Trump Lied About Black Employment Stats in His State of the Union Address
Fellow Comrades,
I’m sure many of you were able to catch number 45’s first State of the Union Address last night. I’m sure many of you, also, flat-out couldn’t have cared less about it and ended up watching NetFlix or something like you normally do on a Tuesday night at 9 o’clock. And, truth be told, I really didn’t have much of an interest in catching it myself. However, the prospect of trump, more than likely, regurgitating some type of repackaged incomplete statistics or half-truths, dressed in vaguely defined patriotical dogma, was one I felt I couldn’t miss.
The reason being, I don’t want anyone of you to ever, not even for a sliver of a nanosecond, think that dump and his administration are anything other than psychotic and demonic scum bags who are hellbent on promoting and maintaining racial inequality (unequivocal social and financial superiority through systematic white supremacy) and class inequality.
Don’t even consider a 4th of a 4th of a 4th of 1 chance this administration, in any reality or universe, will ever push forth any type of legislation that’s going to help strengthen democracy or make America a more equal society. As crazy as his rhetoric is capable of being–which most of us know, I know that if someone repeats something to you enough, even psychobabble, there’s a slim possibility you’ll start buying into it, and we can have that.
Now, I know just how bad you all just want this 4-year nightmare to end, so you’re desperately searching and grasping for this administration to just present some type of concept that sounds remotely sane or that doesn’t sound like they’re purposefully trying to sink our democracy to the bottom of the Atlantic, but I’m sorry. I, too, at one point, was looking for the same thing. However, after a year of seeing how the government is choosing to do business, we need to come to our senses and accept this administration for what it is.
Not only that, we need to accept and prepare for the reality of life in this country under 45. I didn’t want any of my readers nor anyone else to ever become accustomed to the wickedness taking place in Washington nor rejoicing any time they hear something like…
…”Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small business, to lower tax rates for hard-working Americans. We nearly doubled the standard deduction for everyone”
— tax reform that is going to severely weaken the black community.
As usual, a great deal of “fact check” articles populate on the websites of many of major news providers: NPR (the best one in my opinion), The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times. However, I noticed that none of those lists checked dump in the grossly inadequate statistic he pooped out about the African American unemployment rate.
“And something I’m very proud of, African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded. And Hispanic-American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history.”
Dump, was, indeed, correct in that the unemployment rate is currently sitting at 6.8% of African Americans, which is the rate that hasn’t been that low since January of 1972. What dumpy didn’t tell you, though, is that those rates have been steadily falling since 2010, based on the Labor Department’s analysis and of little credit to his works nor that of his administration.
What this incomplete statistic also didn’t tell you and what none of the fact checklists covered either was, just because more black people are employed than ever doesn’t mean black people aren’t collectively living in a financially unstable situation. When we start to really break down the data, black wealth is still pretty much non-existent in America. Like for real, there is no such thing.
Because in reality, the typical black family only has 6% of the wealth that a typical white household does. To backdoor that, the Latino family has 8%. This is based on the study entitled, “The Racial Wealth Gap: Why Policy Matter,” at Demos.org. This was a study from 2011. What that then evolved to, in 2017, is, the median black family is worth about $1,700, while the median white family’s worth is sitting at about $116, 800, as reported by the Institute for Policy Studies.
Now, as I present the data, the typical response I might hear would be something along the lines of, “Well, there are more white people than black people in America, so it’s only natural that white people would have more wealth.” I would argue, the fact that there are fewer African Americans (specifically the descendants of American slavery) than Caucasians and that, yet, the financial resources are still so maldistributed is, in fact, indicative of some type of systematic corruption.
And, to really frame this narration, we’re not talking about wealth in terms of an individual basis or what you perceive based on the social circles you interact within your community nor what the demographics look like where you work. That’s why it’s important to look at the medians (the collective). How is it that, on average, this country’s wealth is spread out amongst the typical white household at 16 times more than black families, even though there are less black people in the populous? Due to the fact there’s less of us, there should be more resources distributed amongst the collective of the black populous because of the common sense fact that there are fewer people to spread it around to.
I blame this disparity not on black people being too lazy to “pull themselves up the bootstraps like everyone else “(because we have historically done so time and time again), black people not getting enough college education, black people being unable to effectively practice group economics, nor any other stereotypical rhetoric the media portrays to the dominant society about why black people are in the poor condition they’re in. I have and will always continue to hold white supremacy accountable for this disparity.
White supremacist practices, which have historically and still are backed by the federal government, can’t be overlooked and most definitely cannot get a pass (chattel slavery, jim crow, housing discrimination by FHA (a racist practice donald dump participated in himself), the New Deal, the war on drugs/mass incarceration, the systematic destruction of prosperous black neighborhoods.)
The statics also show, on average for 2017, in order for someone to afford a one-bedroom apartment, they would need to make at least $21.21 (full-time), in order for that amount to be a minimum of 30% of their income. The federal minimum wage is $7.25. If your rent is over 30% of your income–and, this is without factoring in kind of debt you might have–it makes very difficult to save, invest, or make monthly payments on a vehicle.
A great deal of African Americans are, indeed, employed, but dump didn’t specify that most of them are part-time (probably a minimum wage job), and are, in many cases, working multiple jobs just to be able to afford the most modest forms of residency. Think of how much time and energy that takes away from loved-ones and from just being a human being experiencing life.
This month alone 57,296 white males obtained full-time employment, as opposed to 7,533 for black males. When you take into account the gargantuan wealth gap in addition to the rising standard-of-living cost, while also factoring minimum wage and the lack of hiring for African Americans, the low unemployment rate of black America dump boasted about doesn’t mean Jack spit, does it?
Family, I’m not writing this to depress nor demoralize you. My goal is simply to encourage everyone to accept the reality of life under this administration for what it is. We CANNOT and WILL NOT make any kind of political change without learning to become involved in politics.
Don’t forget, dump is only as powerful as the people keeping him in power. Congress has got some ‘splaining to do come November for not moving forward to impeach this idiot already. Remember there is a Congressional election this November. This is your chance to get people in Congress who hold politicians like dump accountable for their actions.
One Love & One Justice,
Hello Family,
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