Capitol Hill Holds Hearing on Black Male Unemployment
    By James Wright
    The Afro-American News

    Wednesday 14 March 2007

    The Black male unemployment rate is unacceptably high and it is time for the federal government to do something about it. That was the conclusion of a March 5 hearing held by the Joint Economic Committee, a bicameral, bipartisan committee of U.S. representatives and senators who are charged with studying the nation's economy and making recommendations to the government for changes, if necessary.

    U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is the chairman of the committee. He convened the hearing as a part of a series dealing with America's unemployment rate despite record economic growth in many parts of the country. There are no Black members of the committee because Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) opted not to sit on it and the members of the House had not been selected at AFRO press time.

    Schumer bemoaned the high rate of unemployment among young Black males.

    "The crisis is profound, persistent and perplexing," he said. "Both across the country and particularly in my home state of New York, far too many Black men are facing difficulty finding and keeping work. The numbers are staggering and getting worse, particularly for young Black males."

    Schumer noted that in 1999, 65 percent of Black male high school dropouts in their 20s were jobless. He added that by 2004, the share had increased to 72 percent as compared to 29 percent of Whites and 19 percent of Latinos.

    New York's senior senator said that the incarceration rate of young Black males is at historic highs, more than half of Black males do not finish high school, and a Black man in his 20s without a high school diploma is more likely to be in jail than to be working.

    Schumer said that these grim statistics do not make sense.

    "One reason this crisis is perplexing is because it is playing out against a backdrop of relative economic success and unprecedented historical advances for many sectors of our nation's African-American population," he said. "Obviously we know the stories of highly successful Black men and women. And more importantly there are burgeoning Black middle class communities throughout the country and lower income Black women who have made impressive gains in terms of work force participation in just the last few years."

    Schumer said that the purpose of the hearing was to shed light on the problem of Black male unemployment and explore legislation and programs that can remedy it.

    Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who sits on the committee and is a candidate for the Republican nomination, said that Black males could benefit from a stronger family structure.

    "Study after study shows that children are less likely to live in poverty or go to jail if they come from a two-parent home," Brownback said. "While the problems facing young African-American males demand action on several fronts, we will not start from a strong foundation if we don't get the basics right and increase the number of two-parent homes."

    Brownback said that his idea of Marriage Development Accounts, which essentially pays money for people to get married, is being looked at seriously in Washington, D.C., and other cities should try it.

    "Common sense tell us that if we help young African-American males graduate from high school and wait until marriage before having children, it will be easier for them to find and keep a job," he said.

    Robert Carmona, president and chief executive officer of New York City-based STRIVE, an organization dedicated to getting struggling Black men jobs, said that young Black males are face paradoxes in everyday life.

    "Society wants to 'talk like me, dress like me, rap like me' but clearly does not want to be me," Carmona said. "The former, I derive from television, movies and the music industry, etc. The latter is the result of my day-to-day existence.

    "I'm followed wherever I go, viewed with suspicion in any interaction below 96 Street, on guard whenever a cop car passes me, no matter what I may be doing. In schools, I'm made to feel dumb or not worthy of educational attention."

    STRIVE, which was founded in New York in 1984, works with its participants on proper attitudes to aid in getting and keeping a job, technical skills, self-esteem and self-actualization, and stabilizing one's life. Carmona's organization drew the praise of Schumer, who said that "my visit there was the best of my term as a U.S. senator."

    Ronald Mincy, a professor of social work at Columbia University, and a contributor to the book, {Black Males Left Behind}, said that during the economic boom of the 1990s, Black males made strides with welfare-to-work programs, youth opportunity grants and more financial aid for higher education. That has changed since 2001, he said.

    "A lot of those programs have been cut on the federal level or have been relegated to the states and the states cannot continue them," Mincy said. "If those programs were maintained at 1990s levels during the economic dip that took place earlier this decade, we may have a better employment picture for young Black males."

    Mincy said that programs to help Black men to become better fathers are helpful, also. Mincy is pushing a national earned income tax credit for men who are trying to pay child support and life themselves out of poverty. The tax credit is available in New York state and is working, according to Mincy.

    Obama, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, sent over a statement supporting the hearing.

    "This hearing is important to keep the spotlight on the issue, to continue the dialogue, and to fashion sound policy solutions to a problem that reflects the broader issue of poverty and racial inequality in America," the statement said.

    Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who is not a member of the committee but is running for the Democratic nomination for president, said:

    "There is no reason why in 2007, in these United States of America that our government cannot takes steps to ensure an equality of opportunity for all Americans and address the troubling unemployment rate of African-American males. I believe that over the last six years, we've only lacked the leadership, commitment and vision to take action."