By Ed Prince
Executive Director, Wa. St. Commission on African American Affairs
As we continue to recover from our economic downturn recovery for African Americans cannot be forgotten. The Great Recession has had a disproportionate impact on the Black community with job loss and home loss hitting our community harder than many communities. Even African American families who are holding down jobs are making less money than their white peers. According to the US Census 2012 American community survey the median family income for African Americans in Washington is $45,677 compared to $72,203 for White families and $81,050 for Asian families. The income disparity for the African American families who are working is 26,526 and 35,373 respectively.
This disparity is also seen in unemployment rates. African Americans have a higher rate of joblessness than any other ethnic group. According to the US Census in Washington we have an unemployment rate of 13% compared to rates of 6% for Asians, 8% for Whites, and 11% for Latinos. When we look at home foreclosures nationally African Americans are 76% more likely to lose their home to foreclosure than Whites.
As we climb out of the financial mess our previous President left us these are the things I believe can be starting points for an African American recovery:
• An intense focus on job retraining with a commitment to quality job placement.
• Increased competitive inclusion of African Americans in contracting and procurement
• A continued emphasis on programs helping people who have their homes but are behind stay in their homes.
• Programming that helps people who lost their home build credit to become homeowners again.
While we are still in recovery mode we need to put plans in place to help ensure future generations don’t meet the same fate. So a full court press has to be put in place to close the opportunity gap among African American students and reduce the disproportionate amount of suspensions/expulsions our students face. A high quality education is the equalizer to income inequality.
