Racial Trade-offs: Part II

Last week's column discussed the political trade-offs made by black politicians and civil rights organizations that condemn whole generations of black youngsters to failing schools (http://tinyurl.com/6mmlsf). Similar political trade-offs in labor markets condemn many blacks, particularly black youths, to high rates of unemployment and reduced economic opportunities. Let's look at this, starting with a few historical facts.

Today white teen unemployment is about 20 percent, while that for blacks is about 40 percent and more than 50 percent in some cities. In 1948, the unemployment rate of black 16-year-old and 17-year-old males was 9.4 percent, while that of whites was 10.2 percent. Up until the late 1950s, both black teens and black adults were more active in the labor market than their white counterparts. In fact, in 1910, 71 percent of black males older than 9 were employed, compared with 51 percent for whites. As early as 1890, the duration of unemployment among blacks was shorter than it was among whites, whereas today unemployment is both higher and longer-lasting among blacks than among whites.

It would be sheer lunacy to attempt to explain these more favorable employment statistics by suggesting that during earlier periods, blacks faced less racial discrimination. What best explains the loss of teenage employment opportunities are increases in minimum wage laws. There's little dispute within the economics profession that higher minimum wages discriminate against the employment of the least skilled worker. Such a demographic is disproportionately represented by black teenagers.

Despite these devastating effects, the entire Congressional Black Caucus and President Barack Obama support increases in minimum wages. At the state and local levels of government, there is similar black political support for higher state and local minimum wages, sometimes called "living wages." It's not just minimum wages to which black politicians give support; they give support to the Davis-Bacon Act, a Depression-era mega minimum wage law with racist origins. The Davis-Bacon Act mandates that "prevailing wages" be paid on all federally financed or assisted construction projects. It's a pro-union law that discriminates against both nonunionized black construction contractors and black workers.

During the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act legislative debates, quite a few congressmen expressed their racist intentions, such as Rep. Miles Allgood, D-Ala., who said: "Reference has been made to a contractor from Alabama who went to New York with bootleg labor. This is a fact. That contractor has cheap colored labor that he transports, and he puts them in cabins, and it is labor of that sort that is in competition with white labor throughout the country." Rep. John Cochran, D-Mo., said he had "received numerous complaints ... about Southern contractors employing low-paid colored mechanics getting work and bringing the employees from the South." Rep. William Upshaw, D-Ga., spoke of the "superabundance or large aggregation of Negro labor." American Federation of Labor President William Green complained, "Colored labor is being sought to demoralize wage rates." Though today's Davis-Bacon supporters don't use the same language, the racially discriminatory effects are the same.

President Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus, black state and local politicians, and civil rights organizations are neither naive nor stupid. They have been made aware of the unemployment effects of the labor laws they support; however, they are part of a political coalition. In order to get labor unions, environmental groups, business groups and other vested interests to support their handout agenda and make campaign contributions, they must give political support to what these groups want. They must support minimum wage increases even though the increases condemn generations of black youths to high unemployment rates. They must support Davis-Bacon Act restrictions even though those restrictions handicap black contractors and nonunion construction workers.

I can't imagine what black politicians and civil rights groups are getting that's worth condemning black youths to a high rate of unemployment and its devastating effects on upward economic mobility, but then again, I'm not a politician.

“...organizations that condemn whole generations of black youngsters to failing schools...”

This answer to this burning question is BULLSHIT!

Mom and whoever the father might be are responsible...not organizations.

Morals: Honesty, hard work, responsibility, culture, and a host of many other factors determine anyone’s ability to actually do something with their life that actually means something. Schools are the last place you will find that principle for they are bastions of liberalism and leftist zealots.

Whether black, white, green or blue, morality and self-discipline are the only two factors to advance in life. These factors are taught at home and “home” is a foreign word to many of these black youth. It may be a “crib” or some place to flop down...but it is not a home.

The more the government tries to make them equal with hard working and moral Americans, the farther down the “moral bar” is lowered so they can at least touch it...and that’s considered a victory by the left.

MORALS, the only medicine to transform one from an animal to a productive citizen.

-—— more than 50 percent in some cities-——

The reason is that the cities have degenerated to the point of being obsolete. They no longer function as cities. Part of the degeneration is the influx of the black underclass that has strived mightily to exist free of the need to be part of the civic society.

There is no solution to the problem. These people are in effect caged in the city. The containment exists because there is no effort to resolve the problem.

The urban containment areas will continue so long as money is wasted on continuation. Once the money slows or stops, the cities will burn and outward migration will begin

“...organizations that condemn whole generations of black youngsters to failing schools...”

It's the black youngsters, and their unionized teachers, who make the schools "failing".

If the school population was taken out and replaced with Orientals, the schools would no longer be "failing".

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