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GUEST COMMENTARY By William E. Spriggs
Who gets it? The economy and African Americans
conomics 15 the study of
who gets what. One of the
important “whats" 1s who
gets a job. Since most Americans
need a job for the income to pay
rent and buy food
The first Friday of each month,
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statis
tics, a branch of Secretary Alexis
Herman's [’(‘pflflfl)"lll of Labor
releases the “Employment Situa
tion” for the previous month Re
cently, the unemployment num
bers for January were released
The unemployment rate for Atr
can Americans reported by the Bu
reau of Labor Statistics increased to
8.2 percent in January, from 7 Y per
cent in December That looks ik
bad news, but 1t 15 really good
The unemployment rate mea
sures the share of people who can
not find work among those whoare
employed or actively looking for
work In the African-Americar
community, where ditficulty 1n
finding a job is chronic, a large
number of people do not bother to
actively look for employvment 50,
the unemployment rate for the
African-American community can
often understate the real problen
Dixie
from page 8A
Jones University, a racist institu
tion that forbids interracial dating
on campus, and 15 openly hostile to
Roman Catholics. Back 1 Texas
Bush has done nothing to prohibit
the widespread displavs of Con
federate flags in state buddings
and even public schools
Why have McCain and Bush g,
fused to coudemn a flag Wit o=
nalist Brent Staples hassdescribg |
as “a symbol of choice among neo
Nazis, skinheads and other big
ots?" For the same reason that the
white students became outraged
when 1 talked frankly about the
history of white privilege and ra
cial discrmmination. Many whuie
Americans refuse to honestly ox
amine theirhistory, because ifthes
did, they would have to confront
the moral equivalent of the Nazis
who ran Germany's death camp:
They would have to acknow ledge
the vast murders and rapes by
their foreparents, and thewr ow:
complicity in profiting from today =
system of racial impustice It i« far
Youth Leadership Program
hosts workshop for college
prep help from counselors
The CSRA Classic/Delta
House, Inc. Youth Leadership
Program will present a work
shopentitled “What Every Sty
dent and Parent Should Know
About Guidance Counselors’
This program 1s designed to
assist youth in seeking and
quiring information in prepara
tion for college. Students and
parents will be introduced to
the often unused resources
available for college prepara
tion. Such informationincludes
which standardized tests col
leges expect students to sit for,
the importance for sitting for
these tests, and testing dates
Students will also be given in
The Augusta Focus
is an
award-winning
Walker Group
Publication
A Closer Look
people are having with the labor
market
Last month the share of African
Americans who are in the “labor
force,” that is those actively avail
able tor work, rose to a record level
ut 66 4 percent. That wasdriven in
part by a near record level foradult
African-American women, whose
labor force participation rate was
56 1 percent, just below their July
1999 record of 66.7 percent. The
lubor force participation rate for
Atrican-American women, and all
women, has been escalating since
the 1970 s But, the record was set
because, for African-American
men, labor force participation stood
at 737 percent, its highest level
mee August 1993, The labor force
participation rate for African-
Vmerican men, and all men, has
heen dechining since reaching 79 .4
percent in 1974
\nother kev numberistheshare
of Atrican Americans who are em
ploved The emplovment-to-popu
lation ratio was at 60.9 percent,
just below its record high of 61.0
percent set in January 1999. So, a
little more than three of every five
African Amernicansover age 16 was
easier to “boo” a black historian
lecturing about racial oquality. or
to denounce the NAACP as “re
tarded By taking away their rebel
flag, we may force these whites to
finally come to terms with their
ow n oppressive history, and them
elves
\merica as a nation has been
essentially “silent” about its racist
history Aslegal scholar Patriciad.
Williams cloquently stated in the
Nution l'l'i'(’ntl_\'. “h W()uld b(‘ bet'
ter to feel ourselves unsettled by
the full truth of these historical
Werrers befare we commend our
sel e for lutving bured the past!
As e pocromro the unmarkéd
graves of the ghosts that haunt
Vineriea still, perhaps the path to
peace hies not only in dreaming a
better future for black children but
noawakening white Americans to
their own history ..."
Dr Manning Marable 1s profes
or of History and Political Sci
ence, and the director of the Insti
fite tor Researchin African-Amert
can Studies, Columbia University.
\long the Color Line” is distrib
ited free of charge to over 325 pub
teations throughout the U.S. and
wternationally. Dr. Marable's col
wmn s alsoavadableon the Internet
of e manningmarable.net.
formation on scholarships,
grants, loans and other fed
eral aid that many students
do not know 1s available.
Counselors representing
schools in Richmond and Co
lumbia counties, Augusta
Fech and Paine College will
be available to share this in
formation
The workshop will be held
on Saturday, March 25, 2000,
in the Lucy Laney Compre
hensive High School Music
Room from 9:45 a.m. until 1
p.m
Please call 724-3576 for
more information.
employed during part of the month
of January. Again, this was be
cause of higher labor force partici
pation and employment for Afni
can-American men.
The Federal Reserve recently
raised interest rates in anticipa
tion of lower unemployment fig
ures would signal the country was
running out of available workers,
mounting pressures for employers
to raise wages and then start pres
sures to increase prices. Yet, the
numbers show that the length of
this economic expansion has be
gun to change African Americans’
view of the labor market and in
creased the share of people looking
for work.
Earlier in the week, some re
porters picked up on a small note
in a report by Harvard economist
Lawrence Katz, and Princeton
economist Alan Kreuger. Their
report tried to explain how the
economy could manage to have
such small increases in prices while
having unemployment rates lower
than many economists believed
possible. One thing Katz and
Kreuger suggested could be an
answeristhe higher rates of people
One Florida
From page 8A
to have fewer opportunities be
cause of race, because of class,
because of gender. Black people,
Latinos and Latinas, and women
are still the poorest in this na
tion, are still more apt to face
discrimination in the work place,
in housing, in health care. That's
the message to Governor Bush -
pretending that this is not so is
not acceptable. We will not, like
the people in The Stand, allow
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in jail and prison in the 1990 s than
in the 1960 s and 19705. People
who are in prison do not enter the
Bureau of Labor Statistics num
bers because they are not part of
the “civilian non-institutionalized”
population.
Indeed incarceration rates are
at a disturbingly high level. Stll,
their assumption that the low Afri
can-American unemployment
rates are probably because of the
high share of African Americansin
jail and prison is misleading. Un
fortunately, too many of those in
jail or prison could be making mean
ingful contributions to society and
their families. Except for their
prison records, too many are high
school graduates, and in the cur
rent labor market would probably
be employed. Twenty-two points,
plus triple-word-score, plus 50
points for using all my letters
Game’s over. I'm outta here
Twenty-two points, plus triple
word-score, plus 50 points for us
ing all my letters. Game's over
I'm outta here.
Spriggs is director of research
and public policy for the National
Urban League, Inc.
the government to pretend that
everything is all right - that all
are equal or that laws are not
necessary.
More African Americans
moved to the state of Florida in
the 1990 s than to any other state
in the country. They’re not about
to let Governor Bush turn them
around. In the words of one man,
“Thisis abusinesstrip,” adding,
“We have to take care of busi
ness and stand up against the
powers and principalities.” Or
in the words of his homemade
sign on the van they traveled in,
“www.nosellout.com.”
FAIRWAY FORD
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Rod Thomas, Business Manager
AUGUSTA FOCUS
A state that’s not
too busy to hate
Isn'! it interesting that the
Georgia Legislature could
pass a bill to outlaw cruelty to
ammals with overwhelming bipar
tisan support, but the hate crimes
bill has seen support almost stnctly
along party lines” What does this
tell us about the racial climate of
our state and the lack of respect for
the lives of minorities?
Senate Minority Leader Eric
Johnson, R-Savannah, said it best,
in the heat of the debate around
the hate crimes bill, “Increasing
penalties for crimes against cer
tain groups of victims would, in
effect, place a higher value on pro
tecting those people than their fel
low residents " The Georgia Legis
lature sent a bipartisan message
that they place a higher value on
the lives of our fellow animal resi
dents than they do persons who
happen to be members of minority
groups
What vacuum is Senator Johnson
bivingin,ishe really from Savannah?
Maybe that wasn't lus final answer?
He went on to say, “We are all equal
intheevesof God, and in Amernicawe
are still equal in the eyes of the law.
That's the Issue that 1s under attack
..." Wrong that Isn't the Issue! God
1s not being put on trial. Hate mon
gers are being put on trial. When
white supremacist attack me because
I am an Afrcan American, where is
your equality” When police stop and
shoot me at will, where 1s yourequal
ity? When racist come lin the night
and burn black churches, where 1s
your equality” When a black man
was being dragged down a road in
Texas by a group of white suprema
asts, where was vour equality? This
Issue 1s about enacting laws to en
sure that those who deny my equal
MARCH 23, 2000
black ¢
in the cg
By The Rev. Dr. 2
alll C Watkins ,':n'
ity are prosecuted swiftly, harshly
and called what they are racist hate
mongers who are motivated by their
prejudices against me, my people
and other minonties. Quite simply,
we live in a raaist country and the
Senate Minority leader and his cro
nies want to maintain the Southern
Tradition of killing black folk and
other minonties at will with httle
fear of serous legal repercussions
The Southern Poverty Law
Centre's recent report makes it
clear that hate groups are con
solidating and getting larger
Hate groups are becoming more
sophisticated. They are becom
ing high-tech and preparing for a
major assault against minorities
When we moved back to the
South after fifteen vears of hiving
around the country, I remember
traveling to Atlanta and hearing
the popular slogan, “Atlanta, a
city too busy to hate " It appears
some members of the legislature
who meet in Atlanta, not only
have they found time to hate they
alsoare trying toensure that oth
ers have time to hate and act on
their hate with hittle fear of legal
sanction. So this 1s the new
South to which we've returned
What's new about it”
Dr. Ralph Watkuns is a sociology
professor at Augusta State Univer
sitv and can be reached at 1706
737-1735 or ema
rwatkins@aug edu
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9A