I want to point out that this article is specifically about African
Americans. It is saying that their situation is worse than that of other
Americans. The statistics relate specifically to black people, not to other
working people.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2016 12:06 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Life Materially Worse for Black People 53
Years Since King's 'Dream'
How many ways do we have to say the American Corporate Empire is failing to
serve the Working Class? Not only are Black Americans being oppressed and
thus, removed from full citizenship, but All Working Class Americans are
being denied access to the very laws governing this nation.
We may want to stop Donald Trump from entering the White House, but will
Hillary Clinton really lose her Spots and become the Champion of the Working
Class?
When Pigs Fly!
Carl Jarvis
On 8/30/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
the U.S.
Excerpt: "In the 19,359 days since Martin Luther King Jr. delivered
perhaps his most praised address - a sort of christening of a new and
better Republic - a case can be made that the material conditions of
African Americans has actually worsened, not improved."
Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd from the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial where he delivered his famous, 'I Have a Dream,' speech
during the Aug. 28, 1963, march on Washington, D.C. (photo: Reuters)
Life Materially Worse for Black People 53 Years Since King's 'Dream'
By teleSUR
29 August 16
By most measures, Black living conditions have declined since Martin
Luther King Jr. delivered the keynote address at March on Washington
53 years ago today.
First, the day: It was an unseasonably pleasant summer day 53 years
ago today when nearly 250,000 people assembled peacefully and
purposefully on the National Mall for the March on Washington D.C.
Accounts describe an almost cloudless sky, bluer than reality, the air
unseasonably dry, with the mercury hovering in the mid 70s for most of
the day. And the mood, famously, was electric, crackling with energy,
pregnant with triumph, as though the park were a leviathan, roofless
church.
But then there is this: In the 19,359 days since Martin Luther King Jr.
delivered perhaps his most praised address-a sort of christening of a
new and better Republic-a case can be made that the material
conditions of African Americans has actually worsened, not improved.
When King stepped to the dais, the incarceration rate in the U.S. was
roughly identical to Germany and Finland's, as Michelle Alexander
notes in her bestselling book, The New Jim Crow. In the intervening years,
has quadrupled its prison population, Finland has cut itss/Life-Materially-Worse-for-Blacks-53-Years-Since-Kings-Dream-20160828-0007.
incarceration rate by more than half, and Germany's has remained
stable. Drug offenses account for virtually the entire explosion in
the U.S. prison population, and Blacks, in turn, represent nearly
three-quarters of offenders sentenced to jail for drug offenses,
despite representing only 13 percent of the population and the same
percentage of the nation's drug users.
And blacks have fallen much farther behind whites since 1963.
According to the Urban Institute, average white family wealth in 1963
exceeded that of African-American families by about $117,000 in 1963.
By 2013, the average wealth of white families exceeded Black families
by $500,000, when adjusted for inflation.
Another reason why African-Americans have less wealth than whites is debt.
With good-paying manufacturing jobs drying up, especially since
Congress passed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993,
Blacks have redoubled their efforts to improve their earning power,
but mostly what they have to show for it is merely debt. Forty-two
percent of African-American Americans between the ages of 25 and 55
had student loan debt in 2013, compared to 28 percent of whites. The
figure was negligible for both in
1963
which was two years before the federal government began its program of
federally-guaranteed educational loans.
This dispossession, and the loss of decent work for men especially has
fundamentally restructured the Black family, making marriage almost
obsolete. This has a compounding effect because research shows that
marriage almost erases racial disparities in income and health.
In 1950, 17 percent of African-American children lived in a home with
their mother but not their father. By 2010 that had increased to 50
percent. In 1965, only eight percent of childbirths in the Black
community occurred out-of-wedlock. In 2010 that figure was 41 percent;
and today, the out-of-wedlock childbirth in the Black community sits
at an astonishing 72 percent. The number of African-American women
married and living with their spouse was recorded as 53 percent in
1950. By 2010, it had dropped to 25 percent.
And to dismiss the trope that these figures on family formation merely
reflect Black male irresponsibility, a 2007 study by a Boston
University researcher found that Black men who did not live with their
families make more of an effort to spend time with their children than
any other racial or ethnic group.
Reflecting on the 50 year anniversary three years ago, one of King's
top lieutenants, the Rev. Joseph Lowery stood on the same marble steps
of the Lincoln Memorial and summed up the last half century thusly:
"Everything has changed," he said succinctly, "and nothing has changed."
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not
valid.
Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd from the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial where he delivered his famous, 'I Have a Dream,' speech
during the Aug. 28, 1963, march on Washington, D.C. (photo: Reuters)
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Life-Materially-Worse-for-Blacks
-53-Ye
ars-Since-Kings-Dream-20160828-0007.htmlhttp://www.telesurtv.net/engli
sh/new
htmlthe U.S.
Life Materially Worse for Black People 53 Years Since King's 'Dream'
By teleSUR
29 August 16
By most measures, Black living conditions have declined since Martin
Luther King Jr. delivered the keynote address at March on Washington
53 years ago today.
irst, the day: It was an unseasonably pleasant summer day 53 years
ago today when nearly 250,000 people assembled peacefully and
purposefully on the National Mall for the March on Washington D.C.
Accounts describe an almost cloudless sky, bluer than reality, the air
unseasonably dry, with the mercury hovering in the mid 70s for most of
the day. And the mood, famously, was electric, crackling with energy,
pregnant with triumph, as though the park were a leviathan, roofless
church.
But then there is this: In the 19,359 days since Martin Luther King Jr.
delivered perhaps his most praised address-a sort of christening of a
new and better Republic-a case can be made that the material
conditions of African Americans has actually worsened, not improved.
When King stepped to the dais, the incarceration rate in the U.S. was
roughly identical to Germany and Finland's, as Michelle Alexander
notes in her bestselling book, The New Jim Crow. In the intervening years,
has quadrupled its prison population, Finland has cut its
incarceration rate by more than half, and Germany's has remained
stable. Drug offenses account for virtually the entire explosion in
the U.S. prison population, and Blacks, in turn, represent nearly
three-quarters of offenders sentenced to jail for drug offenses,
despite representing only 13 percent of the population and the same
percentage of the nation's drug users.
And blacks have fallen much farther behind whites since 1963.
According to the Urban Institute, average white family wealth in 1963
exceeded that of African-American families by about $117,000 in 1963.
By 2013, the average wealth of white families exceeded Black families
by $500,000, when adjusted for inflation.
Another reason why African-Americans have less wealth than whites is debt.
With good-paying manufacturing jobs drying up, especially since
Congress passed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993,
Blacks have redoubled their efforts to improve their earning power,
but mostly what they have to show for it is merely debt. Forty-two
percent of African-American Americans between the ages of 25 and 55
had student loan debt in 2013, compared to 28 percent of whites. The
figure was negligible for both in
1963
which was two years before the federal government began its program of
federally-guaranteed educational loans.
This dispossession, and the loss of decent work for men especially has
fundamentally restructured the Black family, making marriage almost
obsolete. This has a compounding effect because research shows that
marriage almost erases racial disparities in income and health.
In 1950, 17 percent of African-American children lived in a home with
their mother but not their father. By 2010 that had increased to 50
percent. In 1965, only eight percent of childbirths in the Black
community occurred out-of-wedlock. In 2010 that figure was 41 percent;
and today, the out-of-wedlock childbirth in the Black community sits
at an astonishing 72 percent. The number of African-American women
married and living with their spouse was recorded as 53 percent in
1950. By 2010, it had dropped to 25 percent.
And to dismiss the trope that these figures on family formation merely
reflect Black male irresponsibility, a 2007 study by a Boston
University researcher found that Black men who did not live with their
families make more of an effort to spend time with their children than
any other racial or ethnic group.
Reflecting on the 50 year anniversary three years ago, one of King's
top lieutenants, the Rev. Joseph Lowery stood on the same marble steps
of the Lincoln Memorial and summed up the last half century thusly:
"Everything has changed," he said succinctly, "and nothing has changed."
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