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August 13. 2003
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Joblessness gloom
must not setback
economic progress
for adult women (5.2 percent),
whites (5.5 percent), and Hispanic
Americans (8.4 percent) were little
changed from May. While the num
ber o f whites em ployed grew, the
number o f African Americans em
ployed declined.
Thus, here’s more evidence that
the inability o f African Americans
to find work is returning to the
“tw ice-as-great-as-w hites” ratio
that plagued Black America for most
During that decade, the black
middle class recorded significant
gains in income and other mea
sures o f economic vitality.
But it was the black poor who
by M arc H. M oriai
made the most significant economic
The federal De
mark ofthe period: Theirhungerfor
partment o f Labor
work led them to rush to fill the
has delivered the
millions o f low-wage service jobs
latest new s from
the decade’s prosperity created at
the jobs front and it
the bottom o f the economic ladder-
is gloomy.
a "jobs rush” which drove the black
The unem ploy
unemployment
ment rate from May
rate down to an
to Ju n e ju m p e d
historic low o f
from 6.1 percent to
7.2 percent in
1999.
6.4 percent as the
economy shed an-
.
T h at h is
other 3o,ooojobsto
to ric d e c lin e
add to the 200,000 - National Urban League President Marc H. Moriai
in d ic a te s the
lostearlierthisyear. — ——--------------------------------------------------------------
p o te n tia l
The number o f Americans looking o f the past three decades.
am ong A frican A m ericans for
for work but unable to find it rose
It would be cruel to blithely say, concentrated "w o rk ” on becom
past 9 million for the first time in a “ look for the silver lining" in all this ing econom ically self-sufficient
decade. As worrisome, more than hardship and misery.
isn ’t lim ited to those w ho are
h alf o f the unemployed have been
But in the face o f this crisis o f w h ite -c o lla r p ro fe ssio n a ls, or
looking for a job for longer than 12 double-digit unemployment rates, their fortunate younger brethren"
weeks, a 20-year high. Now, the one can soberly and in fact, ur c ro w d in g u n d e rg ra d u a te and
jobless spend an average o f nearly gently, advise African Americans- graduate business schools.
20 weeks looking for work, a 19- and the nation as a whole-to seize
The issue is how best to develop
year high.
the opportunity to focus its ener that potential to its maximum. One
H ow ever, the rep o rt’s m ost gies even more on gaining eco step is the development o f an “en
alarming fact is that the increase in nomic strength.
trepreneurial mindset.” In business
unemployment was almost com
I say “even more” because the terms, that means having the cre
pletely driven by the rise in black 1990s made it clear that black Ameri ativity to figure how to build the
unemployment. Itjumpedaftillper- cans o f all economic classes under proverbial better mousetrap.
centage point, from 10.8 percent to stand the value o f economic self-
Marc H. Moriat is president and
11.8 percent.
sufficiency, the value o f work and chief executive officer o f the Na
By comparison, the jobless rates the honor in working.
tional Urban League.
The inability o f African Americans to
find work is returning to the “twice-as-
great-as-whites ” ratio that plagued Black
America for most oj the past three decades
æ*!‘ JJo rtlan ò (î^bseriier
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Tte <5000 HENS fe
T here ' s FLEHTY
tor -me school
BEEN FAKED OUT BY
Bush's Vendetta with Venezuela
by
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M ark W eisbroi
The United States has always
had a bad reputation for the way it
treats its neighbors south o f the
border. But now W ashington’s
treatment ofVenezuela has been an
embarrassment even by the low
standards o f diplomacy that it main
tains for the region.
The Bush adm inistration en
dorsed a military coup against the
democratically elected government
o f Hugo Chavez last year. T hat’s
about as bad as you can get, al
though it may have been worse:
There were numerous meetings
between Bush administration offi
cials and coup leaders in the months
preceding the coup. Opposition
groups also received increased
funding — some o f it still unac
counted for — from the U.S. gov
ernment prior to the coup.
The major media in the United
States have mostly joined our gov
ernment in its hostility to Venezuela.
In an editorial that was as scandal
ous as the exploits ofreporter Jayson
Blair, “The New York Times” also
endorsed the military coup. The edi
torial board issued a half-hearted
retraction a few days later. But there
were few American journalists who
bothered to ask how the most influ
ential newspaper in the world’s most
influential democracy could have
made the mistake o f endorsing a
military coup against a democrati
cally elected government.
I
C havez’s m ajor crime seems to Iran-Contra scandal.
be that he was elected mainly by
Unfortunately some ofthe same
V enezuela’s poor, who previously people who were implicated in that
had little voice in the corrupt politi scandal are determining U.S. policy
cal system that had ruled the coun in Venezuela today, viewing their
try for four decades. It appears that mission through the same distorted
our government, as wel I as most o f ideological lens. Chiefamong them
our foreign policy establishment, is Otto Reich, who is currently serv
respects democracy only when “the ing as White House special envoy
right people" win elections.
for Western Hemisphere Initiatives,
We have gone down this road and expresses unrelenting antago
before. O ur government spent bil- nism toward Venezuela. Last month
Washington cut o ff credits from
? It appears that our the U.S. Export-Import Bank to Ven
ezuela, for reasons that appear to
government, as well as be political rather than economic.
Venezuela is a constitutional de
most o f our foreign
mocracy, with complete freedom o f
policy establishment,
the press, speech, assembly and
respects democracy
association. The opposition con
trols the major media and their TV
only when “the right
news broadcasts are so partisan
people” win
that most people here would not
recognize them asjoum alism . The
elections.
opposition also has about 48 per
lions o f dollars and financed the cent o f the seats in the national
killing o f thousands o f people — congress and controls most o f the
mostly innocents— trying to over country’s wealth.
throw the government o f Nicara
If the reader has the impression
gua in the 1980s. That government that Venezuela i s not a democracy,
was democratically elected in 1984, it is mainly because our own media
but it made no difference to W ash re g u la rly re p e a t o p p o sitio n
ington. The result o f American ef charges - that the government is
forts is a stil I devastated country— “authoritarian" or “Castro-commu
13 years after the war ended —with nist” — often without rebuttal.
most Nicaraguans actually worse
Mark Weishrot is co-director o f
o ff than they were 40 years ago. the Center fo r Economic and
The impact on our own democracy Policy Research, in Washington.
was harmful as well, as it led to the D C. (www.cepr.net).