The State of Black America: When Will Obama Start Listening to the Urban League?
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
The Urban League recently gathered for its State of Black America Conference to discuss issues and concerns that black Americans face across the United States. The conference is both respected and cherished by a community that continuously seeks those who can righteously advocate for the issues that matter the most to black people. To date, the “Holy Trinity of Black Oppression” remains consistent and clear: Economic inequality, educational inequality and mass incarceration.
The Urban League is correct to cite that black unemployment, at 15.3 percent, remains nearly double the 8.9 percent unemployment rate for white Americans. Additionally, we can see more direct links to unemployment that come from the massive numbers of African Americans who are brought up in inadequate school systems and who are condemned from economic and political participation as a result of a criminal record. The truth is that all of these problems are connected, and failing to address these issues will continue to support the perpetual destruction of the black family in America.
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