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September 1966—-National BLACK MONITOR
“The fault line in the American
economy is education. Those with
skills prosper; those without fall
behind. We all can learn the skills
that will empower us to cross this
fault line. Each year of postsecon
dary education or job training in
creases a person's average earn
ings by six to twelve percent.
For the individual worker, the
key to earning the rewards and
mobility of such work is a good
education--the ability, character
and habit of mind to continuously
learn and apply new skills to work
with [others] to solve problems,
meet challenges, and create op
portunities. The choice in the new
economy is high skills or low
wages."!
The African American leaders of
AOIP have long recognized the valid
ity of these statements, especially as
they relate to our people. Education
alone, however, will not guarantee
that Black young people will get good
jobs. We, ourselves, must be willing
and preparedto make such jobs avail
able to them.
Why Job-Producing Business
Ownership Is Crucial
So-called "downsizing" by Corpo
rate America as well as by the public
! Paul R. Dimond, "A New Challenge for
American Education," Daedalus. Vol. 124,
Fall 1995, pp. 119-129. Dr. Dimond's ar
ticle is also the source of the charts on this
and the following page. These figures, no
doubt, apply more to the dominant major
ity in our society, but the picture they por
tray is even more significant for Black men
and women. While the current state of our
economy makethesefigures lessrelevant,
their comparative value remainsthe same.
Page6
"Sustained Income Maintenance"--
The End Result of Education?
sector of America's economy is only
one ofthe various reasons why actual
ownership of job-producing busi
nessesis so essential for Black Ameri
cans. Long before the beginning of
the *lndustrial Revolution" there had
been a struggle between the *haves’
and the "have nots." Yet, built into the
psyche and the customs over many
centuries was the feeling that those
who were better off had an obligation
to provide for the less fortunate dur
ing harder times. In short, there was
an economic floor below which no
one couldfall: sustainedincome main
tenance for everyone was the norm
expected for every individual.
However, especially since the be
ginning of the Industrial Revolution
andthe advent of the corporate struc
ture--behind which real *flesh and
blood" humans with actual feelings
could hide--there has been a continu
ousseries of class wars betweenthose
who control the major job-producing
businesses and those who system
atically were forced from the privilege
of "living off the common land* and
"Pulling Ourselves Up By Our Own Bootstraps"...A Series
Is Your Organization A Participating AOIP Affiliate?
Median Earnings of Male Workers in 1993
$40,000
$35,000
$30,000
$25,000
$20,000
$15,000
SIO,OOO
High School =~ Two Year College Four Year College
Level of Schooling Completed
Annual Earnings
could only survive by providing labor
when and wherever corporations
neededthat labor. [Atone point inthe
early stages of the Industrial Revolu
tion, laws in England were passed
making it illegal for the giving of any
alms, and any person seen idle (ie,
not working in a factory) could imme
diately be imprisoned.]
Despite the fact that "labor* often
coalesced and, over a period of many
years, made what was seen as sub
stantial progress by winning social
security and a wide variety of other
income maintenance programs like
workers' compensation, the assault
continued with the result that today
those that do not own or control job
producing businesses are becoming
doomed to disaster.
All groups need a means of eco
nomic empowerment (ie, owning and/
or controlling as much as they can of
job-producing businesses) which is
the only way Black Americans can
now have any assurance of a digni
fied life with sustained income main
tenance. Also, job assurance is es
sentialto motivate students to endure
the rigors of learning sothey later can
begin earning from an available job
source.
However, with the rapid shift to a
global economy within which many
jobs increasingly are dependent on
new skills and the holding of a “can
do" and/or "l am somebody" attitude,
great emphasis must be placed on
the specific and unique things that
must be done educationally to prop
erly prepare oreducationally empower
our youth and others for a drastically
new shift in knowledge, attitude (to
ward self) and actual ownership of as
many job-producing businesses as is
humanly possible. Only we--by join
ing collectively--can control our edu
cational and economic destiny.
AOIP's Educational Progress
The necessity for having a massive
coordinated focus onthe educational
enhancement needs of Black Ameri
cans came sharply intofocus in Janu
ary 1980. It was then that the U.S.
Department of Educationreported the
fact thatmorethan 44 percent of adult
Black Americans had never been en
abled to either read or comprehend
beyond the fourth grade level and
thus were classified as *functionally
illiterate* (ie, not having sufficient
know-how to even be hired prudently
for a wage earning job).
it was also then that the idea of
forming a coalition to enable all of the
many disparate groups to begin put
ting their heads together was put into
action. Impelledlargely by the urgings
of Dr. Calvin Rolark, Dr. Leon Sullivan,
Dr. Dorothy Height and others--who
also were among the incorporators--
AOIP received its charter in late 1980.
Its focus was on ascertaining and
putting its organizational and other
efforts together to assault the *root
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