opinion
National and State Safety Nets Fail
“Challenging People to Shape
a better future Now”
b ErNIE f OStEr
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b ObbIE D OrE f OStEr
executive editor
t ED b aNkS
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L ISa L OvING
news editor
H ELEN S ILvIS
Multimedia
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graphic Designer
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J uLIE k EEfE
S uSaN f rIED
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T
he Children’s Defense Fund
has launched a new series of
stories on our web site fea-
turing children and their parents
who have fallen on very hard
times. They are the real faces and
fears behind our disgraceful
national child poverty statistics—
16.4 million poor children living
in the richest nation on earth. In
2010, over a million more children
fell into poverty, over half a mil-
lion
more
into
extreme
poverty. Forty-three states saw
increases in poverty for children
under six, the most critical years
for brain development. Extreme
poverty, defined as an annual
income of less than half the pover-
ty level, means less than $30 a day
for a family of four. Forty-one
states saw an increase in extreme
child poverty in 2010.
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter
Julia Cass traveled to Michigan for
the Children’s Defense Fund to
meet families with children our
national and safety nets had failed
to catch. One of the families she
met was the McKees—and as she
noted, “Shoes tell the story of the
McKee family’s descent into
poverty.”
The shoes belonging to Skyler,
10, and Zachery, 12, are falling
apart. Their sister, Jordan, 14,
wears the varsity coach’s shoes
when she plays on her school’s
volleyball team. Less visible is
hunger. The children and their
parents, Tonya and Ed McKee, of
Dowagiac, Mich., sometimes went
without food this summer when
Ed’s unemployment insurance ran
out and the family was not yet
receiving food stamps.
C HILD W atCH
Marian Wright
Edelman
Skyler says he gave the birthday
money he got at church to his
mom for groceries, “and I told her
she didn’t have to pay me
job.” Factory work? “They closed
most of them around here. There’s
a tool and dye plant that makes
parts for Ford and Chevy that
closed and just opened back up,
but you have to be on their call list
to get hired. It’s frustrating to walk
into a place and they say they’re
not hiring or they say they are hir-
ing and you put in an application
and never hear from them.”
Meanwhile, Tonya baked cakes
in their home to supplement their
income; their son Zachery is a spe-
cial needs child who didn’t speak
Is this the best America can do? Is
this the reflection of our values as a
nation?
back.” Skyler confided that some-
times
his
stomach
has
growled. “It’s hard, not easy like
it was before where we had money
and could do stuff. Now we don’t
go anywhere… Sometimes we
don’t have food and we just don’t
eat.”
McKee comes from a farming
family, and was working as a
breeding manager at a large hog
farm when he was laid off in July
2009. Ed says “to save money,”
the company replaced him and
several other employees with new
workers earning a lower wage.
“There are other farms around
here but they just aren’t hiring,” he
said. “If they are, you better be the
first to know. There’s a lot of peo-
ple waiting in line to get that
until a few years ago, and Tonya
hadn’t worked at a job since he
was born. This summer, every-
thing got even worse: Ed’s unem-
ployment insurance ended in May,
and there was a month and a half
gap before the McKees began
receiving food stamps. Their only
income was the monthly Social
Security disability check for
Zachery. “Ed and I went hungry
some nights so we could feed the
kids,” Tonya said.
The McKee children are three of
the new faces of child poverty in
America. But as families like the
McKees know, poverty hits chil-
dren of all colors, all ages, and in
all states. Children of color are
disproportionately poor. Over one
in four Black children were poor
in 41 states and the nation’s capi-
tal, and over one in four Hispanic
children were poor in 43 states. In
many states, the news was even
worse for the youngest children:
40 percent or more of Black new-
borns to kindergartners were poor
in 30 states and the nation’s capi-
tal, including 15 states where half
were poor, and 40 percent or more
of Hispanic newborns to kinder-
gartners were poor in 14 states.
Is this the best America can
do? Is this the reflection of our
values as a nation? These child
poverty statistics are morally and
economically indefensible. The
toxic cocktail of poverty, family
joblessness and stress, food inse-
curity, lost homes, and growing
hopelessness are a national human
disaster requiring the most urgent
response from our political and
business leaders in every party and
place. Children deserve more than
intransigent political grandstand-
ing. They need shoes to protect
exposed toes from the cold and
food to soothe their growling
stomachs. Shame on those who
seek to rip out more threads from
our rich nation’s tattered safety net
while protecting tax cuts for mil-
lionaires. Skyler, Zachery, and
Jordan McKee and the millions of
children like them deserve more
from our country.
Marian wright edelman is a
lifelong advocate for disadvan-
taged americans and is the
President of the Children’s
Defense Fund (CDF). under her
leadership, CDF has become the
nation’s strongest voice for chil-
dren and families.
Obama’s at CBC: Much Ado About Nuttin’
I
n the wake of President
Obama’s address to the
Congressional Black Caucus,
there are those who are making
much ado about nothing, includ-
ing the accusation that, by drop-
ping his “g’s” the President was
talking
down
to African
Americans. Can this President
kindly get a break! He is accused
of distancing himself from the
African American community, so
he shows up at the Congressional
Black Caucus Annual Legislative
Conference Saturday dinner. He
stays around to shake hands. The
cynical would, predictably, say he
is campaigning. Others appreciate
the gesture for what it is, attempt-
ed outreach.
Yes, he tells folks to stop whin-
ing and to put on their marching
shoes. Whining may have been a
poor choice of words. Still, his
focus when he was at the CBC was
simple, “pass the jobs bill.” He
has challenged Republicans to
respond to the greatest need in our
nation right now, the need to cre-
ate jobs, and he was absolutely
firm in his focus. What is there to
fuss about?
Still, the President’s speech has
been fodder for critics, both on the
left and on the right. Those
accused of “whining” are annoyed
by the perceived condescension on
the part of the President. Those
who think he should never
acknowledge an African American
constituency is also peeved. And
b ENNEtt
C OLLEGE
Julianne
Malveaux
so the legions of lowlifes, also
known as conservative talk show
hosts, are having fun with the
President’s speech. Few have
dealt with the substance.
There is a jobs bill in play and it
that strangles progress? Why is
anybody involved in a picayune
debt that parses every word, and
every inflection, without dealing
with the substance of those words?
President Obama has been stuck
someplace between a rock and a
hard place since his election. He
inherited a broken economy and
had few tools with which to fix it.
He also has a conciliatory
demeanor, which makes him a
poor negotiator when his effort is
to find consensus with those who
have openly promised to oppose
him. Had he been firmer in his
first two years, he might have had
He has challenged Republicans to
respond to the greatest need in our
nation right now, the need to create
jobs, and he was absolutely firm in his
focus. What is there to fuss about?
will cost us nearly $450 billion. It
will put teachers, construction
workers, and others back to work.
It’s a viable plan that doesn’t offer
everything, but it is a step in the
right direction. Can we focus on
the substance, not the rhetoric?
President Obama must be frustrat-
ed, because I surely am. With
Black unemployment inching
toward a third, how can we contin-
ue to afford the political stalemate
Page 4 The Portland and Seattle Skanner September 5, 2011
a different legislative demographic
to deal with in these last two years
of his first term. Now, he faces a
hostile House of Representatives,
some who say their goal is to deny
him a second term, even to the
peril of our nation.
Our President’s difficulties do
not earn him carte blanche from
those who answer to their con-
stituencies – jobless, foreclosed
on, insecure. There must always
be room for principled criticism.
On the other hand, our President’s
challenges should not earn him
this micro-inspection of his every
word, his every nuance. I think
that when President Barack
Obama was at the CBC he was
“home” and he expressed himself
as if he were home – candid, fiery,
frustrated, and focused.
I applaud the President for his
words, and for his presence at the
CBC. At the same time, I stand
with those like Maxine Waters (D-
CA) who want more, faster, and
targeted. Seasoned politicians
understand the space in which our
President operates, and seasoned
politicians understand that while
the Tea Party is pushing hard to
the right, there are those who must
push to the left.
And still, there is a bottom line.
Support this President for all of
what he stands for. Offer princi-
pled criticism for ways he can do
better. The criticism shouldn’t be
about dropping his “g”s” or scold-
ing Black folk. The criticism
ought to be about ideas, proposals,
effort and outcomes.
The flap about President
Obama’s speech is much ado
about nuttin’ (g’s deliberately
dropped). What will we do to help
the jobs bill pass? Right now
that’s the bottom line!
Julianne Malveaux is President
of Bennett College for women in
greensboro, north Carolina.