Happy MLK Day? Not for unemployed African Americans

Image via Wikipedia

Study finds Black America is in a Depression.

We know that not all groups have experienced the recession equally. Much has been written about the way the recession has disproportionately hurt men and thrust women into the workforce majority. This summer, as it became increasingly clear that men were bearing the brunt of job losses, The Times proclaimed women “victors in ‘mancession’.”

But there’s an equally descriptive and fitting headline about the recession I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen yet: “White people win!”

Perhaps more aptly, blacks and latinos are losing. In 2009, the average national unemployment rate was 8.6 percent. Whites fared better than the average American, with a 7.2 percent unemployment rate. Latinos fared worse: 11.3 percent.

But if anyone is bearing the “brunt” of the recession, it’s black Americans. For all African Americans, the average unemployment rate in 2009 was 13.9 percent, for black men it was 16.3 percent, and approximately one third of black men between the ages of 15 and 24 were unemployed. You might think that a college education would mitigate the effects of race, but this doesn’t appear to be the case: only 4.2 percent of college educated whites are unemployed, while 7.4 percent of college educated African Americans are jobless.

United for a Fair Economy found that although the U.S. has been in a recession for more than a year, people of color have been in a recession for nearly five years, and have entered a depression during the current economic crisis. Considering the figures above, this hardly sounds like an exaggeration.

So if some of America is experiencing a recession, but certain groups are at a crisis point–depresssion–what is the approriate government response? It seems that one thing the government could do is deploy stimulus funding in a way that addresses the uneven effects of the recession.

According to a report by the Kirwan Institute, that’s not happening. In fact, the bulk of the jobs created  by the initial stimulus package go to industries in which African Americans are under‐represented. Approximately $75 billion dollars, for example, has been allocated for construction projects; yet African Americans, who comprise 13 percent of the population, make up only 6 percent of construction workers.

The black job crisis needs to be a national priority for politicians, employers, and the labor movement. The disparities illuminated by the recession are too glaring to ignore.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and many of us are enjoying a day off from work. I’m sure the irony is not lost on those in the black community that don’t have a job to come back to tomorrow.