Black American soldiers walk down a street in Bristol in England during World War II.
Blacks and Latinos suffered disproportionate losses of wealth and social standing, compared to whites, during the George W. Bush economy. But, of course, that’s merely a prelude to what unfolded next, and what’s to come.
In the article below, Vijay Prashad, a professor of South Asian history and director of international studies at Trinity College, takes us on a brief economic tour through the loss of minority dignity over the last few decades and the role America’s military and corporate establishments have played in the fall. He also shows us a future that looks remarkably like the past. —ARK
CounterPunch:
... Between 2005 and 2009 every “racial” group lost wealth, but the losses were largest amongst Hispanics and Blacks. Inflation-adjusted median wealth of white households fell by 16%, but Hispanic households lost 66% and Black households lost 53%. As of 2009, the typical white household had wealth (assets minus debts) worth $113,149, while Black households only had $5,677 and Hispanic households $6,325. The myth of the post-racial society should be buried under this data.
The most dazzling fact is not this decline. It is what is to come. The National Urban League Policy Institute’s latest study finds that unemployment for Blacks with four-year college degrees has tripled since 1992, and overall unemployment is near 1982 levels, namely 20%. Such numbers have not been seen since the Depression. Langston Hughes wrote that the 1930s “brought everybody down a peg or two,” but that those on the darker side of the Color Curtain had not much to lose. That is no longer the case. The thirty years since 1965 provided a boost to the Black and Latino middle class, largely thanks to employment at the various levels of government (and salutations to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees for its battles to hold public sector wages). With unemployment on the rise, it will be difficult to build back those assets.
The shuttering of the U. S. industrial sector and the attack on public sector jobs hit the Black and Latino workers very hard. Rather than tax the rich and use these public funds to build up a different kind of economy (such as to make public rail networks), the Clinton administration harshly developed a massive prison archipelago and hacked at the modest social welfare system in the country. In the name of balanced budgets and supply side economics, a generation of young people of color lost access to decent education. It is difficult to try and get a job if your resume includes a stint in prison, often for non-violent economic crimes (such as employment in the drug economy, one of the few places to get a job in neighborhoods of the disposable class). The other place for employment, of course, was the military.
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By Rodney, August 1, 2011 at 3:34 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The Bush Presidency was the beginning of the end for
America.We will probably never fully recover. The
transfer of wealth through the Bush tax cuts created
a permanent elite group of wealthy people who have
more than enough money to keep it that way. Plus they
have Fake I mean Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to keep
the white middle class dumb and ignorant. When you
add in the Supreme Court Decision allowing unlimited
corporate contributions to campagnes and the tea
baggers who came into office with goal of destroying
the government they love to hate, minorities are
doomed to poverty. Race truly plays a huge factor in
what is going on. The state federal and local
governments has been the example and model of equal
opportunity employment for minorities. The hiring of
minorities by the government has been largely
responsible for the Black and Hispanic middle class.
That is why the Republicans and the tea baggers are
going after government workers like police firemen
and teachers along with their pensions.
Because when you destroy and lower the wages and
benefits of the government workers,you destroy the
minority middle class. So many of them could care
less if the government defaults. They have money in
such enormous sums invested globally that they will
always be wealthy. They want to turn America back to
the days of low wages and benefits as a new form of
slavery. If a few middle class whites suffer to then
so be it. Slaves along with other minorities were the
original government workers. Their labor built the
homes monuments and railroads that still exist in
America today. That is where the tea baggers are
trying to take America and minorities back to. Back
to 1776.
Fascism is the end product of the victory of unregulated “free” market corporate capitalism! Disease such as Nazism takes root when a gullible majority is induced to fear and hate any and all unlike themselves and made to believe that anything of value belonging to these despised groups is fair game for those of the “master” race, faith, ethnicity, or what have you. Does any of this ring a bell with you, my fellow Amerikans?
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By Rodney, August 1, 2011 at 3:34 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The Bush Presidency was the beginning of the end for
Report thisAmerica.We will probably never fully recover. The
transfer of wealth through the Bush tax cuts created
a permanent elite group of wealthy people who have
more than enough money to keep it that way. Plus they
have Fake I mean Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to keep
the white middle class dumb and ignorant. When you
add in the Supreme Court Decision allowing unlimited
corporate contributions to campagnes and the tea
baggers who came into office with goal of destroying
the government they love to hate, minorities are
doomed to poverty. Race truly plays a huge factor in
what is going on. The state federal and local
governments has been the example and model of equal
opportunity employment for minorities. The hiring of
minorities by the government has been largely
responsible for the Black and Hispanic middle class.
That is why the Republicans and the tea baggers are
going after government workers like police firemen
and teachers along with their pensions.
Because when you destroy and lower the wages and
benefits of the government workers,you destroy the
minority middle class. So many of them could care
less if the government defaults. They have money in
such enormous sums invested globally that they will
always be wealthy. They want to turn America back to
the days of low wages and benefits as a new form of
slavery. If a few middle class whites suffer to then
so be it. Slaves along with other minorities were the
original government workers. Their labor built the
homes monuments and railroads that still exist in
America today. That is where the tea baggers are
trying to take America and minorities back to. Back
to 1776.
By berniem, August 1, 2011 at 10:06 am Link to this comment
Fascism is the end product of the victory of unregulated “free” market corporate capitalism! Disease such as Nazism takes root when a gullible majority is induced to fear and hate any and all unlike themselves and made to believe that anything of value belonging to these despised groups is fair game for those of the “master” race, faith, ethnicity, or what have you. Does any of this ring a bell with you, my fellow Amerikans?
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