The State Of "Black Labor 2010" Part I

Associated Press story about the August 2010 employment report:

When the unemployment rate rose last month, the pain wasn't spread evenly.
There is always statistical noise in month-to-month changes in the labor market, but some patterns are clear. Black workers still have a far higher unemployment rate than other groups measured by the Labor Department. And the gap appears to be widening. In August it hit 16.3 percent after being 15.6 in July.
For whites, the unemployment rate was 8.7 percent in August, up from 8.6 percent.
It's unclear if the bigger jump in unemployment for black workers is a short-term fluke, said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. The timing seems to correlate with the end of temporary census jobs, which might have gone disproportionately to black workers.
These and other details can be found in the government's latest jobs report.

If you read the sources that are more left-of-center than I am you will see them celebrate the victories of organized labor of the past and then prepare for activism in the future in which they protest to demand jobs for people.

The difference between my consciousness on the matter and theirs is enormous.  Fundamentally a job is the purchase of mental talent or physical labor for the completion of a task that someone sees value in and is willing to pay for.  The difference between right and left - in my observation - has to do with one's willingness to abstract away from this core truth and instead insert more societal notions of "social justice" (ie: the right to a job as provided by society).  In doing so the use of redistributive policies as a means of accomplishing what appears to be a "humanitarian end" is justified.

At the present time we see the flaws in this assumption.  The market demand that triggers labor demand is soft as people are more cautious with their money and credit is scarce.  In response the government is attempting to be the "venture capitalist" - injecting money into the economy to stimulate activity as entities chance after these funds.  The key difference between the financial market funding and that of government is that the government funds are debt money sold as bonds and the interest payments are drawn from future federal budgets until paid off.  The "investment" must not only pay to keep people employed (and thus allow us to maintain our present standard of living) it must also boost production enough to pay these new interest payments and ideally one day pay off this new debt money.  Unfortunately we have lost sight of this vision and are presently only focused on retaining a standard of living that our production does not support.

By loading up the federal government with more of a burden that is not supported by the underlying productivity and by adding more entitlements in the name of "social justice", ironically the same "Too Big To Fail" situation is put upon a central source with more fatal consequences as they are now your central source for the entitlement that allow you as an individual to live.

In this post I hope to focus upon the underlying problems within the Black community that has an unacceptably high number of our people "un-deployed" and thus turning to the political process to address what should be handled by a more coherent strategy and more effective resource planning and management.
My journey today to the local farmers market provides an excellent snap shot of the condition of "Black labor" and evidence of those who have executed a far more effective plan.

Super H-Mart - Riverdale Georgia - Emblematic Of The Problem

This is a picture of "Super H-Mart" in Riverdale Georgia (Clayton County).  In this picture 100% of the checkout staff are of Asian descent.

Of the consumers 90% of them (INCLUDING ME!!) are Black American.

Let me be 100% - I hold nothing against these people.  I applaud them on their economic wisdom and how they leverage their economic force that had them open up this independent farmer's market / grocery store franchise in one location and use the proceeds to open up a second.  According to their web site they now have 5 locations in Metro Atlanta and several locations in other states.

The key point that must be made about their recent expansion into the Atlanta market is that while the "White" high end markets that came with great fanfare are now closed (Brunos, Fresh Express), these South Koreans have maintained fully stocked stores that are packed with shoppers, regardless of the economic conditions in this country.  I am forced to give credit where credit is due.

At the same time there is nothing magical about what they are doing.  It is merely MANAGEMENT of the resources at their disposal and consciousness about the communities that are demanding the presence of abundant produce, fresh fish and an array of international foods.

The owners of Super H-Mart are staffing their stores with Asians at he checkout counters and Hispanic men (Central American) and Asian Females at the fish counter.

Again - this is not my call to file an EEOC complaint against this company (note: they have had a few Black workers over time).  Instead this is a call for greater consciousness and "directed purpose" for those communities that are constantly aggrieved.







Riverdale Georgia's Demand For Fresh Fish & Produce.......Just Like The "White Folks" In Fayette and Henry Counties

I am presently editing down the video that was presented on TVOne yesterday.  It showed the "Black Agenda Planning Session" that was held during the "National Action Network" convention held earlier this year.   In this session - and I am not going to go to deep into it here - we heard the present "Community Activist" leaders that are strongly influencing that which is called "The Black Agenda" at present - communicating what their next set of actions will be.  A lot of the rhetoric focused upon "collective economics" where Black banks will receive our money and Black owned businesses will receive the proceeds of this.   I am not confident that this "insider trading" will result in much.  If these same people have no intention of rendering "punishment" for the results that have been engendered from the last interval - I strongly doubt that they will enforce any punitive consequences for his next interval that they have taken the lead in occupying the void that is present within our community.  This goes against their actions with respect to national politics when their ideological adversaries are put on trial at the voting both.

I have repeated the legacy of the building that now houses Super H-Mart in Riverdale.  It bears repeating in the context of this day - Labor Day 2010.

As  Riverdale Georgia transitioned into a majority Black community several vocal community activists made note of the lack of quality grocery stores in the city.  They were required to drive southward into Fayette County or some distance over toward Southlake mall in order to have access to quality meats, fresh produce and fish.

As a result of the lobbying effort form local politicians - the delegation of Clayton County, by then having switched from White Democrats over to Black Democrats - a new building was constructed in a plot of land that housed pine trees.   In the series of approximately 12 years the following entities came and went:

• Cub Foods
• Winn Dixie
• Food Fresh (don't quote me on the name)

After another round of grievances after the closing of the store the last time - an entity named "Super H-Mart" began a major remodeling effort for the building.

Super H-Mart opened to great fanfare.  Finally Riverdale GA was to receive a first class facility with an expansive fresh produce section, a wide variety of fresh fish and an overwhelming selection of international ingredients that would attract immigrants living in the area as they recreated dishes familiar back at home.

When I reported on Super H-Mart I spoke of the obvious:

• Black Consumer Demand (and Activism)
• Asian Capital that opened the facility
• Asian and Hispanic Jobs created