"African American unemployment rates
The black unemployment rate in both the Detroit and Minneapolis metropolitan areas was just over 20% (see Table 4). These were the highest rates for blacks. Washington D.C. had the lowest black metro unemployment rate in 2009, 8.1%. Fourteen of the metro areas had black unemployment rates that exceeded 11.3%. None was less than 7.3%. By contrast, in 11 of the 18 metro areas analyzed for blacks, whites had unemployment rates below 7.3%.
The black-white unemployment ratio was highest in Minneapolis and Memphis. In these metropolitan areas, the black unemployment rate was three times the white rate. In both of these cities the black-white gap was also over 10 percentage points. The black-white ratio was lowest in Detroit, but blacks were still 1.5 times as likely to be unemployed as whites. On average, blacks were twice as likely to be unemployed as whites."
Friday, June 25, 2010
Unemployment And African-American Men : NPR
This story was part of a longer piece by the New York Times reporter Michael Lou, and he joins us in just a moment. But it's worth repeating his focus in these hard times: Black male college graduates are almost twice as likely to be unemployed as their white counterparts. The numbers come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and raise a number of provocative questions."
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Why Obama had to fire Gen. McChrystal
Politics is a funny game. In which one must always be aware of danger. Everyone, well almost everyone, would agree that the President has his hands full. To list everything here would fill up this blog. There is an old adage, "be careful what you wish for," comes to mind. Obama wanted this job so bad, however he is constantly tripping over himself with one political blunder after another.
Obama is a shrewd politician, more strategic then media savvy. The magic for this President happens behind the scenes which can sometimes convey the wrong message. The BP mess was something that he was on top of, despite the appearance the White House portrayed. America is exhausted of the behind the scenes President. American's want a up in your face President. Tell me what your going to do about this? When will this happen? How long will this take? Ok now go get this done, then come back with the next set of problems you promise to tackle.
Business leaderships is defined as: the capacity to establish direction and to influence and align others toward a common goal, motivating and committing them to action and making them responsible for their performance.
The mis-steps that keep happening are things that most political scientist majors know; Command the issue, get out in front of the problem and always keep your pulse on the public sentiment. Obama has been drinking his own Kool-Aid. The assumption that he would be able to move from the senate to the White House and everyone would just fall in line and follow his lead is just plain stupid thinking. The Republicans have managed to make this President look like a political novice and the BP mess is now bearing fruit.
When 9/11 happen Bush needed to do something that would give the impression that he was in charge, that he was the leader of the free world. So, an opportunity to go to war in Afghanistan and attack al qaeda then Iraq gave that perception.
With the Health Care debacle you would think that Obama would have been a little quicker on the uptake. Obama was a professor, I can only imagine what kind of nightmare that was for students and supporting staff. It is my understanding that Obama is a big delagator. Delegation is good with the appropriate amount of follow-up.
The Rolling Stone interview manage to do several things:
1- undermine the President
2- Questions the people he appoints to important positions
3- Exit strategy for July 2011 from Afghanistan
4- is the plan working? what is the plan?
Gen. McChrystal was a lose cannon from the start, clearly the article makes that point crystal clear. One cannot help but think why was this guy drinking and speaking so freely, clearly he had an agenda about why he was telling this writer these things.
Obama had no choice, Gen. McChrystal forced his hand. Obama needed to show leadership in a big way, and it needed to be fast and swift.
Obama is a shrewd politician, more strategic then media savvy. The magic for this President happens behind the scenes which can sometimes convey the wrong message. The BP mess was something that he was on top of, despite the appearance the White House portrayed. America is exhausted of the behind the scenes President. American's want a up in your face President. Tell me what your going to do about this? When will this happen? How long will this take? Ok now go get this done, then come back with the next set of problems you promise to tackle.
Business leaderships is defined as: the capacity to establish direction and to influence and align others toward a common goal, motivating and committing them to action and making them responsible for their performance.
The mis-steps that keep happening are things that most political scientist majors know; Command the issue, get out in front of the problem and always keep your pulse on the public sentiment. Obama has been drinking his own Kool-Aid. The assumption that he would be able to move from the senate to the White House and everyone would just fall in line and follow his lead is just plain stupid thinking. The Republicans have managed to make this President look like a political novice and the BP mess is now bearing fruit.
When 9/11 happen Bush needed to do something that would give the impression that he was in charge, that he was the leader of the free world. So, an opportunity to go to war in Afghanistan and attack al qaeda then Iraq gave that perception.
With the Health Care debacle you would think that Obama would have been a little quicker on the uptake. Obama was a professor, I can only imagine what kind of nightmare that was for students and supporting staff. It is my understanding that Obama is a big delagator. Delegation is good with the appropriate amount of follow-up.
The Rolling Stone interview manage to do several things:
1- undermine the President
2- Questions the people he appoints to important positions
3- Exit strategy for July 2011 from Afghanistan
4- is the plan working? what is the plan?
Gen. McChrystal was a lose cannon from the start, clearly the article makes that point crystal clear. One cannot help but think why was this guy drinking and speaking so freely, clearly he had an agenda about why he was telling this writer these things.
Obama had no choice, Gen. McChrystal forced his hand. Obama needed to show leadership in a big way, and it needed to be fast and swift.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Racial profiling meet Ethnic profiling
When I think about the Holocaust, outside of the gruesome images of people being mistreated and killed, I'm sure everyone would agree that these were outrages acts against humanity. The horrifying image that always comes to mind is those arm bands affixed to their shirts. The Nazis used triangular badges or patches to identify prisoners in the concentration camps. Different colored patches represented different groups. The Nazi holocaust begun with enemies of the state who were slowly segmented out and and removed from society.
Now, fast-forward to what's happening in the state of Arizona passing a new law that is asking law officials to look for illegal immigrants that my be in United States illegally. Stopping individuals that look like, could be or not sure, to carry documents that say they are in this country legally. So basically anyone of Mexican descent has now become an enemy in the state of Arizona.
Legislators make the laws. Police Officers enforce the laws. However, with a law like this who is watching to ensure that we all have the same equal protections under the law? This law gives Police Officers the legal right to ethnically profile individuals! How could legislators believe that creating a Police State is the most prudent and effective way to enforce this law? How? Being a minority in United States is hard enough now extending and making law the right to question individuals the could "possibly be" illegal is outrageous.
Imagine a Police Officer entering a local restaurant in the fascist State of Arizona. When he enters he sees three families. One family is white, another is black and the other family is of course of some Mexican descent. More than likely under the provisions of this new law he will no doubt observe the Mexican family the most, make them feel as uncomfortable as he can and then eventually he will stop them, first.
Who wants to live the Cooper state? Not me. The constant harassment and compromising of ones civil liberties being violated just attempting to go to the movie on a Friday night. Another unknown factor is not knowing what personal biases the Police officer may harbor. Anyone who appears to be Mexican descent. Anyone who looks like they could be be and illegal immigrant can be stopped. Now, legal citizens are being forced to basically live underground in some George Orwell like Police state. Nice!
A police report was released at the end of April regarding the use of Force by the Michigan Police Department (MPD). The 20 page documented that 76% of the subjects in the report were black. Furthermore, In 2009, MPD officers conducted 27,270 subject stops and 53 of them involved the use of force. As one would expect, there were more subject stops conducted in the summer months than in the winter months. There were, on average, 515 subject stops for each stop that involved the use of force (27,270 / 53 = 515). what is troubling is that we all know this is happening what will happen in a State that Police Officers are ethnically profiling individuals.
Maybe they should assign an arm band to citizens who have a legal right to be here!
Oh, yeah, that did not work in Germany, maybe it will work in Arizona.
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