July 30, 2017

Black Women Will Rise Despite Unequal Treatment
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Lots of women’s organizations commemorate Equal Pay Day, which this year was April 5.  It meant that women, in general, would have had to work all of 2016, and until April 5, 2017, to earn the same amount of money that a man earned in 2016.  Few will recognize July 31, 2017, which is the day by which African American women will have to work to earn the same money a man earned last year – seven extra months!  A Latina woman will work until October, or nearly 10 extra months, to earn the same money a man earned.

I wonder about our “women’s coalitions” when majority women’s organizations, like the National Organization for Women, are silent for Black Women’s Equal Pay Day.  Does it matter to them?  Maybe not.  It matters when they want to present a multiracial, multicultural “united front” at a Women’s March, but less so at other times.  The lesson, Black women, is a lesson some sisters raised in 1991, when Anita Hill testified in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.  People had all kind of explanations for Hill’s testimony, most of them woefully wrong and viewed through a lens, darkly.  Led by feminists Elsa Barkley Brown, Deborah King and Barbara Ransby, more than 1500 women raised enough money to pay for an ad in the New York Times on November 17, 1991.  The ad, titled  “African American Women in Defense of Ourselves” (AAWIDO), reminded Black women that no one should speak for us, except us.  No one can be relied on to defend us, except us.  And no one can be depended on to celebrate us, but us.  No one can lead advocacy for our equal pay, but us.

I’m not dismissing our allies – “woke” men of color, especially Black men, “woke” white women and other women of color.  I’m just saying we can’t count on everybody to be woke.  Evidence – was there an equal amount of noise on Black Women’s Equal Pay Day?

And in the Reign of Ignorance, there is likely to be even less noise, as the House Appropriations Committee has actually proposed defunding a program that collects salary data from employers.  Without the data, we won’t know the extent of pay discrimination.  We know plenty now.  We know that Black women earn 63 cents for every dollar paid to white men, compared to the 80 cents white women earn.  We know that Black women in Louisiana earn the least compared to white men, about 48 cents on the dollar!  In comparison, Black women in Missouri, Tennessee, Maryland and Pennsylvania earn 68 cents for every dollar a white man earns.  Whatever we earn, it ain’t equal.

What we don’t know is how women fare inside some organizations.  And you can’t dismantle pay discrimination without having the details of it.  Under President Obama, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission established requirements to provide pay transparency.  Businesses with more than 100 employees were required to start releasing salary data in March 2018.  Of course, those who want to sweep pay discrimination under the rug argued that it would cost too much to collect the data.  And now, the Republican Congress says that no resources may be used to collect this very necessary data.  It reminds me of the old folks who used to say, “you don’t miss what you can’t measure”.  But we can measure the pay inequity, and we can see it in the quality of women’s lives.  We might not be able to point a finger at one company or another (Republicans are also likely to make class action lawsuits more challenging), but we have enough aggregate data to know that there is pervasive gender discrimination in the workplace, and that Black women shoulder an extra burden because of the intersection between race and gender.

Not only do African American women earn less, but we also catch more shade because of our skin color, because of who we are and what we represent.  Former First Lady Michelle Obama has spoken out, though very gently, about the racism she experienced while in office.  At a recent gathering in Colorado, she spoke about the many “cuts” she experienced, and told the Denver Post that "The shards that cut me the deepest were the ones that intended to cut," referring to comments about her looks, and especially those that referred to her as “an ape”.   She said she was dismayed in "Knowing that after eight years of working really hard for this country, there are still people who won't see me for what I am because of my skin color."

When I read Michelle Obama’s comment, I thought about Dr. Maya Angelou and her classic poem, Still I Rise.  One stanza reads, “You may shoot me with your words,

you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise.”

Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author, and Founder of Economic Education. Her podcast, “It’s Personal with Dr. J” is available on iTunes. Her latest book “Are We Better Off: Race, Obama and public policy is available via amazon.com

July 23, 2017

Reality Check
Why the United States is the Richest Country in the World
By A. Peter Bailey

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The United States of America (USA) is much-heralded by itself, and by its friends and enemies as the materially richest country in the world. Which it really should be since it’s the only country in the world that had over 300 years of enslaved labor. This fact is well-documented in the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s section on the enslavement of African people.

The following information which is posted on the walls of the section, tell the story of how the USA got so wealthy:

1. Slavery’s success built the economic foundation of America. In two generations, cotton produced by enslaved people transformed the fledging nation into a world power and a leader in global trade. This rapid change sparked heated political debate. Southern slave owners demanded political power to match their financial influence. Northern interests pushed back, fearing the power of the slave-owning minority. This unease over slavery created dangerous new forms of racism. Together, enslaved and free African Americans organized to overthrow slavery. (To me that last sentence should say “enslaved and free Africans” since at that time our ancestors were not citizens of the USA).
2. The financial legacy of the slave trade helped create the nation states of Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, France, Great Britain and the United States, as well as others in the Caribbean and South America. The church, merchants, families and individuals benefitted from those profits which helped to build the large assets of many institutions.
3. By the mid-1700s numerous colonies were deeply invested in slavery. Rhode Island grew wealthy from the slave-based economy and the slave trade while New York maintained one of the largest North American slave ports. Northern merchants looked toward the Caribbean and found new ways to profit from slavery. In fact, the labor of enslaved Africans supported Northern merchants’ efforts. They grew the food that sustained enslaved workers on Caribbean plantations, served on the docks where slave ships were built and afforded a luxurious life for the slave-owning aristocracy.
4. The mark of slavery was everywhere in America. Drawing on generations of skill and artistry, enslaved people built railroads, constructed canals, dug the intercostal waterway, designed beautiful homes and crafted fine furniture. They lived in cities, small towns, on farms and on huge plantations. Each experience was different and left a small opening for freedom and ingenuity. Regardless of the place, though, the threat of violence and punishment was never far away.
5. In the domestic slave trade, the brutality that connected people and profits was clearly on display. Dealers were meticulous in their assessments of the value of enslaved people. During slave sales, enslaved people were forced to deliver a good showing to bring in the most profits; a glum display sometimes brought a whipping. Pleading for loved ones was not tolerated. Slave dealers believed such behavior made for a poor business environment, which cost time and money.
6. The lives and labor of enslaved African Americans transformed the U.S. into a world power. Yet they received no recognition or payment for what they created. By 1860 four million enslaved people produced well over 60 percent of the nation’s wealth. And the slave trade valued them at $217 billion. Selling an enslaved person provided ready cash, explaining in part why roughly 600,000 people were sold in the domestic slave trade. This vast wealth in human form, affected the entire nation.
7. In the Low country, slave owners were dependent on enslaved West Africans from the Upper Guinea Coast. Generations of West Africans mastered the rice production in their homelands by harnessing the tide and inland marshes. Africans carried this knowledge to America. Their skills and labor transformed the land from deep swamp into rice fields and made South Carolina one of the richest colonies before the Revolution. By enslaving skills, slave owners reaped enormous profits and political power.
8. Many Americans opposed slavery. White workers saw enslaved people as undercutting their pay with cheap labor. Farmers feared the competition from wealthy slave owners for land and agricultural markets. Other Americans thought slavery would inevitably lead to rebellion. Regardless of their stance, most white Americans did not want to be integrated with African Americans. Only a few believed that slavery denied human equality. In 1853, Indiana Congressman, George W. Julian remarked, “The American people are emphatically a negro-hating people.”
9. On January 1, 1808, a new federal law prohibited the importation of enslaved people into the United States. This opened up a massive internal slave trade. Between 1820 and 1860, as cotton cultivation expanded westward, roughly 1,000,000 people were taken away from their families to vast plantations along the Mississippi River Valley. Enslaved Blacks were bequeathed to relatives or moved as planters looked for new land. This immensely profitable trade in humans and forced migration had financial, political and demographic repercussions still felt today.

And So It Is.

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A. Peter Bailey, whose latest book is Witnessing Brother Malcolm X, the Master Teacher, can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

July 23, 2017

Blackonomics
Reciprocity in the Marketplace
By James Clingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - We hear a great deal of discussion about the percentage of money Blacks spend with Black businesses versus how much we spend with White businesses—and others as well.  It has been said that 90 percent or more of Black dollars are spent at non-Black businesses.  Obviously, that leaves about 10 percent for our businesses. What are we getting for that 90 percent?  Blacks must drastically change our spending habits and/or leverage what we do spend.

The average annual revenue (sales) for Black owned businesses without employees is $58,000 and for those with paid employees it is $948,000, both of which are much lower than other so-called “Minority Groups.”

A report published by the U.S. Small Business Administration, titled, “Minority Business Ownership: Data from the 2012 Survey of Business Owners” by Michael McManus, Regulatory Economist, had this to say about Sales Disparities:

“Evaluating disparities using per-firm sales average shows the stark difference between minority and nonminority firms. It also highlights key variations between minority groups. For example, [Black]-owned firms average about $58,000 in sales per firm, while Hispanic firms generate two and a half times this amount; Asian-owned firms, 6 times as much; and nonminority-owned firms over 9 times this amount.”

One can reasonably extrapolate a couple of things from that point: Black businesses must grow to the point of being able to hire employees; and Black businesses need a great deal more support—from Black consumers as well as other consumers—to reach parity.

One other point of consideration is the industry in which we choose to start a business.

The report states, “While the number of minority-owned businesses is growing rapidly, disproportionate amounts are in the lowest 20 industries in terms of sales. In aggregate almost 58.9% of all African American-owned businesses are in the 20 lowest sales-generating industries…”

Finally, as I have cited many times, of the more than 2.6 million Black businesses only 111,000 have employees.  Do the math and see why we must grow our businesses in order to make them more viable in the marketplace.  In order to have more of our $1.2 trillion flowing through Black businesses we must have larger ones in more profitable industries.  Make sense?

Now here’s the rub against us as consumers of Black products and services from Black entrepreneurs.  Paradoxically, while we must have more sustained growth and we must venture into more scalable business ventures, many Black consumers are buying  from other groups and some are even refusing to do business with Black firms, for one reason or another.  Add that reality to the fact that other groups do not support our businesses to any great degree, which could be due in part to the industries we select, and Black business is stuck on a treadmill, expending a lot of energy without moving forward, multiplying but never growing.

Top all of this off with the fact that we hold our entrepreneurs to a higher standard than we hold others.  We want reciprocity from them, and we want them to “give back,” which is quite reasonable and appropriate.  However, we do not demand the same level of reciprocity from the other businesses that we support virtually every day.  Don’t agree?  Then tell me, where is the balance of our $1.2 “trillion” annual income when we deduct the $188 “billion” in annual revenues earned by Black businesses, not all of which comes from Black consumers?

Let’s face it, Black consumers could never spend all of our $1.2 trillion with Black owned businesses; we do not have enough businesses for that ideal to become a reality.  We can certainly increase the amount we currently spend, but until we establish and grow more businesses, which will take at least a generation if we concentrate on it, we will continue to spend vast sums of money with businesses other than our own.  So why are we not seeking reciprocity from them?

We must use collective leverage that can be given or withdrawn at a moment’s notice.  Understanding that Black consumers cannot get around spending dollars with non-Black companies, the Collective Banking Group of Maryland, and its local chapters, work with White owned and other companies, in mutually beneficial strategic partnerships,  to obtain reciprocity. Banks, furniture stores, carpet stores, automobile companies, restaurants, movie theaters, supermarkets, and many other companies that profit from the Black dollar should reciprocate to their Black customers beyond sponsoring a dinner or a youth baseball team.

If we are going to spend tremendous sums of money with White owned, Indian owned, Chinese owned, and Arabic owned businesses, then it’s up to us to initiate and negotiate reciprocal agreements that benefit both groups.  One side of that equation is already complete: We benefit them.  Since we inevitably will keep spending our money with them, don’t you think we should complete the equation by getting some benefit ourselves?