Whenever there is recession, it hits the people at the bottom of the economic order the hardest. For Black Americans, it has always hit hardest. Perhaps this is the factor that has helped black folks weather the economic storm without resorting to the political unrest that has marked broader middle-class voters. When you have had it rough for a long time, another recession is just par for the course. However, helpless we are not. There are things that can be done to help mitigate the crisis without increasing the deficit or spending a great deal of money. They will require some political courage, however. And that is probably the reason why none of these rather reasonable things will get done.
1. Enforce the anti-discrimination employment laws rigorously.
Buried in the news of the latest unemployment rate dropping to 8.8% was the awful news that the Black unemployment rate rose to 15.5% from 15.3%. It is especially troubling because the vast majority of the new jobs added were in low-skill, low-wage work. It reasons that these jobs would go to those workers who have lower overall skills, and Black Americans have the highest percentages for people who are high-school graduates only. Keep that in mind. Black unemployment is almost DOUBLE that of the general public. If you don'��t think that has much to do with racial discrimination in hiring, you're clueless.
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the EEOC have beefed up since the Obama administration took office, but it seems the volume of cases they are actually able to resolve quickly is not meeting the demand. So, here's one thing Justice could do: Announce a nationwide effort to combat racial discrimination in hiring. Justice could set up a one-stop, easy to use web-site for complaints to be registered. One of the big problems in employment discrimination is that Black people just accept that nothing will be done about it. If something is done, they know it will be years before there is a resolution in court. Who has years to wait around for a complaint to be investigated? At least with a national racial discrimination database easily available online, we could keep track of employers who get the most complaints and at least have the tool of shame at our disposal to possibly goad them into being fair.
With a media blitz, and an announcement that Justice is cracking down on employers who discriminate in hiring because of race, the political firestorm that ensues will be spectacular, of course. The Chamber of Commerce and Republicans will say that there is no discrimination going on at all. That the Black unemployment numbers are just a result of laziness and sloth...etc., etc. It will take a tremendous act of political courage to stand up to it, so don't hold your breath for this to happen.
2. Start banking with minority-owned banks.
There are locally owned Black-owned banks located throughout the country, and they should be the first lender of choice for black-owned businesses and employers. Every year, Black Americans pay billions of dollars in federal taxes. How about parking a large percentage of that money in Black-owned banks? The increased capital reserve that would be caused by parking a bunch of federal transactions in Black banks would substantially increase the amount of business and mortgage lending in local communities. The banks could agree to conduct Treasury's business at cost. I doubt you'��d even need an act of Congress. An administrative directive should do the trick.
Of course, there would be a large hew and cry from the huge megabanks that the federal government does business with now. Once again, it would take even more political courage to stand up to banks than it would standing up to Republicans. So I wouldn'��t expect anything like this to get done anytime soon.
3. Allow poor people to file bankruptcy for free.
One of the big problems we have in minority communities is serious credit problems that result from a lack of education about bankruptcy. But even more is the prohibitive costs. Just filing for bankruptcy costs a few hundred bucks, and that's not even counting the attorney's fees. Many people need the resolution of debts that bankruptcy would bring about. Otherwise, the debts will just linger and destroy the ability to ever recover from a financial hardship. We should just allow poor people to simply file for bankruptcy at no cost, which would help get their books and future direction in order. In return for the no cost, courts could appoint administrators in lieu of judges so as not to clog the courts. These administrators could make things crystal clear in 1-2-3 fashion. This would also have the desirable effect of shielding minorities from predatory lending (like payday loans) for a while, which is a huge sap on Black wealth. Fresh starts are needed all over, but just coming up with the $300 to get started is a challenge.
Of course, the problem with allowing a large group of poor people to get quick and easy bankruptcy protection is that it would wipe out a great deal of financial institution assets. It would also do a great deal of damage to the collection agency industry. As long as your debts are someone else'��s assets, they have every incentive to keep passing your debts along from agency to agency, as we all know they do. So, again, don't expect anything to be done.
4. Advocate union organizing in the private sector.
One of the best things you can have in your pocket if your are Black is a union card. Union membership increases wages, job security, and benefits. You are much less likely to fall into poverty if you are in a union than not. Furthermore, you are far more likely to be treated fairly when it comes to promotions and advancement. One of the big reasons for the Great Migrations was not just to escape Southern racism, but the prospect of union work in the industrial factories of the north. So, even though it would probably cause Republicans to bray like hyenas and foam at the mouth, political leadership should begin to openly advocate that people organize themselves. This costs absolutely nothing, but it would make a huge difference. Private sector unions have been under assault for decades, and this has had the indirect effect of hitting the Black community especially hard.
However, political leaders only need unions around election time. That is, if they are not actively running against them. Convincing our leaders to speak out frequently and forcefully on behalf of union organizing is as much of a challenge as organizing a union in the first place.
5. Spend more on after-school programs.
Do you have any idea how much babysitting costs? Well, if you are an unemployed Black parent looking for work, it is more often than not your entire paycheck. Plenty of people in the community I live in have this problem. If they go to work, there will be nobody to care for the children, and that means paying a babysitter. Decent, regulated babysitting costs the whole paycheck, if not more. So how can such a person possibly go to work? It's impossible. This is the one proposal I would say would could actually campaign for. We need things for children to do so the parents can actually go to work. This is a challenge during good times, but it is especially acute during a recession because when a recession comes on, everyone has less money. If we could have more money into programs that provide supervised activities for children after school, parents could actually make work pay instead of working for nothing.
But naturally, we just don't have the money for things like this. Because you never know when we will need to blow a billion on a war here and there. And we most certainly can't increase taxes to pay for it.
These are not unreasonable things to do. And all of them would go a long way to alleviating the Depression that the Black community is experiencing. But it does take the will to confront the conservatives. And by all indications from our leaders, that just isn't something they are willing to do. So, we'��ll just have to soldier on and hope that one day things will get better. After all, living in America is like playing Two Decades of Dignity: "You don't win, you just do a little better each time."
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