FORUM
THE STATE OF BLACK AMERICA: JOBS
Economic devastation in XJ .S. is
still real for Blacks and Latinos
'The hardest work in the world is being out of work.'
- Whitney M. Young, National Urban League President 1961-1971
Marc
Moriai
Guest
Columnist
One of
the advan
tages of my
position as
the president
and CEO of
the National
Urban
? Leamie. is
that I have both the opportunity and plat
form to speak to so many of our nation's
young people.
I was presented with another opportu
nity recently as a featured speaker of the
Medgar Evers College Global Lecture
Series. As I addressed that crowd of future
lawyers, IT professionals and perhaps even
a president of the National Urban League,
it struck me that for a number of these stu
dents ? our future workforce ? they may
encounter an America, and a job market,
that is hostile to the principles of economic
mobility on which our country was found
ed.
Five years after the widely-accepted
end of the global economic downturn com
monly known as the Great Recession,
America's economy inches ever closer to
full-recovery. In fact, the start of 2015 saw
the most sustained period of job creation
this century.
But the dark cloud inside this silver lin
ing is that too many people are still being
left behind ? particularly in our commu
nities of color, where unemployment
remains at a crisis level, even as our econ
omy continues to rebound.
For Blacks and Latinos in America, the
economic devastation of the Great
Recession is as real today as it was when it
began in 2007, and what we've found in
our newly released 2015 State of Black
America? report - "Save our Cities:
Education, Jobs + Justice" is a mixed eco
nomics bag that reflects a stark tale of two
Americas.
The U.S. economy added 295,000 jobs
in February of this year. For the first time
since 1997, we have seen 12 straight
months of private-sector job growth above
200,000 and unemployment is down to 5.5
percent - its lowest rate since May 2008.
But despite this encouraging news, the
Black unemployment ,is twice that of
White unemployment, wages are stagnant
and many working people are not earning
enough to make ends meet.
The Equality Index in the State of
Black America? report catalogued Black,
Hispanic and White unemployment and
income inequality in the nation's largest
metropolitan areas. Overall, the Black
unemployment rate was at 11.3 percent
and the Latino unemployment rate stood at
7.4 percent versus a White unemployment
rate of 5.3 percent. Of the 70 cities ranked
for Black-White unemployment, almost
half (33 cities) had a Black unemployment
rate above 15 percent. In seven of those
cities we discovered Great Depression era
Black unemployment rates of 20 percent
or higher.
It is clear that for far too many Blacks
and Latinos, our nation's economic recov
ery is only something they read or hear
about. According to our analysis,
America's comeback is bypassing large
swaths of people in Black and Brown
neighborhoods - and that is dangerous -
not only to those communities, but to our
nation. A recovery that leaves millions of
its citizens behind will ultimately threaten
America's sustained growth.
In a recent report on jobs and unem
ployment in the Black community.
Economic Policy Institute economist
Valerie Wilson said, "Even before the
Great Recession, black unemployment has
consistently been twice as high as white
unemployment. To address this problem,
we need to look beyond simply returning
to the pre-recession status quo and imple
ment policies aimed at ensuring that every
one who is willing and able to work has a
job."
A central focus of the National Urban
League is workforce development, and
being in the business of creating jobs and
proposing solutions to our longstanding
challenges, our organization has advanced
the following public-policy*recommenda
tions:
?Passage of a transportation infrastruc
ture bill with a targeted jobs component.
?Passage a targeted, large-scale sum
mer youth/young adult jobs bill.
?Raising the minimum wage to a living
wage.
Earlier this month, the U.S.
Department of Labor published the March
jobs report. While we applaud every stride
our country makes in resuscitating our
once battered economy, we remain vigilant
- and concerned - about the disparity of
access to these benefits among our nation's
citizens as revealed in the State of Black
America? report.
1 am concerned for all Americans, but
especially for all the students I meet who
live in those communities in crisis and are
working so hard in their classrooms now
while they dream of a better future.
For more details and essays from lead
ing figures on the economy, visit wwwsta
teofblackamerica .org.
Marc H. Morial. former mayor of New
Orleans, is president and CEO of the
National Urban League.
Today is National Health Care Decisions Day
mr
Ann
Gauthreaux
Guest
Columnist
It's been said that in life
there are only two things
that are certain: death and
taxes. Everyone recognizes
that April 15 is the deadline
for completing your taxes.
Not many people know that
the following day, April 16,
has been designated
National Health Care
Decisions Day.
In support of this
national effort. Governor
McCrory has issued a
proclamation designating
April 16 "Health Care
Decisions Day" for North
Carolina.
We plan for college,
marriage, a baby and retire
ment, but we don't prepare
for the end of life. In fact,
less than 30 percent of all
adults have their healthcare
wishes documented. In this
region, we invite you to
participate in changing this
trend.
With an aim of reaching
healthcare consumers well
before a healthcare crisis,
several regional healthcare
leaders have united to cre
ate awareness, provide edu
cation and encourage
"Over 55 public and private work
shops are planned in April and early
May"
- Ann Gauthreaux
important conversations
about your healthcare
wishes. This coalition is
called the Community
Partnership for
Compassionate Care. We
recently launched a cam
paign called "Got Plans?"
to encourage all citizens
over the age of 18 to think
about who they would
want to speak for them
if they ever lost the ability
to make and communicate
their own healthcare deci
sions. We have created
tools to guide conversa
tions about these issues and
make it easy for folks to
document their wishes
through advance directives.
The steering committee of
the Community Partnership
for Compassionate Care
includes representatives
from Novant Health, Wake
Forest Baptist Health,
Hospice & Palliative
CareCenter and Rowan
Hospice & Palliative Care.
This year, the coalition
is spotlighting the impor
tance of discussing, decid
ing and documenting your
healthcare wishes.
We are encouraging
conversations so that your
healthcare providers and
those you love-can know
and honor your wishes if
you ever lose the ability to
speak for yourself. We are
united in ongoing regional
efforts to provide you with
advance healthcare plan
ning tools so that making
your plans is as simple as
1,23.
Over 55 public and pri
vate workshops are
planned in April and early
May - all of which can be
found on our
www.GotPlansl23.org
website, under the work
shops tab. The greatest gift
you can give to a loved one
is sharing your wishes
about future healthcare and
documenting those wishes
well in advance of a health
care crisis.
Register today for one
of our free workshops and
let us know if you would
like to host a workshop.
"'"Anti Gauthreaux is
Regional Director oj
Public Relations, Hospice
cfc Palliative CareCenter.
She writes this column on
behalf of the Community
Partnership for
Compassionate Care.
Hospice & Palliative
CARECENTER
NB NOVAN1
B HEALTH
The worst proposals thus far in the 2015 legislative session
Wake Forest?
Baptist Health
Rob
Schofield
Guest
Columnist
North Carolina law
makers treated themselves
and everyone else to a
spring break last week.
Committee meetings and
floor votes were suspended
and most lawmakers stayed
away from the capital city.
In many ways, it was
kind of a fitting dead spot
in what has been a strange,
start-and-stop session. As
lawmakers near the mid
way point of the legislative
year, the list of significant
accomplishments is a very
JL. A
short one. And while this is
a fact that many will see as
a great improvement over
recent years in which the
flood of radically regres
sive proposals came on like
a torrent, the overall lack of
purpose that afflicts the
General Assembly speaks
volumes about what gov-.
ernmcnt looks like when
many of the people in
charge reject the idea of
intentional, public solu
tions to the problems and
challenges that confront
society.
Just because there's
been a relative shortage of
new laws thus far, however,
doesn't mean there aren't a
lot of terrible and regres
sive ideas under considera
tion on Jones Street. The
deadline for state House
members to introduce bills
won't arrive until this week
(a fact that guarantees the
arrival of hundreds of more
bills) and already, the list of
backward-looking and
even downright frightening
proposals is a long one.
Here is a far-from-exhaus
tive list featuring a doze a
of the worst we've seen
thus far:
?Promoting LGBT
discrimination - As has
been widely reported, the
nation's rapid progress in
moving toward providing
legal equality to lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgen
dered people has provoked
an ugly backlash in some
places. Sadly, North
Carolina makes that list
with multiple bills under
consideration to allow dis
crimination by businesses
that serve the public and
government officials who
perform marriages under
the guise of "religious free
dom"
'Reversing the results
of local elections - As
Chris Fitzsimon noted
recently, the very lawmak
ers who constantly rail
about the supposed mad
consolidation of power in
Washington with respect to
the states have been only
too happy to practice what
they preach against when it
comes to the relationship
between the state and local
governments. Witness,
among many other such
examples, the bald-faced
power grabs against Wake
County and the City of
Greensboro wherein state
lawmakers have moved to
reverse recent elections by
redrawing electoral maps
against the will of local
communities.
*Another disastrous
tax proposal from the
Senate - If there's a most
irresponsible proposal of
the 2015 session at this
point, it's probably the one
advanced by Senate leaders
to further slash state
income taxes. Despite the
state's persistent budget
shortfalls that have resulted
from the Robin Hood-in
reverse 2013 tax cuts, the
Senate recently proposed
slashing another billion
dollars in state revenue by
cutting personal and corpo
rate income taxes. When
Senator Bob Rucho, one of
the plan's chief authors,
was asked how he planned
to pay for the additional
billion dollar tax cut, his
response was: "that's not
the issue."
'"Raising taxes on peo
ple struggling to stay in
their homes - And speak
ing of regressive tax pro
posals, one of the more out
rageous and least-well
reported acts of the 2015
session has been the enact
ment of a new law - buried
in the much-ballyhooed gas
tax legislation - that
removes a tax break for
homeowners who have
managed to hold onto their
homes by obtaining debt
relief assistance. Under the
new law, the debt relief will
be taxed as income - thus
undermining the purpose of
the relief in the first place:
See Worst on A8