June 9, 2013

Subsidizing Sam's Kids
By Dr. E. Faye Williams Esq

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – My recent visit to Bentonville, Arkansas confirmed several thoughts I’d held for a long time.  First, Sam Walton is an extraordinary example of the American entrepreneurial spirit.  He built a virtual empire in the heartland of America from scratch with the belief that, “There is only one boss - the customer.  He can fire everyone in the store.”  His philosophy of creating wealth for himself and those who worked for him is reflected in his active encouragement of his store managers to invest in their stores and share in the profits.

Second, he launched a determined effort to find manufacturers who could supply American-made merchandise for the entire Wal-Mart chain at a price low enough to meet foreign competition.  In my distant memory, I can recall the proud declarations of “American-made” posted throughout Wal-Mart stores.

Sadly, the Walton heirs have departed from Sam’s founding principles to the detriment of the communities in which the stores are located, their employees and the image that Sam worked so hard to develop.  Because of this deviation from old principles and Wal-Mart’s declining public image, many progressive consumers refuse to patronize or support Wal-Mart.  This rejection of Wal-Mart patronage is, unfortunately, an effort in futility.  Although many may not cross the threshold of a Wal-Mart store, most tax-paying Americans subsidize Wal-Mart by contributing to the public assistance received by Wal-Mart’s working poor.

Because so many Wal-Mart employees are paid at a rate below the poverty level, we, the taxpayers, are forced to pick-up the tab for Wal-Mart’s failure to pay a living-wage.  It’s been estimated that each Wal-Mart employee may cost taxpayers up to $6000.00 per year.  Some of those costs include: paying for free-and-reduced meals for public school students; Section 8 Housing Assistance; Earned Income Tax Credit; Medicaid; Low Income Home Energy Assistance; the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP-Formerly the food stamp program).

While many Wal-Mart employees recognize the deficiency of their pay and would like to seek additional employment, a common complaint is of inconsistent work schedules.  Willing workers are prevented from seeking added sources of income because they find themselves bound to the job they have rather than gambling on the possibility of other employment.

While we, the taxpayers, subsidize Wal-Mart’s working poor, the wealth of 6 of the Walton heirs rose from $73.3 to $89.5 billion!  These  6 individuals own as much wealth as 41.5 percent of all American families combined.  Indisputably, Wal-Mart’s profits don’t translate into improvements in the wages or benefits of its employees.  In November 2012, Wal-Mart ranked first among 12 companies paying Americans the least. It is obvious that Wal-Mart can do better by its employees.

Wal-Mart’s employee compensation stands in stark comparison to one of its main competitors, Costco, which has a reputation of paying its employees a living wage and providing ample benefits.  The average hourly wage for a Costco employee is $21.96 per hour and 88 percent routinely work a sufficient number of hours to receive benefits associated with full-time employment.  The $8.81 paid to the average Wal-Mart employee seems woefully insufficient in comparison.  Factoring the large number of Wal-Mart employees who work less than fulltime schedules and receives no benefits, that $8.81 provides no financial security.

Sam Walton said, “Each Wal-Mart store should reflect the values of its customers and support the vision they hold for their community.”  It is time that we stand to prevent those who now manage Wal-Mart from distorting his vision.  We must not allow them to continue to use their financial power to subjugate those who seek a fair and living wage.  We must remove their hands from the pockets of taxpayers and demand they pay their fair share.  It’s up to you to determine how that objective will be best met.

Dr. E. Faye Williams is Chair of the National Congress of Black Women, www.nationalcongressbw.org. 202/678-6788

Reality Check

 By A. Peter Bailey

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Slightly more than a year ago I wrote a column urging Black folks to begin paying much closer attention to the ever-increasing conservative influence in this country. I especially wanted the Black Press to begin profiling major conservative individuals, groups and organizations to make their readers, listeners and viewers more aware of those forces that are the foundation of a movement that has little, if any respect for us.

I was motivated to make this appeal after re-reading a statement by the late William F. Buckley, Jr., the founder of National Review magazine and considered by many to be the godfather of modern American conservatism. In a December 30, 1991 issue of his publication, Buckley wrote the following:

“Now ethnic sensitivities vary. It doesn’t matter what John Cheever or John O’Hara or John Updike or anybody else writes about them-you cannot really succeed, in America, in riling the WASPs. Their sense of security is as solid as Plymouth Rock, and incidentally as insensate. Blacks, yes, are sensitive, but black lobbies are not powerful enough to punish nonpolitical transgressors against such taboos. (A black book-buyers boycott against a novelist would not impoverish.) If the spoken or written offense is egregious enough, as in the case of the joke told in 1975 to John Dean by Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz, a cabinet officer gets fired. If a district attorney is named to a federal judgeship and it is revealed that he once made a genial reference to the Ku Klux Klan, he can be defeated on the floor of the Senate. And no one running for office in a state in which the black population is significant would consider, post 1965, violating the taboos.On the other hand, there is discussion of such questions as to relative black intelligence, sexual promiscuity and upward mobility that still gets a sober hearing in sober surroundings. (Italics mine)About the American Indian one can say most things with impunity; about gays, progressively less as, emerging from the closet, they consolidate and give strength to their retaliatory powers.”

At least one has to give Buckley, whose haughtiness was legendary, some credit for acting on his belief that we were in no position to retaliate against his insults. The question now is how many conservative politicians, journalists, educators, radio and television talk show hosts, judges, corporate executives, cultural leaders etc. share the beliefs about Black folks expressed by the Godfather of modern American conservation.

This is where the Black Press comes in. It has the absolute responsibility to advance knowledge about conservatives such as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who basically has two votes on practically every issue dealt with by the Supreme Court- his and that of Justice Clarence Thomas.

It has to alert us about the key players in the Tea Party; it has to provide concrete information on those who head think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute; it has to increase our knowledge about the Koch Brothers, the chief financial force for numerous conservative causes and propagandists such as Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh who howl about our “playing the race card” whenever we bring up the subject of prevailing White supremacy or racism in this country. These people are in the position to negatively affect our individual and group lives. The first step towards dealing with them is knowing as much about them as possible.

By Benjamin Todd Jealous

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Fifty years after the NAACP field secretary was assassinated for his work to expand the vote, a new report reaffirms that his sacrifice was not in vain. For the first time in history, African Americans voted at a higher rate (66.2 percent) than non-Hispanic Whites (64.1 percent). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, black turnout increased by 1.7 million compared with four years earlier, and the Latino and Asian communities saw enormous increases as well.

This is exciting news. It puts to rest any notion that communities of color would fail to replicate their record turnout in 2008, which was hailed as the most racially and ethnically diverse electorate in history.

While we should enjoy this achievement, now is not the time to rest. As we realized after the disappointing showing in the 2010 midterms, black voter turnout is far from guaranteed. Instead, we should recognize that we succeed when we are invested with the spirit that Dr. King called "the fierce urgency of now."

As we look forward to 2014 and beyond, we need to consider what worked and how we can build on our momentum.

The most important takeaway is that this was no accident. Some may argue that the surge in turnout was purely a fluke, fueled by excitement for a black candidate and pushback against voter suppression. Surely, both factors helped motivate people of color. But the historic numbers came from a much more organic and replicable reason: voter registration and Get Out the Vote efforts.

The 2010 midterm elections were a wakeup call. Over the next two years, the NAACP developed the largest voter registration campaign in our history. We deployed 2,300 volunteers across fifty states; trained 1,000 database experts in 600 communities; and complemented our boots on the ground with social media and a robust mail campaign.

By the night of November 6, our volunteers had registered 374,553 voters and mobilized 1.2 million people to turn out at the polls. In Florida alone, the NAACP and our partners registered over 100,000 voters - nearly twice as large as the margin of victory in that state's presidential race.

In the end, the NAACP was the most successful organization in the country for door-to-door voter registration, and third most successful overall, trailing the Voter Participation Network and Rock the Vote.

We set the bar high, and we must continue to exceed it - even when the presidency is not on the line.

In 2013, thousands of state and local elections will decide everything from county health commissioners to local boards of elections. Next year, a total of 36 governorships, 468 seats in Congress, and thousands of state legislators are up for election. The winners of these contests will make critical decisions about public education, criminal justice reform, voting laws and labor laws. They can either move our country forward or bring it backward.

In the months and years ahead, the NAACP will rekindle our campaign to make sure voters are registered, engaged and active in upcoming elections. We will continue to train our army of volunteers in methods old and new. You can be a catalyst for change by contacting your local NAACP unit and volunteering as a civic engagement activist.

As Medgar Evers said, "Our only hope is to control the vote." In 2012, we did just that, and we proved that organized people can beat organized money every time. If we continue to act with the "fierce urgency of now", we will continue to make history. If we become complacent, we risk letting our nation's ugly history repeat itself.

Ben Jealous is president/CEO of the NAACP. Contact: Ben Wrobel, 917-846-0658, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Although the overall unemployment rate still exceeds 7 percent, and the official Black unemployment rate is greater than 13 percent, there are some who insist that there is a robust economic recovery in progress.  Indeed, we were declared “post recession” in 2011 based on the definition of recovery as GDP growth for three quarters in a row. 

The perception of whether the recovery is stumbling or soaring depends on your own financial status.  White and Asian households headed by those age 40-61 and have a two or four year degree recovered all but 2 percent of their wealth by 2012.  Similarly situated African American and Hispanic households had just 58.7 percent of the wealth they had at the beginning of the recession.  Wealth recovery depends on race, pre-recession portfolio (which speaks to the racial wealth gap), home value, stocks (the wealthier are more likely to hold stocks than others), savings (lower for African Americans), and debt (higher for African Americans).

Wealth accumulation is important. Even moderate amounts of wealth increase the likelihood that young people these in households are more likely to go to college, more likely to experience upward economic mobility, and more likely, in the next generation, to attain homeownership.  Our nation lost more than $16 trillion in wealth during the downturn.  Much of it has been recovered, but too many families, especially African American families, have yet to recover.  Homeownership among African Americans, especially younger African Americans have declined.

Unemployment also has something to do with the wealth gap, because those who are unemployed frequently draw down on their home value, increase credit card debt, or use other means to simply survive.  African Americans are twice as likely to be unemployed as whites are, and there are no existing public policies to both increase employment generally, and to target employment programs to those most in need. 

President Obama can’t create “Black” employment programs, but targeting employment possibilities to inner city resident is an implicit target to Black America. Targeting to recent college grads that are unemployed and have significant debt would also implicitly favor African Americans (since virtually all African American students graduate with some debt, but nearly 50 percent of whites graduate without debt).

Median wealth among single African-American women with children is just $5 according to a Pew study.  Average wealth is a bit higher, at $1000.  The root of this low level of wealth is a function of unequal income, but more importantly more debt, lower savings, and lower stock ownership. 

Consider the life of an African-American mom.  She works hard, raises her children as best she can, may or may not have health insurance (the lack of which can push her into debt), and is likely to have little savings.  She is all too often the sole support of her children.  If she is the most stable in her family, she is frequently “hit up” for loans by parents and siblings.  This, too, contributes to her difficulty to accumulate wealth.

Wealth gaps were significant even before the recession, with African Americans less likely to own homes, hold stock, or have significant savings.  Not only were African Americans more likely to have debt, but also African American debt was more likely to come from high-interest credit card debt, while others had lower-interest bank debt.  Can the gap between African American wealth and that of others ever be closed?  It’s unlikely given that unequal wealth is a function of history.  In other words, income is a snapshot of what is happening today, but wealth is the history of you and your family.  

The very wealthy pass on estates that may shape life chances for several generations.  Those who were enslaved, generally, had little to leave.  Often those who were thrifty enough to accumulate found their wealth blatantly stolen by envious whites.  The destruction of Black Wall Street had nothing to do with the fact that a black teenager allegedly jostled a white woman in an elevator, and everything to do with the thriving Black middle class in Tulsa, Okla.