OPINION
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Elaine Pitt
Michael A. Pitt
T. Kevin Walker
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i IRCW ATION
( 0 I \ ( II
Economic
empowerment
now more
? important
Marc
Morial
Guest
Columnist
I have said it before and I
will say it again: Economic
empowerment is the civil
rights struggle of the 21st
Century.
The civil rights movement
of the 1960s helped the
African-American community
take great strides in terms of
political and social empower
ment. Doors long closed to
people of color were pried
open with the enactment of
civil rights legislation, affir
mative action and other
reforms designed to give them
a voice on Capitol Hill, in aca
demia and corporate America.
But two recent studies by
major thought leaders in
Washington, D.C. reveal that
more than 40 years later
minorities in the United States
still face major challenges in
achieving economic parity
with their white counterparts
and realizing the American
Dream.
The Economic Mobility
Project, a research collabora
tion of major beltway think
tanks ? The Heritage
Foundation, American
Enterprise Institute,
Brookings Institution and
Urban Institute, recently
found that the income gap
between black and white
households has actually
expanded since the early
1970s.
Black families in 2004
earned 58 percent of what
White households did, cftwn
from 63 percent in 1974. This
jibes well with the National
Urban League's equality
index, which found that
Blacks had 57 percent of the
economic status of Whites.
Household income, when
adjusted for inflation, has
actually risen as a result of
more women entering the
workforce. But the project's
recent report, based on a sur
vey of 2,300 families over the
past 30 years, found that
White households benefited
most from the shift, mainly
those of white women whose
incomes rose 500 percent over
the period while those of
White men stagnated. Among
Black men, income has actual
ly fallen since 1974, offset by
gains among Black women.
Comparing the incomes of
parents in the late 1960s and
early 1970s to those of their
grown children, the report
found that one in three of
blacks from middle-class fam
ilies earned more than their
parents, compared to two
thirds of whites with compara
ble backgrounds.
"Overall, incomes are
going up. But not all children
are benefiting equally from
the American dream," wrote
author Julia Isaacs, a fellow at
Brookings, in the report.
The roadblocks to achiev
ing the American Dream, have
help cast a pall of pessimism
over African-Americans,
according to another survey
by the Pew Research Center
of white and black attitudes.
Nearly three in 10 said they
were worse off than five years
ago, one in five reported that
their lives had improved and
only 44 percent expressed
optimism about their future.
But as Chicago Urban
League President Cheryle
Jackson observed in a recent
National Public Radio com
mentary, people of color have
good reason to possess a less
than-cheery outlook.
"The fabric of the
American Dream is made up
of mobility. You don't have to
be bom rich or successful if
you can get there by your own
hard work. The belief that we
can all make ourselves better
unites us as Americans. But
the pathway to success is
increasingly obscured or non
existent for many African
Americans," she noted. "More
and more one's economic
future is largely decided by
what zip code one is born into.
Urban communities have the
worst schools, the fewest jobs
and lack commerce and
retail."
There is a great deal of
anxiety, cynicism and pes
simism today, especially in
urban communities. Growing
rates of crime, unemployment
and mortgage foreclosures are
shrinking wealth, which exac
erbates the dissatisfaction.
And incidents such as the
"Jena Six" and how they've
been handled have fed into the
feeling of blacks that no one
will stand up to defend them.
Whites held a very differ
ent opinion of Black progress,
according to the Pew Center:
They were twice as likely to
see gains in the past five years
compared to their African
American counterparts. This
finding indicates that too
many Americans, Whites and
even some Blacks, labor under
the misconception that the
playing field has indeed lev
eled and that the civil fights
movement of the 1960s and
1970s was enough to reverse
decades of discrimination.
But the truth is that it rep
resents one phase of an ongo
ing struggle for parity, espe
cially of the pocketbook. Last
July, we unveiled our
Opportunity Compact:
Blueprint for Economic
Equality, a set of policy pre
scriptions to jumpstart urban
American, to motivate our
leaders to address economic
inequities among Americans
more than four decades after
the first civil rights move
ment.
Economic empowerment
means better jobs. Better jobs
mean stronger communities.
Stronger communities mean
better schools and safer streets
that attract more investment,
which refuels the cycle of eco
nomic empowerment.
Marc Morial is president
and CEO of the National
Urban League.
vrs gpng
HTV/AIDS STILL DEVASTATES
black America
George
Curry
Guest
Columnist
As we prepare to com
memorate World AIDS Day
on Saturday, no one should
overlook the devastating toll
the deadly disease has taken
on the African-American
community. Consider the fol
lowing:
? Although African
Americans represent only
12.7 percent of the U.S. popu
lation, they were half of all
AIDS cases detected in 2005;
? The rate of Blacks con
tracting AIDS is 10 times that
of Whites and Black women
have contracted AIDS at a rate
23 times higher than that of
White women;
? Although African
Americans constitute only 16
percent of U.S. teenagers,
they represent 69 percent of
all new AIDS cases reported
among teens;
? Black women account for
66 percent of all new AIDS
cases among women and
? HIV- and AIDS-related
death rates are highest among
African-Americans, with
Blacks accounting for 55 per
cent of such deaths.
There are some interesting
facts among the numbers.
Both Black and White
women were most likely to be
infected through heterosexual
activities. White women were
more likely than Black
women to have been infected
as a result of drug use. And
among men having sex with
men, one study conducted in
five cities found that 46 per
cent of such Black men were
HIV infected compared to 21
percent of White men in that
category.
There were some geo
graphical variances as well.
AIDS cases were highest in
the eastern section of the
country, with the District of
Columbia leading the way
with the highest rate.
However, 51 percent of
Blacks living with AIDS and
56 percent of all newly
reported cases among Blacks
were in the South, where
African-Americans make up
only 19 percent of the
region's population.
Just nine states and
Washington, D.C. account for
72 percent of all Blacks living
with AIDS. In order, they are:
New York (33,924), Florida
(22,232), Texas (11,307),
Georgia (11,255), Maryland
(11,113), California (10,947),
New Jersey (9,511),
Pennsylvania (8,488), Illinois
(8,042) and the District of
Columbia (7,925).
Compounding matters,
according to data assembled
by the Kaiser Family
Foundation, "Blacks with
HIV/AIDS were more likely
to be publicly insured or unin
sured than their white coun
terparts, with over half (59
percent) relying on Medicaid
compared to 32 percent of
whites. One fifth of Blacks
with HIV/AIDS (22 percent)
were uninsured compared to
17 percent of whites. Blacks
were also much less likely to
be privately insured than
whites (14 percent compared
to 44 percent)."
What can be done?
On an individual level,
African-Americans should
eliminate risky sexual behav
ior. And even if one contracts
HIV. they can live healthier
lives by being tested and
treated early. Unfortunately,
HIV and AIDS are detected in
more advanced stages among
African- Americans.
From a public policy per
spective. the Open Society
Institute published a report
earlier this year titled.
"Improving Outcomes:
Blueprint for a National AIDS
Plan for the Unite States."
Chris Collins, the author of
the study, observed, "It is time
the United States develops
what it asks of other nations
that it supports in combating
AIDS: a national plan that
provides a roadmap for con
crete and equitable results."
According to the report,
such a plan should:
1) Focus increased atten
tion on concrete outcomes
through reliance on evidence
based and cost-effective pro
gramming.
2) Set ambitious, visible
and credible targets for
improvement in a limited
number of areas .
3) Identify clear priorities
for action on the selected tar
gets.
4) Set out specific objec
tives for multiple sectors,
including government, civil
society, community organiza
tions, and business.
5) Make the prevention
and treatment needs of
African Americans a primary
focus.
6) Promote and test inno
vative ideas about how to
overcome structural barriers
to more effective prevention
and treatment.
7) Improve methods of
measuring progress.
8) Make federal agencies
responsible for coordinating
the collaborative efforts of
government, business, and
civil society.
9) Require the Secretary of
Health and Human Services to
report regularly on the status
of progress toward targets in
the national plan.
In calling for a national
plan to combat AIDS, the
Open Society report does not
ignore numerous panels and
studies that have predated the
report. Ronald Reagan's
Presidential Commission on
the HIV epidemic, for exam
ple, issued 600 recommenda
tions, most of them ignored.
The Clinton administration
issued its own National AIDS
Strategy report in 1997. Most
of its proposals were similarly
ignored.
"Over 1.5 million infec
tions and over a half million
deaths into its 26-year-old
HIV/AIDS epidemic, the
United States still does not
have a comprehensive strate
gic national plan to tackle
AIDS within its own borders,"
the Open Society report
states. "The United States will
spend over $16 billion on the
domestic epidemic in fiscal
year 2007... But no compre
hensive plan will guide strate
gic use of AIDS-related dol
lars or hold government agen
cies accountable for steadily
improved outcomes for peo
ple living with HIV/AIDS or
at risk of infection."
George E. Curry, former
editor-in-chief of Emerge
magazine and the NNPA News
Service, is a keynote speaker,
moderator, and media coach.
He can be reached through his
Web site.
www.georgecurry.com .