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| Romney's Disastrous Prescription for the Black Jobless Crisis |
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| Written by Earl Ofari Hutchinson | |
| Monday, 09 July 2012 | |
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In more than a dozen
major urban areas, nearly one out of four blacks is unemployed. This
continues the trend of the past few months in which the tepid down
tick of the jobless rate among blacks was decisively reversed. The
closest anyone in the Romney camp has come to acknowledging the severity of the
crisis is a terse, vague, and perfunctory statement from a black
Romney campaign advisor. She knocked the Obama administration for
allegedly not "talking about" black unemployment.
Romney will have his
chance to break his silence on the problem when he addresses the
NAACP’s annual conference July 12. If past Romney performance is
any guide, he'll almost certainly make his stock bromide pitch
that he'll grow jobs with massive corporate tax cuts,
sharply paring down regulations on business starting with repeal of the
Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform, and by spurring, private not
government, initiatives. This supposedly will unleash the awesome power of
private industry to create thousands of new jobs that will lift all battered
ships; meaning for him that blacks will be major beneficiaries of this supposed
unfettered free market, private industry job surge.
Conservatives have not
changed this worn script for creating jobs for minorities since Reagan.
The only wrinkle to it has come from black conservatives who delight in
taunting civil rights leaders with the refrain, “what have the Democrats and
Obama done to end black’s economic misery?” Romney’s black advisor repeated
that line in defending Romney’s economic prescription for blacks. This is all,
of course, pure economic mythmaking that ignores too much history.
During the late 1990s
joblessness tumbled to its lowest levels in two decades. Help wanted signs were
everywhere. Deficit spending was not a major administration or Congressional
flashpoint issue since the government had a healthy budget surplus. There was
no wholesale flight of capital to off shore havens, and ballooning trade
deficits. Most important to the joy of conservatives, corporations and medium
sized businesses expanded and created tens of thousands of new jobs. Yet, the
unemployment rate for young black males was double–and just as the latest
jobless figures again shows in the major urban areas–triple that of white
males. Private industry did not wipe out the nagging racial gap in employment.
There’s no evidence that
anything has changed since then, and much evidence that it has worsened. The
major corporations and financial services industry has racked up record
profits, hoarded trillions in cash, and paid relatively low overall taxes. In
many cases, top corporations have paid no domestic corporate taxes. But those
profits have not led to even a trace of the massive job expansion that Romney’s
job prescription promises.
They won’t. And Romney
can’t and won’t even hint at the other causes for the black jobless
crisis. They include major slashes in
state and federal funds for job training and skills programs, the shrinkage in
the number of low and semi-skilled service and retail jobs, and the refusal of
many employers to hire those with criminal records. The high number of
miserably failing inner-city public schools also fuels the unemployment crisis.
They have turned thousands of blacks into educational cripples. These students
are desperately unequipped to handle the rapidly evolving and demanding
technical and professional skills in the public sector and the business world
of the 21st Century. The educational meltdown has seeped into the colleges.
According to an American Council of Education report, in the past decade Latino,
Asian, and black female student enrollment has soared while black male
enrollment has slowed down.
Then there’s
discrimination. The legion of federal and state anti-discrimination laws,
affirmative action programs and successful employment discrimination lawsuits
give the public the impression that job discrimination is a relic of a
shameful, racist past. However, countless studies on employment discrimination
still tell a damning story of subtle and blatant discrimination especially in
management and supervisory hiring and promotions in corporate industry.
The black unemployed like
the poor have no powerful advocacy groups and are mostly nameless and faceless.
They make-up no defined constituency that Romney can court and bank on to vote
for him in any numbers. The NAACP is certainly not the place where he’d find
those votes. His prescription for knocking down black joblessness then is more
than failed and flawed. It’s disastrous, but that’s not what the NAACP and
blacks would ever hear from him.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is
an author and political analyst. He is a frequent political commentator on
MSNBC and a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio
Network. He is the author of How Obama
Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of
New America Media. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK-Radio
and the Pacifica Network.
Follow Earl Ofari
Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson
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Comments
(7)
Steven,
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We are open to a wide range of viewpoints. You are welcome to offer your views for publication, or a comment about any article. Earl Hutchinson is not a staff writer. We occasionally publish an article he submits for consideration. report abuse
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I will look for those different viewpoints, although I haven't fond any as of yet.
Votes: +0
Thanks report abuse
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Why the big focus on what Mitt Romney will or will not do?
Votes: +0
The one incontrovertible fact is that we know what Barack Obama has NOT done. All excuses notwithstanding, unemployment in our community has increased 50%, the administration has spent five trillion dollars just to keep the nation's unemployed at 8.2%, health care costs have risen and are slated to explode along with the largest tax increase in history on January 1, 2013. If Obama was a Republican the Black community would be on the streets in open rebellion. The president of the United States is not the solution to the problems in teh Black community, he just exacerbates them with policies that make us THiNk he is looking out for us but actually do nothing to help us. If our problems are going to be solved, neither Mitt Romney nor Barack Obama will be the one to do it, it will be us. Or it won't get done. report abuse
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Steven,
Votes: +0
You ask why the focus on Mitt Romney. The simple reason is that he is the Republican nominee. Our alternatives for the election in November are Obama or Romney. You have stated that neither Romney or Obama are the answers to the problems in the Black community. What do you mean when you say "it will be us"? Do you have examples to share with our readers about the solutions that you believe will solve our problems? Let us hear from you. So, far you have criticized the author, and dismissed the alternatives that we will all get a chance to vote on. Perhaps there is a better alternative. Let us know if there is something else you want to share. report abuse
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The point of my question was why the focus on Romney, he's not the president, you know, the one who was HIRED to fix these problems? You want MY solutions? First Romney, now me?
Votes: +0
Why are you avoiding talking about the president's plans? And I never criticized the author, nor did I question his alternatives of which I saw none, only criticisms of Romney's PROBABLE solutions for the author's perceived issues. I do make one suggestion: Stop whining about what some politicians will or will not do for us and try to do something for ourselves. What those actions might be would be developed from SERIOUS race neutral, non partisan discussion among ourselves to understand better what our problems are. I see little evidence that we even understand the CAUSES of our problems, let alone solutions for them. I see a lot of ruminating about the SYMPTOMS of our problems, but nothing about the causes. We MIGHT start with having these alleged BUSINESS forums focus a little more on BUSINESS issues instead of social and political issues that we have no chance of dealing with. report abuse
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We are getting off track. We posted this article by Earl Hutchinson because he is a national commentator and offered the article. We are always looking for content, and without endorsing his position, we printed the article. Earl Hutchinson can defend himself and his opinions. You can visit his website at http://thehutchinsonreportnews.com/.
Votes: +0
There are many other opinions on a variety of topics offered in this community. Take a look at our "Blogs" tab. You will see a wide range of input. We would welcome your contributions as well. Here is an article I wrote about Obama. Please take a look and provide your feedback if you choose to do so. http://bit.ly/MakingofaBlackPresident. Thanks for your engagement. All contributions have value. I look forward to your input. report abuse
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GOP presidential
candidate Mitt Romney has managed an incredible feat. In a Google search
of millions of references of his campaign speeches, interviews, and
his writings, I could not find a single word that he has written or spoken
about the greatest economic crisis that faces any of the nation’s
voter constituencies. That's the crisis of black unemployment. The release of
the June Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment figures found that the
chronically high jobless numbers among blacks and the Great
Depression level jobless numbers among young black males jumped even higher.
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Does iZania also have staff writers who might espouse a different political view?
The last thing the Black community needs is to be tied to a particular political philosophy or candidate based on race or ethnic origin unless the customers are spending ethnic money.