www . ThESkANNEr . COM
A uguST 3, 2011
S EATTlE , w AShINgTON
V OluME XXXIII, N O . 40
25
CENTS
i nSide
The Interruptors
page 2
Saving Medicare
page 3
Issa and Akon
C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
page 5
Storyteller
Politics of
the Debt
Crisis
Divisive debate in
Congress falling on
geographic lines
PHoto by SuSan Fried
by charles d. ellison
Special to the nnPa from the
Philadelphia tribune
gansango music and dance storyteller won-lyd Paye from liberia accompanied by company leader Etienne
Cakpo on drums tell stories about “Masks of the rainforest” Friday, July 29, at the lake City library.
recession Batters Middle Class
Urban League report details unemployment’s impact on families
by russell contreras
the associated Press
boSton — The economic
downturn has erased the gains
made by the black middle class
over the last 30 years as the
unemployment rate of blacks
with a four-year college degree
has skyrocketed, according to a
new study by the National
Urban League Policy Institute
released Wednesday.
The study said that the unem-
ployment rate for blacks with a
four-year college degree has
tripled from 1992 while overall
black unemployment levels are
nearing 1982 levels when it was
close to 20 percent.
The unemployment rate for
blacks with a four-year college
degree was 6.5 percent in 2010
compared to 2.9 percent of
whites with college degrees, the
study said.
The report, released just as the
National Urban League begins
its annual conference in Boston,
mirror similar studies by the
Economic Policy Institute and
the Pew Research Center that
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says the economic meltdown in
recent years has hit black house-
holds hard. Like the previous
studies, the Urban League
report said black home owner-
ship fell sharply in recent years
due to the mortgage crisis and
affected overall black medium
income.
The National Urban League
Policy Institute used U.S.
Census and U.S. Bureau of
Labor statistics for the study.
National Urban League
President and CEO Marc Morial
said the report showed that the
recession affected the middle
class, not just poor and working
class African Americans as
some might assume.
“These are people who played
by the rules. They built wealth,
went to college and had good
jobs,” said Morial. “But in a
short period of time, they’ve
fallen back.”
The large losses by the black
middle class, Morial said, is one
of the key reasons why the
median wealth of black house-
hold declined dramatically since
See economy on page 3
WaSHington — Overlooked in the
bloody dysfunction that is the debt-ceiling
fight is the geography.
That has little to do with the proximity of
Capitol Hill to marshy Potomac tributar-
ies. As a week of triple-digit heat in
Washington ended with competing visions
of how to end the impasse, a closer look at
who was voting or not voting revealed a
portrait of what was going on. The geo-
graphic composition of Congress, particu-
larly in the House, appeared to dictate out-
comes.
Not House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-
OH) $800 billion soft-deal package of cuts
which rehashes the hot ghetto mess again in
December. Far from Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) all-in-one, get-
it-over-with $2.2 trillion happy cut till
2012. Nor is it the $4 trillion “grand bar-
gain” once openly fantasized in bipartisan
utopia by President Obama.
Sifting through the madness, observers
found conflict defined as much by geogra-
phy as by party or ideology. It’s replaying
like a badly scripted pre-Civil War era
movie, but ugly enough to cause some pause
and nostalgia on the part of historians and
careful students of the most devastating war
in U.S. history.
Where Members of Congress hailed from
said a great bit about how they would vote
or what stand they would take. Fast forward
to 2011 and a quick examination of the 60
official Members of the “tea party
Congress” clears that up: most on that list
proudly buck from very rural and exurban
states like Alabama, Georgia, Indiana,
Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and others.
Southern, Southwestern and rural
Midwestern states with heavily red
Republican
Congressional
See debt on page 3
Indian Tribe legalizes gay Marriage
Suquamish become only second in country to erase gender barrier
by manuel Valdes
the associated Press
SeattLe — An American Indian Tribe
in Washington state has adopted a law rec-
ognizing gay marriage, making it only the
second tribe in the country known to do so.
The Suquamish Tribal Council voted
Monday to extend marriage rights to same-
sex couples on its reservation near Seattle,
after the measure gained support from more
than 100 tribal members at a meeting this
spring.
The new law allows the tribal court to
issue a marriage license to two unmarried
people, regardless of their sex, if they’re at
least 18 years old and at least one of them is
enrolled in the tribe.
It will be up to the other courts to decide
if unions granted under the Suquamish ordi-
nance will be recognized elsewhere in
Washington, said the tribe’s attorney,
Michelle Hansen.
Gay marriage is still illegal in the state,
but the Legislature this year approved a
measure recognizing same-sex unions from
other jurisdictions, which include other
nations, like Canada. State lawmakers also
See marriage on page 3