If The National Urban League Is Serious About A Fix It Would Transform Its "State Of Black America " Report

From The National Urban League Web Site:

The report coincides with the National Urban League's Centennial initiative, "I AM EMPOWERED," which includes a goal for the nation to achieve access for every American to a quality job with a living wage and good benefits by 2025.

For the first time the State of Black America report, which measures disparities between blacks and whites in areas of economics, education, health, civic engagement and social justice, includes a Hispanic index. While they still lag behind, with an overall Equality Index of 75.5 percent, Hispanics are faring better than blacks, whose overall Equality Index was 71.8 percent.

I have reported previously my issues with indexing White Americans as the perfect "1.0" reference to which Black folks should set our goals.  Beyond this being an ignorant assertion I believe that it feeds into the notion that it is RACISM that defines this gap and that "racism chasing", using the power of government regulation is going to cure these gaps.  I would challenge the NUL to show any evidence that their plans thus far have any hope of achieving full employment and "a living wage" by 2025 or even 2100.  This is not me standing as a "hater".  Instead it is me showing resolve that I will no longer be lead down a path without the "earnest money" called a "reasonable framework for ever attaining the goals that are posted".

The "industry index" is a common tool for one competitor to see where they stand as compared to others.  We see this in the fast food industry between McDonalds, Wendy's and Burger King.  We see this in the telecomm space as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile all list their subscriber numbers, consumer index and wireless coverage maps.   I do agree that these corporations are ultimately a group of human beings who have assembled together to accomplish a common goal, leveraging the resources that they have control over and managing toward a certain outcome.  If only the NUL chose to consider the "propulsion" by which these corporations obtain their goals and worked on mapping out a definitive set of steps that Black people should take as a means of achieving these goals.  

Instead I see an approach that is far too "government centric" based on the assumption that these numbers point to the fact that Black people have not received our "fair share" and thus there are discrepancies.  In the mind of those who are driving this is the assumption that resources are distributed among the masses more equally per the intervention of government.  They too often fail to acknowledge that certain imbalances are maintained due to flawed assumptions regarding how wealth and/or "standards of living" are created and maintained.  Even worse is the knowledge of how much Black people are willing to yield our power and freedom over to the government for want of  results that are "more equal".

RE-ENGINEERING THE "STATE OF BLACK AMERICA" FRAMEWORK

The thought that a measure of the aggregate status of White Americans provides instruction that Black people can use for our own progression is preposterous.   White people, like most others, have a wide variety of education levels, income levels and health outcomes.  I see little in this report that the Black American community can latch on to as a prescription for our own development.  I strongly suspect that this report is not written for Black Americans to read.  Instead the audience is the array of government officials and policy makers who will be expected to sculpt the conditions by which these outcomes are achieved.

The call for "full employment" and "living wage" is a decades-long day dream without a better understanding of what drives a good paying job.  Typically unique skills that have a high market demand is the model.  I strongly suspect that the NUL plans to achieve their ends by creating a "labor monopoly" which can demand these wages.  At present there is an anemic set of "consumers of labor" in the places of most concern.  Thus this "stretch goal" simply has no chance of succeeding.  If they were to succeed using their course of action the remedy will be worse than the cure.

I propose to the National Urban League that they radically reorient their framework so that the measures are more meaningful and the prescription provides more guidance regarding what our people need to do on a daily basis to come closer to a more qualified reference standard.

Purge the racial stratification because it does not lend itself to actionable items.  Replace it with a far more functional structure as follows:

• Black Communities that are a "1.0" reference 
• Black Communities that are short of the "1.0" reference

A community is not necessarily a physical neighborhood.  It is nothing more than a collection of people that have some common tie that binds them.  Certainly the community of "Black Small Business Owners" have certain attributes that are more favorable to this target than does a group with a different employment profile.  We would expect the business owners to have a more significant impact upon the economic standing of the Black community per their ability to provide services to consumers, employ people and take advantage of certain tax advantages that come from business ownership.

The basic point is that the Black community's challenges will not be "resolved" only "managed". There are specific actions that we can point to which assist in managing toward the desired results on a continuing basis.  With this plan our people's own repetitive actions contribute to the desired outcomes. More importantly the leadership to whom we yield a measure of our own interest to for the sake of the common interests will be pressed upon to make decisions that drive toward these ends.  With the present orientation of the NUL report the claim of racism as the cause of the gap promotes "racism chasing" as the remedy. 

Furthermore all well managed communities have a fairly common list of "professional service" positions that can be identified which provide the pillars of their community's living standard and the forum within which they operate:

• Physicians and the Hospitals/Clinics that they work in
• Dietary Specialists/ Personal Trainers and the Grocery Stores and Gyms that they provide guidance in
• Financial Planners/ Tax Specialists and the Offices that they work in
• Landscapers/ Brick Masons / Painters who work upon our houses and common areas

In summary - the proposed change in the NUL report alters the focus of our ascension upon the backs of the Black community, our leadership and our efforts.  It is a far more empowering strategy than the present order. 

The cost of the failure to identify a key component in our standard of living and adequately address it shows up as a gap in the index between the communities that address these points and those who don't.   With each annual report from the NUL - those communities that did not render the desired results are motivated to seek out that which worked more effectively and implement it in their domain.

This is what I see businesses doing as they scour through their respective "Industry Index".