Unemployment Rate and African Americans

Black unemployment rate is consistently twice that of whites

Unemployment for African Americans is twice the rate for Whites. It has been that way since the 1950's when the Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping track.  According to an article published by Fact Tank (Which is part Pew Research), the statistics are, in part, a result of Last In First Out (LIFO). The current unemployment rate among African Americans is 13.4% as opposed to 6.7% for whites. Couple this with the rate for African American teens at 43% and, you have a grim statistic. At the same time corporate profits are at an all-time high.

Corporate Profits Soar To Record, Now More Than Double Their Peak Under Ronald Reagan
The job creators...as they were called in the last election...are not creating enough jobs despite record profits. And, the jobs they are creating are low wage.

New jobs disproportionately low-pay or part-time

Back in the days when I was a history major (I went on to other things) there were studies about the growing tensions created when the income gap between the top 1% and the other 99% got too wide. The result was turmoil and revolution. So far we've avoided that in this country because of the strength of the middle class.The Progressives from the early 20th century understood this and, did something had to be done to break the corporate stranglehold on American or we would pay the consequences. The middle class is being deeply eroded. Minorities are suffering the most with the highest unemployment rates. 

How long can we continue on our current path? Is congress really going to stand up for us? We elect congress. I think we can do something about this.

Cuts at Head Start

Sequestration is leading to an even wider divide between the 1% and the rest of us. Sequestration means 57,000 children will be cut from the Head Start Program. For those who think we cannot afford Head Start and other social programs consider how much we (Americans) spend on ice cream each year. We spend $10 billion a year according to statistics provided by the International Ice Cream Association.

I'm not saying we need to give up ice cream. I'm saying our priorities need to change if we want to grow as a country. Giving children living in poverty a chance with programs that help them with their education should be at least as important as an ice cream cone. If you're thinking, there's nothing I can do. It's the government. We are the government.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sec-kathleen-sebelius/the-numbers-are-in-seques_b_3780237.html

There's a lot more on the cuts from a posting by Kathleen Sibelius in the Huffington Post. ( link above)

There Are People Who Care
There are organizations trying to help the poor and other groups in the greater Hartford area. Asylum Hill Congregational Church house a neighborhood daycare in its building. Grace Lutheran Church in Hartford offers a free meal to its neighbors Fridays. Grace Lutheran is struggling too. The congregation is small and the church has been running a deficit. Yet, through alliances with groups like Foodshare, the church is feeding neighbors who are struggling with poverty. I work for FOCUS Center for Autism. We serve children on the Autism Spectrum. We depend on funding from State sources as well as grants and individual donations.

In each of these cases these organizations could be doing more. Other organizations could be joining in to lessen the load. The key is resources. There are not enough available to go around.

There would be if more of us would become involved. The cuts to Head Start this year will be $400 million. That works out to about $1.27 per person in this country. The cost of an ice cream cone is about $2.50.

More from FOCUS

Here are more shots from the FOCUS Festival For Autism. I found these while looking for some shots of GoGO Squeeze. No luck with the GoGo Squeeze but, I found these.