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From The Grio - The United Nations may consider investigating whether the persistently high unemployment rate among African Americans is a violation of human rights. A group of employment advocates, including the National Employment Law Project and the New York Urban Justice Center, contend that the overrepresentation of African Americans among those who are unemployed and living in poverty is a human rights violation. Indeed, African American unemployment is currently at 16.5 percent, nearly twice the national average of 9.7 percent. For African American males age 20 and over, the unemployment rate is 19 percent, nearly twice the national average. For African American women, the rate is twice that of their white counterparts, and among African American teenagers, the unemployment rate looms at 41 percent. The visible successes of a relative few African Americans can mask the widespread structural inequality facing many of our communities. Research by Algernon Austin at the Economic Policy Institute has demonstrated the consistently high rates of under- and unemployment among African Americans as evidence of a "permanent recession." This is true, he argues, when the economy is strong. So, when the rest of the nation is experiencing a recession, what are African Americans experiencing? That's right, a depression.
(Do you agree? Should this be looked into by the UN? Read on @ The Grio)
Comments: (24)
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By: jamarcus on 5/04/2010 10:01AM
This is not a human rights issue. To lower the unemployment rate, we as African Americans have to emphasize to our young people to graduate high school, marry before having children, quit wasting time with trying to be rap artists or athletes, get useful majors that are employable like nursing, engineering, plumbing, electrician, etc.
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By: Vickiss on 5/04/2010 11:20AM
So that would explain high unemployment of black people in the UK, AU, and the rest of the planet? Whether they are carribean, African, dark indian, etc. - the pattern is still there, and it's a large gap.
Can we finally just admit what is really going on all over the word?
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By: saesme on 5/05/2010 11:50AM
@Jamarcus
I agree with you.... and would like to add that Black joblessness and hopelessnes is far deeper than many black people want to believe or have any serious dialog about.
Booker T.Washinton had the best solutions with the most progressive advances for the BM ... more than any other organization that "supposedly" represents him today.
Mr. Wasington saw black joblessnes like this:
"Ingnorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state Legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that the political convention of stump speaking had more attractions than starting a farm or truck garden."
Black people put far too much attention on the political rather than the rehabiltion of the black man.
The BM has been taught to depend on the Government and the Peninal System to keep him and feed him.
The BM has been taught that hard work and general labor is for others(Mexicans)and not him.
The Democratic Party needs for black people to stay dependent and poor and relying on them. Even the Civil Rights leaders who feeds off black ingornance cannot survive if the BM suddenly got some fortitude..... Cast DOWN Your Bucket, BM
Religion and Faith in the BM's life needs to be examined and explained. The Curses of Deuteronomy 28:16-68 and Genesis 9:24-27 are his to bear too. Whether the BM accepts or believes it... this is his heritage.
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By: LJ on 5/04/2010 7:59PM
Wake is dude! your asleep. Its been a continued human rights violation since they gave our ancestors 40 acres and a mule then turned around and took it back because they could not pay taxes on it
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By: justmythoughts on 5/04/2010 11:47PM
I couldn't agree more. great comment
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By: Cookie on 5/04/2010 10:24AM
It is definitely more often than we realize, a human rights issue,...I hold an Associate degree and on my last job orientation the new hires were talking and we asked each other where each were from and nobody was from the nearby all black city which has been projected by the media to be a lost cause. I said I was from a nearby suburb and used my sister's address and "ta, da", I finally got hired someplace. Why were are the other blacks (4 out of 9) from only the suburbs? These days if you put your address on your envelope or resume they can SEE your HOUSE on Google Earth or Windows Virtual Earth-Live Streets with a close-up Birdseye and panoramic view of your neighborhood, our nearby suburbs are clean, patterned, brick ranch-style neighborhoods with newly planted trees in a neat row, meticulous lawns, and no one walks since everyone drives and etc. So YES it's definitely a race, human rights, and geographic discrimination issue going on. I was well-qualified while before I used my sister's address, but nobody interviewed me. Then I had to have a special calendar to keep up with all the responses for interviews. What's up with that?
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By: M. Alexander on 5/04/2010 10:45AM
I agree with your statement ! With the advent of technology, potential employers can now do background checks, credit checks, and criminal checks as well as red flag certain streets, addresses and zip codes to weed out Blacks and others and we haven't a clue this kind of crap is going on !
It's more prevalent than one may think !
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By: Cookie on 5/04/2010 10:29AM
If it's not a human rights issue, why is it that everyone hired with me who was Afr-American (4 out of 9 people) were all from nearby small suburbs and none from the nextdoor all black large urban city? Why did I have to use my sister's suburban address to finally get numerous calls for an interview? THey can see your house if you print your address on your resume or envelope on your application through Google Earth or Virtual Earth's birdseye view and see a close-up of the neighborhood. There's still alot of qualified blacks here in the inner-predominantly black city that gets alot of bad-publicity and the good and good citizens here get absolutely zero publicity.
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By: Vickiss on 5/04/2010 10:55AM
You are correct Cookie. And it happens because we live in a system of racism , and a lot of people are in heavy heavy heavy denial about it. It is what leads to high unemployment rates among non white groups. We have to look at the people who are doing the hiring, because that's where the problem lies.
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By: M. Alexander on 5/04/2010 10:40AM
Lets be real honest here, racism plays as much a part in Blacks not being employed as anything else and now that background, credit and criminal checks are the norm of the 21st century in the hiring process, many Blacks, especially Black males, are now being discriminated against in a whole new way that no one seen coming a few years ago.
Where I live, unemployment rate for Black males is 4 times that of their White counterparts so something is terribly wrong with that picture !
How the heck can we only make up 14% of the American population yet we probably make up 80% plus of the prison population for Black males and we have the highest unemployment rate as well !
This is no accident ! It's systematic and it needs to be addressed !
Education is the key but there's Blacks who have education who still can't crack the "good ol boy" network !
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