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The US African American unemployment rate recorded an all
time low of 6.8 percent in December, 2017. The rate was the lowest ever
recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the rate jumped back to
7.7 in January (when the author was laid off from his current job).
The current employment press release plus additional historical
releases are available here: https://www.bls.gov/bls/news-release/empsit.htm
President Trump and Jay-Z feuded publicly over the Black
unemployment rate.
The low unemployment rate is also a distraction from another
important issue: Basically the new jobs created really stink! The jobs feature low pay, poor working
conditions, few benefits, no training and no promotional path. So, who cares
how many bad jobs we create; give us some good jobs!
As of Feb.14th, VP Mike Pence is stilling
claiming the Black unemployment rate is at a record low despite a spike up to
7.7%.
The mistake illustrates two points: One, the Black
unemployment rate is volatile and moves around a lot. Two, the current presidential administration
is incredibly uninformed and naive about economics, Black unemployment or the
stock market. Facts just don’t seem to matter.
Finally, Brookings has a more detailed piece on the same
issue. Black
Unemployment at Record Low.
Reveal has a big,
important story on continuing mortgage loan discrimination (redlining) in
cities against Blacks
https://www.revealnews.org/article/for-people-of-color-banks-are-shutting-the-door-to-homeownership/
and another story about
specific banks who are discriminating in mortgage lending
Associated Press also has the story in an easier to read
form
General News
Entrepreneur magazine has a slide show of 7 female black
entrepreneurs.
Interesting entrepreneurs in the article include:
Arlan Hamilton – Back
Stage Capital
Tracy Reese – Tracey Reese
Designs
Jessica O. Matthews -- Uncharted
power – power from movement including toys and soccer balls
Janice Bryant Howroyd seems to be the media’s favorite Black
entrepreneur of the month during February. She is pretty much everywhere.
Several publications have profiles of Janice Bryant Howroyd,
who is founder and chief executive of ACT-1 group, a personnel services
company. The company has done well as large corporations down-size and
outsource Human Resource functions.
NY Daily News: “Blacks must shift from consumers toproducers “ by Jay Mwamba. Not complete sure what the piece is about.
Another story about lack of diversity in tech. Article
speculates on diversity increasing revenue by $400 Billion. A little bit of a stretch.
The week of Feb. 11th to Feb. 18th,
2018 is also Black restaurant week
Chicago: http://chiblackrestaurantweek.com/
Baltimore: http://www.blackrestaurantchallenge.com/
National Public Radio also has a story
Jessie Jackson is calling for southern corporations in
Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi to increase Black hiring and support of
Black Business. The
Memphis Commercial Appeal has the story.
Politics and Policies
The partisan creation of election districts (gerrymandering)
has polarized the political process.
Research Papers
Here is an old but important link to “Diversity in High
Tech,” May 2016, US EEOC
Executive Summary
Full report
Interesting / Other
T-shirts with famous Black people as colleges and
universities. We like university of Baldwin.
The “Buy the Block” website aims to get Blacks to invest in
real estate.
And finally, deeper
reads
Go back and read the Reveal story on mortgage discrimination
right now!!!
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