Epicenters Of Black Unemployment - The Places Where The Political Victory Has Been Won

Black, Urban Neighborhoods are Unemployment’s Epicenter

Black Unemployment Tops 35%

I must make special mention that the first link above is not from some "right-wing" news source.  Instead it comes from "In These Times" - a news syndication source that has been leveraged frequently by many of my progressive debate adversaries over the years to make mention of the hard times faced by Black folks by "this administration" - the administration that was present at the time.

The key point is that this is not "my voice" speaking about the problems.  This is "your voice".  I am simply a collection agent that is keeping your grievances front and center so that we don't get any diversion or obfuscation upon other more popular forces that prove to be more popular in their unifying effect.

What Have You Been Doing?

I argue that while indeed America has national forces that shape our economy (ie: financial policy and banking regulation) the fact remains that we are a nation of "local economies".  While today's financial tide has it where most are experiencing a bit of erosion - the fact is that many places are doing quite well while there is tremendous bleeding in others. 

The key difference, in my view, is that those who have defined the key local economic interests and their boundaries and then worked to build them up with sound policies and management practices within are weathering this time far better than others that have been guilty of unjustified speculation, spending excesses and punitive regulation & taxation.  

A 35% unemployment rate indicates:

• Insufficient job opportunities having been incubated over the years locally
• Often, a body of individuals who's training, skills and work experience is out of alignment with the present set of job opportunities that are left begging (nursing, computer engineers)
• A set of political and economic policies that have been suppressive of economic investment by "consumers of labor"
• A large portion of the community who aren't given the opportunity to trade their potential labor for monetary resources upon which their families benefit
  

What are the chances that this 35%  rate which is far in excess of the national average gets used to trigger agreement that NEW POLICIES are needed to change this?

The answer is affirmative only if two points of acknowledgement are present:

• That the people who represent this 35% OWN this problem because they are burdened with it
• That "Being Left All Alone With Your Policies Staring You In The Face" has less to do with the "racism of benign neglect" and more to do with the fortitude of these same policies to produce organic results when as the prevailing order in a given area

There is a distinct difference between "burdened with" and "the cause of".  Too often the preference is to chase after the latter.   Even a disproportionately small countervailing force from a long time adversary is enough to cause those who are more comfortable with "struggling against" than they are managing internal resources to produce "directed outcomes".

If in fact the reason for the gap is "racism" then the question must be asked - "With favorable forces in control over the key institutions that provide civic services to your people WHY were you still left vulnerable to external racism"?

The claim made about Milwaukee Wisconsin is that the Black citizens that remain in the city core experience RACISM when they exit their own community and head to the suburbs to find a job.  This indeed might be so.  The question that is rarely asked, however, is - "Since a city originally obtained its charter from the state because it had some measure of economic self-sufficiency why is it that these citizens are forced in such abundance to exit the boundaries of this self-contained entity to pursue their employment?  What about the favorable political and economic policies within Milwaukee (and other cities) are failing to attract "consumers of labor"?