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PART 2 - YOUTH VIOLENCE – The Annihilation of a Generation - The Halloween Carnage by Michael Radcliff

Nov. 13, 2011

YOUTH VIOLENCE – The Annihilation of a Generation

The Halloween Carnage

By Michael Radcliff

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Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Louisiana Weekly

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “Between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. on October 31 and November 1, there were five separate shootings in the city of New Orleans,” explained Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “There were 16 people shot, 14 injured and two killed.

“This is a clarion call not just for New Orleans, but for the entire nation,” the mayor continued. “Young African-American males being killed at the hands of other young African- American males – is a national tragedy. It’s unnatural and it has to stop.”

“What we have here is a culture of violence,” he went on to say. “A lot of killings in this city are not the conventional murders you normally see in urban areas. Many of these incidents occur as a result of often petty arguments, often amongst friends, getting out of hand, resulting in one or both parties resorting to guns to settle the conflict. We need to get better. We can’t stop this without a change in culture… [At one time] It used to end with a fist fight.”

“The city is working to find ways to catch young people during their formative years and teach them the conflict-resolution skills many are lacking,” James Carter, the newly appointed crime commissioner and former city councilman said last week.

“I think we’ve probably lost at least one generation of African-American males from the age of 18 to 25,” declared Orleans Parish Criminal Court Judge (Terry) Alarcon, “They’re lost … They didn’t have a chance. It’s easier to get guns now, however that is. The people who used to settle things with fists now settle things with guns. This city has suffered from a lack of proper funding in a bunch of areas — recreation, education, criminal justice.

“And,” Alarcon continued, “you’re asking police officers to be psychiatrists, social workers, lawyers and judges. The educational system is floundering… By the time they get to us, the story’s pretty much written.”

“The epidemic is that young people are getting guns,” City Councilmember Susan Guidry said. “They’re getting guns very easily and they’re using them. And if you ask them they’re telling you they have to have a gun to protect them from each other, and they’re scared. They’re too young to have a lethal weapon.”

Echoing Mayor Landrieu’s assessment, NOPD Superin¬tendent Ronal Serpas said petty disputes that end with young men killing one another are “unnatural and unacceptable.”

The Halloween shootings began shortly after 8 p.m. when a 16-year-old was shot in the leg on South Pierce St; a little over an hour later, 19-year-old Joshua Lewis made the fatal mistake of accidentally bumping into 24-year-old Baltiman Malcom on the corner of Canal Street and University Place. A fight ensued and ended when Malcom pulled out a gun and shot over 30 rounds, killing young Lewis and wounding three other people. About an hour later, on Bourbon St. 25-year-old Albert Glover, who was initially pegged as being one of two shooters, was killed, according to a number of his friends and family members who witnessed the murder. Glover was reportedly killed after stopping to talk with a woman and an unknown African-American male glared at him. When Glover glared back at the man, the gunman opened fire on him, killing him, injuring the woman and a number of innocent bystanders.

“He [Albert] lost his life because of eye contact,” explained his aunt, Angela Ratliff-Waxter. Glover’s father, Arthur Gray, tragically was also a victim of Black-on-Black murder, as his best friend shot and killed him when young Albert was a little over a year old.

Later on Halloween night, two young African-American men got out of a car on Spain St. and were immediately attacked by the shooters from another car. Both survived the attack and are expected to make a full recovery..

The Role of Alcohol, Drugs and Rap Music…in Youth Violence .

According to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s report on Youth Violence and Alcohol, “Alcohol use directly affects cognitive and physical function. Hazardous alcohol use can reduce self-control and the ability to process incoming information and assess risks, and can increase emotional ability and impulsivity, to make certain drinkers more likely to resort to violence in confrontation. Additionally, reduced physical control and ability to recognize warning signs in potentially dangerous situations can make some drinkers easy targets for perpetrators.”

In essence, underage drinking is not only a risk factor for the perpetrators who commit violent acts, but also a risk factor for victims of youth violence. All too often, being a victim or even witness of violence can lead to youth using alcohol to cope as a form of self medication. Alcohol and youth violence are inextricably linked ritualistically as part of youth gang cultures as well as an initiation into adulthood. In a community sample of 18– to 30-year-olds in the United States, almost 25 percent of men and 12 percent of women had experienced some form of violence or aggression in or around a licensed bar during the previous year. Furthermore, it has been determined that crowded and poorly managed bars add to an increase in aggressive behavior among young drinkers.

In a recent study, conducted by the Institute of Youth Develop¬ment, four out of five of the teens questioned admitted using alcohol before entering college; nearly half admitted to using alcohol by the time they entered the eighth grade. Drawing a direct correlation to children afflicted with fetal alcohol syndrome, or pre-natal exposure to alcohol, the WHO report underscores the long-term affects on these young victims experiencing behavioral and social problems, including delinquent behavior which in turn contributes to keeping the cycle of violence continuing well into the next generation.

According to a SAMSHA (the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) report titled “Youth Violence and Illicit Drug Use,” “Youths aged 12 to 17 who used an illicit drug in the past year were almost twice as likely to have engaged in a violent behavior as those who did not use an illicit drug.” Nearly half the adolescents surveyed by SAMSHA who used marijuana or inhalants in the past year engaged in violent behavior, as opposed to nearly 70 percent of those who used methamphetamines. More than half of today’s teens will have used drugs by the time they graduate from high school.

A study conducted by Howell and Decker entitled “The Youth Gangs, Drugs and Violence Connection” concluded that “Because the growth in youth gang violence coincided with the crack cocaine epidemic, the two developments were generally perceived to be interrelated. This same conclusion was reached in assessments conducted at all governmental levels, suggesting that youth gangs were instrumental in the increase in crack cocaine sales and that their involvement in drug trafficking resulted in a growth in youth violence.”

Additionally, more alarmingly, recent trends have shown that girls and young women are using illicit drugs at earlier ages, nearly as early as boys. Due primarily to the physiological differences between the sexes, substance use often turns into abuse and/or addiction more rapidly in girls and young women, than that of their male counterparts; even when using less of the illicit drug. While girls and young women use drugs for different reasons than their male counterparts, they ultimately pay a higher price in terms of consequences, ranging from depression, being sexually abused or assaulted, to a significantly higher rate of suicide.

Very few argue that rap music is a powerful influence and rappers are very powerful role models; and a recent study by the Prevention Research Center of Berkeley, Calif., concluded that young people who listen to rap and hip hop are more likely to abuse alcohol and commit violent acts. Yet one must concede that Americans have always to an extent been obsessed with violence. Americans have glorified the likes of Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Al Capone, John Dillinger, the Dapper Don, to the fictional Tony Soprano. So the argument of to what extent rap music exerts a greater influences remains to be debated.

However in the context of the marketing of alcoholic beverages has recently come under fire, as marketers have shown a correlation of rap music and their corresponding videos and an increase in sales of alcohol beverages mentioned in these songs. Violence and alcoholism has proven to be a toxic mix for youth.

Interestingly, African-American youth, who historically drink considerably less than youth in general, are continuously deluged with advertisements for beer and other distilled spirits aimed solely at this demographic. A recent survey found that African-American youth ages 12 to 20 were exposed to 66 percent more advertising for beer and 81 percent more advertising for distilled spirits; with the most intensive campaigns promoting the cognacs and brandies, which have become synonymous with hip hop and rap. The continuing growth of violence in young people across the board — not just African-American youth, but young people across America — demonstrates succinctly that the mix of violence and alcohol can have deadly repercussions,

Who are the Victims of Youth Violence?

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delin¬quency Prevention, “Between 1980 and 2008, an estimated 55,810 juveniles were murdered in the United States – 1,709 in 2008. In 2008, 30 percent of murdered juveniles were female, 47 percent were Black, and 50 percent were killed with a firearm; of the juvenile murder victims with known offenders in 2006, 39 percent were killed by family members, 47 percent by acquaintances, and 14 percent by strangers. About one in five reported murders of juveniles in 2008 occurred in just five of the nation’s more than 3,000 counties and the major cities in these five counties (beginning with the city in the county with the most murdered juveniles) are Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Houston and Baltimore. In 2008, about 86 percent of the 3,141 counties in the U.S. had no reported murders of juveniles, eight percent had one, and seven percent had two or more.

Murder is most common among the oldest and the youngest juveniles. In 2008, 39 percent of juvenile murder victims were under age six and 46 percent were ages 15 to 17. Of the estimated 1,709 juveniles murdered in 2008, 39 percent were under age six, seven percent were ages six to 11, eight percent were ages 12 to 14, and 46 percent were ages 15 to 17. However, the characteristics of juvenile murder victims vary with age. In 2008, a substantially larger proportion of victims under age were killed by family members than victims ages 15 to 17 (56% vs. 4%). Another major difference between the murder of older and younger juveniles was the relative involvement of firearms. In 2008, firearms were used in 15 percent of murders of juveniles under age 12 but 81 percent of the murders of juveniles ages 12 to 17. At the point of greatest risk (the top of the highest peak), are 19- and 20-year-olds killing 19- and 20-year-olds. Many very young children are killed by persons in their 20s and 30s — mostly incidents of infants being killed by their parents. Adult offenders tend to kill victims in their own age group

Males account for the largest share of juvenile homicide victims, but the female proportion has grown since the mid 1990s. In 2008, females accounted for 30 percent of all juvenile murder victims, down from 36 percent in 2002. Until their teenage years, boys and girls are equally likely to be murdered. Between 1980 and 2008, the annual numbers of male and female homicide victims were very similar for victims at each age under 13. However, older victims were disproportionately male. For example, between 1980 and 2008, 84 percent of murdered 17-year-olds were male.

While homicide is the second-leading cause of death for the 15- to 24-year-old segment of the population, it is the leading cause of death for African-American youth in this category. Black youth accounted for about 16 percent of the juvenile population between 1980 and 2008, but were the victims in 47 percent of juvenile homicides during the 29-year period. In the early 1980s, the homicide rate for Black juveniles was four times the rate for white juveniles. This disparity in¬creased so that by 1993 the Black rate was six times the white rate. The relatively greater decline in Black juvenile homicides bet¬ween 1993 and 2002 (down 52 percent, compared with a 36 percent decline for whites) dropped the disparity in Black-to-white homicide rates back to 4-to-1, before increasing slightly in the years from 2003 through 2008. About half (49%) of juvenile murder victims in 2008 were white, 47 percent were Black, and three percent were either American Indian or Asian.

Older juveniles are more likely to be killed by a firearm than younger juveniles. Between 1980 and 2008, at least three of every four (78%) murder victims ages 15 to 17 were killed with a firearm, compared with one of every 10 (10%) murder victims ages 0–5. In 2008, firearms were used in 15 percent of the murders of juveniles under age 12 but in 80 percent of the murders of juveniles ages 12 to 17.

Older juvenile victims (ages 15 to 17) of nonfatal violence were more likely than younger victims (ages 12 to 14) to have been victimized by a stranger (41% vs. 32%) and less likely to have been victimized by an acquaintances (45% vs. 58%).

More than half (53%) of nonfatal violent crimes against younger juveniles occurred at a school. Younger juveniles were slightly less likely than older juveniles to be victimized at home (15% vs. 17%). In contrast, violent crimes with juvenile victims peaked between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., fell to a lower level in the early evening, and declined substantially after 9 p.m. Robbery victimizations for persons under age 18 reach their highest levels between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Aggravated assault victimizations of juveniles peak between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Most victims of violent juvenile offenders were themselves juveniles, and most victims of violent adult offenders were age 18 or older. Juveniles were the majority of offenders for violent crime victims ages eight to 15 only. About one in eight violent crime victims of juvenile offenders (5% + 7%) and adult offenders (1% + 11%) was a stranger, while almost half (48%) of the victims of juvenile crime were juveniles who were acquaintances of the offenders.”

 

Michael Jackson Eulogist Says Guilty Verdict is ‘Down Payment of Justice’ by Hazel Trice Edney

Michael Jackson Eulogist Says Guilty Verdict is ‘Down Payment of Justice’

By Hazel Trice Edney

 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - It’s over. The lengthy involuntary manslaughter trial in the case of King of Pop Michael Jackson ended this week with a guilty verdict for his personal doctor, Conrad Murray and “mixed emotions” from Jackson loved ones.

Reverend Al Sharpton, close friend of the Jackson family, and  eulogist at Michael Jackson’s funeral said in a statement, “ I received the news of the guilty verdict in the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray with mixed emotions feeling that only a down payment of justice has been served.”

Murray purchased and administered the powerful anesthetic propofol which Jackson craved to help him fall asleep. Murray was accused of giving the star an overdose of the drug and taking too long to respond after Jackson stopped breathing June 25, 2009.

The dramatic trial, which lasted more than a month, featured a string of Murray’s girlfriends who spoke of how he called them on the day Jackson died, supporting patients who spoke of his compassion and care, anesthesiologists as other expert witnesses.

Murray could serve as much as four years in prison for the death of Michael Jackson. However, speculation has it that with overcrowding in the Los Angeles penal system, he could serve out his time in a house arrest or a less likely probation.

The star-studded Jackson family expressed relief at the verdict for Murray, some crying.

"He was in that courtroom and that's why victory was served," Jackson's sister La Toya told CNN News as she left the courthouse.

"I'm just happy it's over with. Nothing will bring him back, but I'm just happy (Murray) was found guilty," said another sister, Rebe. Jackson's mother, Katherine, remained silent after the verdict was read, quietly wiping away tears.

In a statement issued on Saturday before Monday’s verdict, Jackson’s father, Joseph Jackson, issued a statement describing the saga as “one of the darkest moments of our lives.”

He wrote, “We miss Michael endlessly, our pain cannot be described in words. But Michael would not want us to give up now. So we want to thank all of his faithful supporters and loyal fans worldwide, you – who Michael loved so much. Please do not despair, because Michael will continue to live on in each and every one of you. Continue to spread his message, because that is what he would want you to do. Carry on, so his legacy will live forever.”
Crowds of fans outside the courthouse cheered at the news of Monday’s verdict.

Sharpton’s statement concluded:

“Certainly I feel that more punishment could and should have been served but I am pleased that this jury didn’t blame Michael for his own death,” said Sharpton’s brief statement. “For the Jackson family, particularly his mother and children that have gone this horrific ordeal, to hear a verdict that buried Michael again would have been devastating. I am happy that they didn’t have to suffer that indignity. I feel that Dr. Murray and others who benefited from Michael but didn’t protect him got off relatively lightly. Michael lost his life and we lost one of the greatest entertainers that ever lived. I lost a friend and will never forget him.”

Black Farmers Finally Getting Paid by Valencia Mohammed

Nov. 7, 2011

Black Farmers Finally Getting Paid

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President Obama, during a 2010 White House visit, congratulates John Boyd for work on behalf of Black farmers. (Courtesy Photo)

By Valencia Mohammed
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspapers 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The U.S. District Court approved a settlement in the ongoing saga between Black farmers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) providing an additional $1.2 billion for housands of plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit.

The Black Farmers Discrimination Litigation, decided Oct. 27 by Judge Paul L. Friedman, was derived from a class action suit initiated in 1997, Pigford v. Glickman, in which African-American farmers (initially James Copeland, Earl Moorer and Marshallene McNeil) joined to allege a pattern of systemic exclusion from USDA grant and lease programs.

It was alleged that USDA discriminated on the basis of race in various federal programs denying Black farmers loans and other benefits that were granted to White farmers. It was noted, when the Black farmers filed complaints to USDA, the allegations were not investigated. In addition, no remedies were sought to correct egregious violations of civil rights laws. USDA’s failure to act deprived countless farmers of credits and payments under various federal programs which resulted in financial and real estate losses.

“This agreement will provide overdue relief and justice to African American farmers, and bring us closer to the ideals of freedom and equality that this country was founded on,” said President Barack Obama at a recent press conference.

The resulting consent decree was soon enlarged to include about 40,000 persons after Congress acknowledged the historical validity of the claims by expanding the statute of limitations. This allowed the litigation to proceed unhindered by the 1981 to 1996 time span.

Uncertainty about who qualified as a “Pigford complainant” persisted as thousands more submitted claims. The number reached 61,252 by 2000, and most of these claims were allowed for consideration after passage of the 2008 Farm Bill. By 2010, about 16,000 complainants received over $1 billion in “direct payments, loan payments, and tax relief.” These direct payments threatened to deplete the $100 million in funds allocated under the Farm Bill to make the remaining qualified complainants whole. Additional relief was sought.

“I am glad to see that this day has finally come. For years, Black farmers have faced discrimination – not only from businesses, but from the very government that was meant to protect them. The U.S. District Court’s approval of the settlement is a major step forward in closing an ugly chapter of USDA’s civil rights history. Not only will this agreement provide overdue relief; but it will provide justice to African American farmers who have been disenfranchised,” said chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, D- Mo.

John W. Boyd Jr., founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, hailed the ruling granting the motion to certify and approve the settlement in this historic discrimination case.

"Today, because of a Congress that was willing to once again waive the statute of limitations and to appropriate $1.25 billion to help further redress the historic discrimination against African-American farmers, the court is pleased to approve the settlement agreement proposed by the moving plaintiffs, and endorsed by the United States, as fair, reasonable, and adequate."

Boyd added, "Today is an important day, in fact a truly historic day for the nation's Black farmers and for all of those who worked so hard to give every farmer their day in court so they may be compensated for the government's discrimination.”

Boyd reminded the farmers there is still more work to do. “It is also important for the farmers to know that all cases must be adjudicated before the payments go out to the farmers. After all we have been through – justice always finds its way home. I have been praying for this day.

“The settlement isn’t perfect but we’re glad the judge finally resolved the situation. The farmers need their money. But it’s unfortunate it took so long. Many of them have died waiting while this struggle played out.”

Researcher DeRutter Jones contributed additional material to this story.

Stop the Violence Against Women by Julianne Malveaux

Stop the Violence Against Women

By Julianne Malveaux

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Fort Worth Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated held its annual Sisterhood Luncheon last Saturday, and I was privileged and honored to be the keynote speaker. A cloud hovered over the luncheon, though, and the media was there to talk about it. Four Delta women have been raped in the Dallas Fort Worth area in the last year by a serial rapist who appears to be targeting women in their 50s and 60s. The rapes have caused such alarm that the national President of our sorority, Cynthia Butler McIntyre, has issued an alert, suggesting caution in displaying Delta identification on automobiles, and in wearing identifying t-shirts and sweaters.

Every two minutes, someone is sexually assaulted. More than 200,000 people, mostly women, are sexually assaulted each year. But only one in sixteen rapists will spend even a moment in jail – more than 60 percent of all rapes are not reported to the police. Most rapes occur within a mile of a victim’s home, or in her home, and almost two-thirds of all rapes are committed by someone the victim actually knows. Nearly 80 percent of all rapes are perpetrated on women under 30, so the Delta rapes are unusual in many respects. Still, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority has the opportunity to turn the pain of these rapes into an empowering moment by organizing to stop the violence against women.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was authored by Vice-President Joe Biden when he was the senator from Delaware. It became law in 1994, and was reauthorized in 2000 and 2005. It is up for reauthorization again this year, and while it should face no trouble in Congress, who knows with this Congress? While there should be no resistance to this reauthorization, it is important for women to remind their congressional representatives that this critical legislation must be reauthorized.

Additionally, there is a federal agency that focuses on implementing VAWA by providing resources to organizations dedicated to preventing violence against women. The Office on Violence against Women (ww.ovw.usdoj.gov) is part of the Department of Justice. Earlier this fall, they held a meeting of university chancellors and presidents to talk about campus safety and violence against women, since college-aged young people are more likely to be victims of such violence than others are. The office urges people needing assistance to reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE.

Although we are well into the twenty-first century, we still treat the crime of rape with nineteenth century sensibilities. Many women lack the courage that the Guinean victim of former World Bank President Dominique Strauss-Kahn (also known as DSK) showed. Yet her treatment is a cautionary tale about why so many victims are silent. After Naffissatou Diallo spoke up, we learned all her business – that she cleaned rooms for $25 an hour in New York, that she had an acquaintance or fiancé who may have been involved in drugs and was incarcerated in Arizona, that she may have lied on her immigration application, and that she may have earned income that she did not report. Before it was all said and done, charges were dropped. Then DSK fled back to France where he spoke of an “inappropriate relationship” with Diallo. Give me a break! When does spilling your semen on someone you do not know constitute a relationship? I digress. The point is that many women don’t speak out because they don’t want to be dragged through the media mud of scrutiny into their past lives. Even a prostitute can be raped, but the prostitute wouldn’t likely get a fair trail, especially if her abuser were rich and powerful. The victim’s character is still placed on trial, and that shouldn’t be the case. And yet, how many women judge victims of rape with the same harsh scrutiny that others have. What was she wearing? Was she asking for it? Was it just miscommunication?

VAWA does not address many of these questions, and perhaps it cannot. We have to change the culture so that rape is so repugnant an act that most people will not consider it as an option, that penalties are so harsh that people can be thrown under the jail for such crimes. Four members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority were violated in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and more than 200,000 people are violated in our nation each year. Delta can use the pain of these rapes to lead the nation in drawing a line in the sand. Enough is enough. It is time to stop the violence against women.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is President of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, NC.

Black Unemployment, Lowest in Two Years, Still Much Too High by Hazel Trice Edney

Black Unemployment, Lowest in Two Years, Still Much Too High

By Hazel Trice Edney

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CBC Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.)

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Unemployment in the Black community is now at its lowest in exactly two years, according to the newest numbers reported from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the gap between Black and White statistics remains vast.

The drop in the Black unemployment rate – nearly a whole percentage in one month - has received applause by the Congressional Black Caucus, but CBC Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) makes it clear the numbers are still drastically high.

“I am pleased that the number of private sector jobs grew by 104,000 over the past month, representing the twentieth straight month of increase, bringing the overall unemployment rate down to 9.0 percent and African-American unemployment from 16 percent to 15.1 percent, but there are still far too many Americans out of work,” Cleaver said in a statement. “By now, we should all understand the stagnant economic condition in which our country finds itself. The economy will only continue to worsen if we do not act quickly to address it.  Politics has continued to trump legislative productivity—providing policy solutions that create opportunities for the American people so that they can care for themselves and their families.”

Despite the drop in Black unemployment, the gap between races is still incredibly apparent. The White unemployment rate has remained consistent at 8 percent for the past three months. In fact the White unemployment rate has never risen above 9.4 percent over the past decade, always remaining well below the national average and always nearly half that of the Black rate. The 15.1 percent rate for African-Americans is the lowest since August 2009, when the rate reached 15 percent.

Cleaver, who spent the summer on a cross-country jobs tour with his CBC colleagues, wasted no time pointing out that while the economy shows signs of hope, the Obama jobs bill remains stuck amidst political wrangling in the Senate.

"This week marked 300 days into the 112th Congress with no action on jobs,” he said in response to the new stats, released Nov. 4. “The Republican Leadership continues to bring forth divisive ideas instead of ensuring that we do our job as legislators and pass a comprehensive jobs bill.”

President Obama was in Cannes, France talking global economics at the G-2 Summit when the numbers were released. He gave his reaction during a press conference there, appearing to dismiss presidential politics – but focused on the quagmire in the Senate.

“I have to tell you the least of my concerns at the moment is the politics of a year from now,” Obama said in response to a question. "I'm worried about putting people back to work right now, because those folks are hurting and the U.S. economy is underperforming. And so everything that we're doing here … at the G20 mirrors our efforts back home - that is, how do we boost growth; how do we shrink our deficits in a way that doesn't slow the recovery right now; how do we make sure that our workers are getting the skills and the training they need to compete in a global economy.  And not only does the American Jobs Act answer some of the needs for jobs now, but it will also lay the foundation for future growth through investments in infrastructure, for example.”

He continued, “My hope is, is that the folks back home, including those in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, when they look at today’s job numbers - which were positive but indicate once again that the economy is growing way too slow - that they think twice before they vote “no” again on the only proposal out there right now that independent economists say would actually make a dent in unemployment right now.  There’s no excuse for inaction.

CBC members held job fairs in high employment cities across the nation last summer. Thousands came out to apply for jobs, sometimes lining up at 5 a.m. to wait for doors to open at 9.

“Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have seen firsthand the devastating economic conditions of millions of African-American families and millions of other American families by launching our national 'For the People Jobs Initiative',” Cleaver said. “CBC members have introduced over 50 job creation bills  since the beginning of the 112th Congress.”

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