How to Fix the African-American Community
Education, Religous Values, and Respect for Human Life are a Must
Oct 29, 2009
The current economic downturn has been difficult for most people in America, but one segment of the U.S. population where the decline has been disproportionate in its affect, has occurred in the African-American community. According to current Bureau of labor Statistics numbers, black unemployment nationwide has risen to 15% or higher since the recession began in December of 2007.
And as unemployment and job losses have continued to grow the number of underemployed African-American workers would add another 15% to the already dismal numbers for a record 30%, numbers not seen in this country since the Great Depression. Some minority communities in Chicago and Detroit are dealing with unemployment and underemployment rates as high as 60% and the people in these communities are wondering what if anything they can do?
A Renewed Emphasis on Education is Key
Perhaps one of the most important ways the African-American community will be able to find its way out of a collective conundrum will be to again place a meaningful emphasis on education and training of youth. According to a recent study In the state of Washington, entitled, A Strategic Action Plan for the Education of African-American Students, "African-American children, for the most part are the proxy for what ails American education in general. As we fashion solutions that help African-American children we fashion solutions that will help all children." The study explains how an increased emphasis on high academic standards and achievement has led to the greater awareness of discrepancies that exist in student advancement state and nation-wide.
According to noted scholar and school researcher Ronald E. Edmunds, "Schools teach those they think they must and when they think they needn't, they don't. Consequently, according to the state of Washington study, "we must insure that our children receive culturally relevant instruction and the necessary resources to achieve at high levels."
A Renewed Emphasis on Training
Individual and societal investments will also need to be made in order to retrain both skilled and unskilled African-American labor make the transition into areas of the emerging and traditionally stable U.S. economy. Those emerging sectors include green technology, clean energy and nanotechnology. Or in areas that over the course of time have remained relatively stable like information technology or health care.
According to recent Department of Labor statistics, proficiency in these areas can perhaps become a driving economic force with significant enough numbers. Somewhat like the economic impact of the Great Northern Migration between 1910 to 1930 where over 1 million African-Americans left the south for greater opportunities in the north. Or, the Second Great Migration between 1940 and 1970, where nearly 5 million African-Americans and other minorities went mostly to California due to the boom in construction, car manufacturing and defense industry jobs.
A Renewed Implementation of Christian Principles
One need only look at the founding documents of the United States for conformation that Christian principles are and have been at the very core of what it has meant to be an American. The rule of law, a sense of fair play, and freedom to worship God is set out in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Each has been essential for the stable and sustained growth of the African-American community in particular and the U.S on whole.
However as many in the African-American community have grown and prospered, the idea of treating your neighbor as you would yourself has been lost. The recent killing of Chicago high school honor student Derrion Albert, is an example of this. The idea that some of the best and brightest in a struggling minority community would be senselessly killed is appalling enough. But, when that is coupled with the fact that some of the most affluent and influential African-Americans in the entire country live in that town, it makes it even worse. And when it is the hearts, commitment, spirit and educated minds of victims like Derrion Albert that are actually needed the most, in order to facilitate the kind of changes and outcomes that are desired. Then this is perhaps another definition of the term insanity. Especially if the ultimate goal is to turn around the very neighborhoods and the people in them that are themselves being lost.
A Healthy Respect for Human Life
It also seems the gift of life has not really been as valued in some minority communities as it has been in the past. As evidence of this fact, 34 students who were studying in Chicago high schools were killed last year and another 300 were wounded in gang or other unrelated violence, according to an ABC News report. And this violence seemingly without an end is not just in Chicago, but in cities both large and small all over the country.
Detroit is another example of a city that has record unemployment and violence involving young people that could be considered out of control. At its zenith, Detroit was the "Motor City." The car capital of the world, where Chrysler, Ford and mostly General Motors (GM) had the jobs which attracted people and supported economic stability and viability not just in Detroit, but around the nation.
It was once opined by economic observers over the last 50 years, "that what was good for GM was good for America." But, with GM just recently emerging from bankruptcy and the morality and economic viability of large segments of the African-American community in crisis and perpetually struggling. Perhaps what should be proposed now, is that what is good for minority communities in this country is what is good for America.
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