell me what is the significant problem they are facing? they are not taught? they are not fed? tell me please...

[IGNSTHMD]

they are not identified with or set in enrichment inclined environments