If you watch Fox News, read right-wing blogs, or listen to talk radio, you might believe that the president is looking out for black people at the expense of whites. If that’s the case, he’s not particularly effective:
While unemployment among the general population is about 9.1 percent, it’s at 16.2 percent African Americans, and a bit higher still for African American males.
CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports that, historically, the unemployment rate for African Americans has always been higher than the national average. However, now it’s at Depression-era levels. The most recent figures show African American joblessness at 16.2 percent. For black males, it’s at 17.5 percent; And for black teens, it’s nearly 41 percent.
These are catastrophic numbers, and Washington’s focus on cutting government spending is, if anything, only going to make matters worse, as it will destroy jobs in the short-term in the hope that the economy with be healthier in the long-term.
As a family that just celebrated the high school graduation of a son last Tuesday, this is particularly frightening.
Job counselors say part of the problem is that high schools aren’t teaching marketable skills.
“Unless you have a skill coming out of high school, in this society, in this economy, you will not be able to find a job,” Johns says.
Even so, in this climate, where jobs are scarce, even having a real skill is still no guarantee of a job.
The job market is brutal. Yet, with all the focus on deficits and debt, there’s very little short-term reason for hope.
I hate to beat a dead horse, but the main reason that nothing can be done is that the Republicans are ideologically opposed to government spending to create jobs and have a blind commitment to supply-side trickle-down economics that has been discredited by experience.