(ThyBlackMan.com) One of the truisms I have come to respect is this one: “You cannot effect change without putting some skin in the game.” Blacks are hurting as a race of people. There are the one per cent like, Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce, Jay Z, President Obama, Al Sharpton and others such as professional athletes, who are doing just great, but those at the other end of the spectrum are seriously hurting. Five years of double digit unemployment is taking its toll on the black race in this country. It has literally taken us back to our economic status of 50 years ago! The unemployment rate in 1963 for blacks was 10.9% according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). We are currently worst off, as the black unemployment rate today stands at 12.6%. Black people are deep in debt, with credit ratings in ruin for those affected by the economic downturn. For the most part many blacks go to work, come home, and pay bills, go to work, come home, and pay bills!
For many, there is very little money left for serious recreational activities. More over there are those blacks who are not working at all, or if they are working, it is at jobs that do not offer forty hours and no health insurance coverage. Many blacks, in these hard times, are also working at jobs where they cannot afford to be sick. These are the jobs that do not compensate workers if they have to take a day off because of sickness. Some are
“borrowing money” from relatives and friends whom they can’t pay back. To tell the truth, many blacks hate to see some out of work or under-employed blacks coming or get a phone call from them, because these brothers and sisters have been on hard times for such a long time. They know once the pleasantries of a phone call or visit are out of the way, the squeeze for more cash comes next. Yes, brothers and sisters, as if I’m telling you something you don’t already know, many black people are hurting!
As if the current economic situation is not bad enough, blacks are enduring an out of control federal government that is ready and willing to add to their pain and misery by making their economic situation even worst. The African American president put in office with over 90% black support, along with the Congressional Black Caucus, who is suppose to represent black interest are championing comprehensive immigration reform. This will free 11-12 million undocumented workers to compete with unemployed blacks for the limited pool of jobs in this currently depressed labor market. What responsible government leadership allows 11 million plus new workers to enter a labor pool that is already suffering from over capacity, (11 million Americans are currently unemployed) without a national job creation plan?
I will tell you who… the political leadership blacks voted into office! On average, our economy has created over the last six months 195,000 new jobs on a monthly basis. Most of these new job are in the service industry where wages are not very high and do not equal the higher paying jobs in income which were lost in the 2008 downturn. However, there are not even enough of these lower paying jobs to go around. This economy needs to create 250,000 to 300,000 jobs monthly to be called robust. Additionally, in some cities, crime is a problem. Many black children are being murdered, due to black on black crime while others are breaking into their neighbors’ houses. Why is all this going on? Black people are in this fix because for the most part blacks do not take ownership when it comes to their economic woes. Blacks have to come to the conclusion that they are either a part of this country or not. If you are black and consider yourself a part of this country, then you should take action to resolve your dilemma.
Instead of being affected by change, black people have the God given capacity to effect change. It is time for black people to stop blaming their elected leaders for not living up to the promises they make in their appeal to get votes. (Come on now, how many of you really expected those promises to materialize into something credible?… Oh, you did)! This resolves nothing, as blaming politicians, based on the statistics quoted above, has produced nothing in the way of economic mobility. After not living up to their deceitful promises, black people are still left with the highest unemployment rate of any working group and are still losing their homes to foreclosures.
What is the answer you ask? It’s the answer Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, H. Rap Brown, and Stokley Carmichael gave us 50 years ago. Frederick Douglas however puts it more succinctly in these words, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” What does making a demand call for; it calls for black people, including you if you are black, to finally put “some skin in the game.” It requires championing a solution to black unemployment. Demands are meaningless and empty unless you stand behind them. We, if you did not notice, live in a demanding world. Even the Lord Savior Jesus Christ demands our obedience in order to go to heaven!
Therefore what makes the average black person think even for a second, he or she is going to be put in a position of some prosperity by the majority population in this country without making a demand. After making the demand, blacks have to reach down into their pockets to put their money behind those demands if they are to be perceived as being credible. These demands, which are not uncommon to the majority population’s demands are to work, create jobs and own businesses (https://thyblackman.com/2013/08/15/40000-00-to-each-black-person-retirement-is-the-answer/). They can be transformed into government policy. Exercising power as a group gives all of us the ability to align ourselves behind ideas which propel us forward.
People who do not organize themselves behind solutions have no chance of success as currently demonstrated by the five years of double digit black unemployment soon to become six years. Join the campaign to challenge this system with a credible and doable economic solution to our economic woes. Donate to the billboard campaign (http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/491214/wdgi/4313400) to bring this solution out of obscurity. Mr. Calvin. T. Adams |||, the founder and publisher of this site did! What about you?
Staff Writer; James Davis
More information about JD and his Deficit Neutral Stimulus Plan Can be founded at http://www.sslumpsum.com.
One may also pick up this “brother” latest book which is entitled; Hey…God’s Talking To You The Study Book.
