opinion
The State of Black America
“challenging People to Shape
a Better future now”
B ernie f oSter
Founder/Publisher
B oBBie D ore f oSter
executive editor
t eD B ankS
advertising Manager
J errY f oSter
account executive
l iSa l ovinG
news editor
B rian S tiMSon
reporter
D aviD k iDD
graphic Designer
M onica J. f oSter
Seattle office Coordinator
J ulie k eefe
S uSan f rieD
Photographers
The Skanner Newspaper, established
in October 1975, is a weekly publica-
tion, published each Wednesday by
IMM Publications Inc.,
415 N. Killingsworth St.,
P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228.
Telephone (503) 285-5555.
E-mail: info@theskanner.com
World Wide Web site:
http://www.theskanner.com
Fax: (503) 285-2900
the Skanner is a member of the
National
Newspaper
Pub lishers
Association and West Coast Black Pub -
lishers Association.
All photos submitted become the
property of the Skanner. We are not re -
spon sible for lost or damaged photos
either solicited or unsolicited.
© 2011 the Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED.
REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART
WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED.
knowing What’s
important can
change Your life!
Subscribe to The Skanner –
don’t miss an issue!
Please sign me up for:
q 1 year $74
q 2 year $140
q New Subscription
q Renewal
________________________
name
_________________
address
_________________
city
_________________
State
______
ZiP
________
Phone
Mail with check or money
order to: The Skanner
P.O. Box 5455
Portland, OR 97228
L
ast week, the nation’s lead-
ing historic civil rights
organization, the National
Urban League, came together with
the nation’s leading historic Black
university, Howard University, to
hold the first ever State of Black
America town hall meeting focus-
ing on the jobs crisis in urban
America. The Town Hall, hosted
by Howard President, Sidney
Ribeau, culminated two days of
meetings with Congressmen and
Senators on Capitol Hill where
Urban Leaguers from across the
country made the case: There can
be no complete economic recov-
ery as long as already too high
unemployment
for
African
Americans continues to go up
even as the overall unemployment
rate gradually ticks down.
Yes, we were pleased to learn
last week that the unemployment
rate has fallen to 8.8 percent, the
lowest level in two years. And, we
applaud the actions by the Obama
Administration – the Stimulus bill,
Health Care Reform and Bank
Reform – that have kept the
mighty titanic of the American
economy from sinking to the bot-
tom of the sea. But, this is no time
for a victory party. As the
National Urban League’s 2011
Equality Index reveals, there
remain large and widening gaps
between the status of African
t o B e
e qual
Marc Morial
Americans and Whites in this
country, particularly in the areas of
economics and children’s health.
For Hispanics there are big gaps
too, especially in the area of col-
lege enrollment. And, with Black
ties of color.
As we stated at the Town Hall,
we must not let other major con-
cerns, including war and partisan
fights about deficit reduction, dis-
tract us from the number one issue
facing the American people – jobs,
jobs, jobs. The National Urban
League’s nearly 100 affiliates
across the country haven’t lost that
focus. We remain economic first
responders for millions of
Americans desperately seeking to
rebuild their lives, families, and
communities in the wake of the
“Welcome to America in the second
decade of the 21st century. An army
of long-term unemployed workers is
spread across the land, the human
fallout from the Great Recession and
long years of misguided economic
policies.”
Bob Herbert’s final column for the New York Times
unemployment now at 15.5 per-
cent and Hispanic unemployment
at 11.3 percent, clearly, it is time to
declare war on inequality and
unemployment in urban communi-
worst economic downturn since
the Great Depression. We high-
lighted three outstanding exam-
ples at our Town Hall.
Lonnie Grayson, President of
Environmental
&
Safety
Solutions, Inc. has been able to
win new contracts and double his
workforce with the help of the
Entrepreneurship Center of the
Urban League of Cincinnati. The
Urban League of Philadelphia
helped David Simms, owner of
Eatible Delights Catering, develop
new branding and marketing tools
that have boosted his business.
And Donna Hodge Harper of
Newark, an unemployed casualty
of the great recession, said that
were it not for the job training and
job placement assistance she
received from the Urban League
of Essex County, she doesn’t
know where she would be today.
Lonnie, David, and Donna show
us how to dig urban America out
of the great recession: Training
for 21st century jobs. Putting
investments in people over the
politics of deficit reduction.
Summer jobs for teens. All of
these solutions are part of the
National Urban League’s 12-
points jobs plan. Washington, are
you listening?
To view the town hall webcast
and find out how you can obtain a
copy of the 2011 State of Black
America Report log on to
www.nul.org
Marc h. Morial is the President
and Ceo of the national urban
league
Economy Improves But Not for Blacks
M
ore than 200,000 jobs
were created last month,
216,000 to be exact.
Coming after the February lift of
more than 200,000 jobs, there are
those who are saying that econom-
ic recovery is around the corner. I
don’t know what corner they are
standing on, but the African
American corner took a hit in
March, and the Black unemploy-
ment rate rose from 15.3 to 15.5
percent. No other racial/ethnic
group saw unemployment rates
rise. Some will say the slight
increase is statistically insignifi-
cant. Try telling that to the
African Americans who don’t
have jobs, or to those who are not
in the labor force. Indeed, while
the number of Whites who had
dropped out of the labor force
went down, the number of African
Americans out of the labor force
went up.
The government is on the brink
of closing down, with obstruction-
ist Tea Party members determined
to shrink the size of government
no matter what.
They have
focused on government workers,
but too many of these workers are
African American, Latino, and
female. Yes, an attack on govern-
ment workers is an attack on
equality, because those who work
for governments are more likely to
find a fair deal, have a good job,
and be paid equitably. The gov-
ernment is on the brink of closing
down, but on their way to down
time, they have not found time to
introduce one piece of legislation
that speaks to job creation. Given
the numbers that we see this
month, this really means they have
been unwilling and unable to deal
with the jobs crisis in the African
Page 4 The Portland and Seattle Skanner april 6, 2011
B ennett
c olleGe
Julianne
Malveaux
American community, as the situa-
tion in other communities is get-
ting better.
severe measure of unemployment,
the measure that accounts for
those who work part time when
they want full time work or are
only “marginally attached” to the
labor market, a whopping 15.7
percent. This means, in real terms,
that nearly one in six of us is
unemployed.
It gets worse, of course, for
African Americans. The employ-
ment population ratio for adult
Black men, at 57.2 percent, is
While the number of Whites who had
dropped out of the labor force went
down, the number of African
Americans out of the labor force went
up
Better does not mean accept-
able. There are 13.5 million offi-
cially unemployed people in our
nation, and the number that have
not worked for half a year has
risen from 43.9 percent to 45.5
nearly eleven points lower than the
employment population ratio for
adult White men, at 68.0 percent.
In some communities, scarcely
half of African American men are
working. The same data that takes
The employment population ratio for
adult Black men is nearly eleven
points lower than the employment
population ratio for adult White men
percent in the past month. Labor
force participation is at an all time
low of 64.2 percent which means
that too many people have left the
labor force because they think they
can’t find work, or they can’t
afford to look. This is the story for
all Americans, with the most
the overall population from 8.8
percent to 15.7 percent, takes the
African American population from
15.5 percent to 27.6 percent, a
Depression-era level unemploy-
ment rate. Why is this okay? Why
has it sparked no national discus-
sion? What does it mean that it is
acceptable for the employment sit-
uation in an entire community can
be imperiled?
Why is it that
nobody really cares?
There is joy in some quarters
about the fact that significant
employment has been created two
months in a row. But, there is a
cliché that says it takes more than
a swallow to bring spring. In other
words, we first of all know that at
the rate we are going, it is will take
until 2018, seven years from now,
for us to get back to the number of
jobs we had in 2007. With popu-
lating growth, even then we won’t
reach the unemployment rate of 5
percent that we experienced in
December of 2007. Secondly, pes-
simistic economists, like former
Labor Secretary Robert Reich, are
suggesting that there is the possi-
bility of a “double dip” recession,
and that numbers could turn back
down in a few months if more
money is not pumped into the
economy. Bankers are keeping
their bailout money, having failed
to address the foreclosure situa-
tion, or to lend small businesses
money they need for inventory and
revitalization. They are cautiously
waiting for better times, but what
if Congress had exercised their
caution on them?
The bottom line is that while
some data suggest economic
recovery, the African American
community is still riding on the
back of the bus. It will take tar-
geted job creation programs to
improve on the new unemploy-
ment numbers. Is there anyone in
Congress who will step up to say
that these unacceptably high
unemployment rates cannot con-
tinue?