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Top 10 Reasons Why People of Color Should Care About Sequestration by Sophia Kerby

February 24, 2013

Top 10 Reasons Why People of Color Should Care About Sequestration
By Sophia Kerby

News Analysis

Cuts to funding for critical medical research could endanger family health.
PHOTO: National Institute of Health

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Center for American Progress

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Thanks to congressional Republicans putting the economy in jeopardy during the debt ceiling debacle in the summer of 2011 and again in 2012, a package of automatic across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration is set to go into effect on March 1, 2013.

Senate Democrats have proposed a balanced approach to resolve this crisis, urging congressional Republicans to avoid the damaging sequester cuts by accepting a package of more tax revenue with targeted spending cuts. But once again Republicans are threatening the economy by risking massive and harmful spending cuts that will hurt the middle class, damage the economy, kill hundreds of thousands of jobs, and harm the most economically vulnerable among us.

Sequestration will impact all Americans but will have a particularly harmful effect on communities of color, who were hit first and worst by the Great Recession and have yet to significantly feel the effects of the recovery. America’s demographics are changing, and communities of color are the fastest-growing group of Americans. It is important that we invest now in these communities, as we prepare for the nation’s economic future and upcoming workforce needs.

The driving focus should be on averting crises that slow the nation’s economy and instead, promoting policies that help all Americans.

Below are the top 10 reasons why communities of color should pay attention to sequestration and the impact it will have in these communities:

1. Deep cuts to long-term unemployment benefits will disproportionately affect people of color. Extended federal unemployment benefits remain vulnerable under sequestration, and the long-term unemployed—those out of work and searching for a new job for at least six months—could lose almost 10 percent of their weekly jobless benefits if the sequester cuts go into effect next week. These cuts will have a greater impact on people of color, as 10.5 percent of Latinos and a staggering 13.8 percent of blacks are unemployed, compared to only 7 percent of whites. What’s more, in 2011, 40 percent of unemployed Asians, 38 percent of unemployed blacks, and 28 percent of unemployed Latinos were unemployed for more than 52 weeks.

2. Workforce development programs that are vital to communities of color such as YouthBuild and Job Corps face significant cuts. YouthBuild, a program connecting low-income youth to education and training, could be cut by about 8 percent under sequestration. Coupled with previous federal appropriation cuts in fiscal year 2011 by 37 percent, the program could see about one-third of its federal funding cut between fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2013. In 2010, 54 percent of YouthBuild participants were African American and 20 percent were Latino. Job Corps, an education and training program geared toward young adults, faces about $83 million in cuts in FY 2013 under sequestration. In 2011, 72 percent of Job Corps participants were people of color.

3. Cuts to critical job-creating programs such as the Build America Bonds program are also on the chopping block. Build America Bonds, which were created in the 2009 stimulus bill, provides incentives for infrastructure investments through the tax code. Since its inception, the program has helped states and cities fund thousands of job-creating infrastructure projects at lower costs than traditional tax-exempt municipal bonds. Build America Bonds could see budget cuts of up to 7.6 percent, however, if sequestration goes through. Build America Bonds benefit all Americans, as more than $106 billion of Build America Bonds have been issued by state and local governments in 49 states and the District of Columbia since the program started. Infrastructure investments stimulate employment in sectors that employ disproportionately high rates of workers of color, such as construction and public transit.

4. Federal budget cuts under sequestration would quickly mean cuts to federal, state, and local public-sector jobs, which disproportionately employ women and African Americans. In 2011 employed African Americans comprised 20 percent of the federal, state, and local public-sector workforce, and women were nearly 50 percent more likely than men to work in the public sector. According to the Congressional Budget Office, scheduled cuts in federal spending were the primary driving force behind slow economic growth projected for this year, meaning thousands of lost jobs and cuts to federal contractors.

5. Early child care funding could be cut by more than $900 million, impacting the thousands of children of color who benefit from these programs. Such cuts will mean 70,000 children will be kicked out of Head Start, a federal program that promotes the school readiness of children from low-income families from birth through age 5. Sixty percent of program participants are children of color.

6. Programs that directly help the most vulnerable families and children—such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC—are threatened by sequestration. WIC serves as a supplemental food and nutrition program for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women and for children under age 5. The program could be cut by $543 million — a devastating loss to the more than 450,000 people of color who benefit from its services.

7. Federal education funding cuts will disproportionately hurt students of color. If the sequester goes into effect, nearly $3 billion would be cut in education alone, including cuts to financial aid for college students and to programs for the most vulnerable youth—English language learners and those attending high-poverty, struggling schools—impacting 9.3 million students. Such cuts will affect key programs that receive federally funded grants such as Education for Homeless Children and Youth and federal work study. The lack of access to financial aid for people of color will further exacerbate the student debt rates in these communities. In the 2007-08 academic year, 81 percent of African-Americans and 67 percent of Latinos with a bachelor’s degree graduated with student debt, compared to 64 percent of their white peers. Cutting access to these vital financial aid programs will curtail the higher education aspirations of tens of thousands of students of color.

8. Cuts to critical medical research put patients at risk. The National Institutes of Health would lose $1.5 billion in medical research funding, meaning fewer research projects would be aimed at finding treatments and cures for diseases such as cancer and diabetes—both of which are among the leading causes of death for African Americans.

9. Since 2010 funding for housing has been cut by $2.5 billion, meaning any additional cuts would significantly hurt low-income families and communities. Many housing programs such as Section 8 Housing Assistance provide vouchers to low-income families for affordable housing in the private market. In 2011 Section 8 aided more than 2 million low-income families across the country. Data from 2008 indicate that 44 percent and 23 percent of public housing recipients are African American and Latino, respectively.

10. As the nation continues to endure a cold winter, programs such as the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which helps bring down the cost of heating for low-income households, are crucial. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helped about 23 million low-income people pay their winter heat bills, is in jeopardy of being cut in FY 2013. Low-income communities, which tend to disproportionately comprise of people of color, depend on such programs to make ends meet during these tough economic times.

In order to avoid significant damage to the U.S. economy—and particularly to communities of color across the country—congressional Republicans should agree to a balanced package to replace the sequester and its damaging cuts.

Sophia Kerby is the Special Assistant for Progress 2050 at the Center for American Progress.

Voting Rights Face New Challenge Before Supreme Court by Zenitha Prince

Feb. 24, 2013

Voting Rights Face New Supreme Court Challenge This Week
By Zenitha Prince

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Voting Rights Act of 1965 will be on trial again this week when the United States Supreme Court hears Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, on Feb. 27. It is a case that challenges the very heart of the law.

In April 2010, Shelby County, Ala., a largely White suburb of Birmingham, Ala., filed suit in federal court asking that Section 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act be declared unconstitutional.

Section 5 requires jurisdictions with a history of discrimination against minority voters to prove that any change in election law or practice “does not have the purpose and will not have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color.” Any such changes have to be approved by federal authorities before they can be enacted. Section 4 provides the formula to determine which jurisdictions should be covered under the law.

Shelby County lawyers argued in their Supreme Court brief that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority in 2006 when it reauthorized Section 5 for another 25 years, saying that many of the barriers to the ballot box had been torn down or circumvented, negating the need for such burdensome requirements.

“Section 5 exacts a heavy, unprecedented federalism cost,” the plaintiff’s brief read. “And Section 4(b)’s coverage formula ‘differentiates between the States, despite our historic tradition that all the States enjoy equal sovereignty.’”

Voting rights groups are calling the case an attack on what has been the “most powerful and effective civil rights act in U.S. history,” according to Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office.

The ACLU and groups such as the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund have filed amicus briefs or are representing other parties in the case. They refute Shelby County’s claim that voting discrimination has been lessened enough to justify the elimination of Section 5.

“Congress compiled a voluminous record, documenting the persistence of voting discrimination before it extended the Voting Rights Act…in 2006,” Steve Shapiro, ACLU’s legal director, said in a teleconference on Feb. 21.

“While there is no doubt that progress has been made since 1965, the last election vividly showed that voter suppression and voting discrimination are not just problems of the past but [also] problems of the present that continue to undermine our democratic process,” Shapiro added.

Barbara Arnwine, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee, elaborated on some of the challenges to voting that Section 5 was instrumental in combatting.

“Just in the last year, because of Section 5, Texas was prevented from implementing redistricting plans that were adopted with discriminatory intent,” she said. Section 5 was also used to stymie Texas’ restrictive voter identification law that disproportionately disenfranchised young, elderly and minority voters; and to block Florida from reducing early and weekend voting hours, which have been traditionally used by minority voters.

“Section 5 is the great protector,” Arnwine said.

The advocates seemed confident that the Supreme Court would rule in their favour—the Supreme Court has upheld the law four times since 1965.

Shapiro said, “Section 5 is clearly constitutional and even a conservative court should uphold it if it is faithful to its own precedent."

Obama Ignores Crises in America’s 'Dark Ghettos' By Dr. Ron Daniels

Vantage Point

Obama Ignores Crises in America’s 'Dark Ghettos'

By Dr. Ron Daniels

News Analysis

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Last week, once again President Barack Hussein Obama mounted the podium at the Capitol to deliver the State of the Union Address to a Joint Session of Congress, the nation and the world.

By all reasonable measures the address was an impressive center-left, moderate-liberal agenda on domestic issues like jobs, the minimum wage, infra-structure repair, energy, early childhood education, tax reform, deficit reduction, gender equity, marriage equality, immigration and gun security – a policy prescriptions vastly superior to the dangerous/extremist positions of the radical conservatives and Tea Party obstructionists.

President Obama’s Inaugural and State of the Union messages vindicated the massive march on ballot boxes by people of African descent and a Rainbow Coalition of constituencies and interest groups to repel the repugnant assault of the right-wing Neanderthals. President Obama was clearly the better choice.

But, there is a major problem. Once again the myriad crises, the State of Emergency in America’s “dark ghettos” was missing from the agenda.

While he has taken great care to directly address issues of vital concerns to Latinos, women, lesbian and gay people and youth/students, time and time again, President Obama has refused to directly address the devastation and disaster in urban inner-city neighborhoods - intolerable conditions of depression level joblessness, inferior education, crime, violence, fratricide and mass incarceration.

Time and time again defenders of the administration quietly pass the word to justifiably disgruntled Black supporters that our community is indirectly benefiting from policies like the Affordable Health Care Act. And, this is absolutely true. The problem is that the State of Emergency in America’s dark ghettos is so immense, so intractable, that it requires the conviction and courage of a President who is willing to speak the truth to the American people – 50 years after the March on Washington, millions of Africans in America are “still far from the Dream.”

Instead, Obama behaves as if issues of structural/institutional racism are a thing of the past. Therefore, no racial remedies are required to address the pain, suffering, imprisoned and murdered aspirations of the sons and daughters of Africa in America’s dark ghettos. In his Inaugural address, the President eloquently referenced Seneca Falls, the site of the launch of the first wave of the women’s rights movement; Stonewall, the event which sparked the lesbian and gay rights movement; and, Selma, a high water mark of the Black Freedom Struggle. During his tenure in office, the President has consistently and correctly pushed policies to eradicate gender inequality and discrimination against lesbian and gay people as part of his quest to finish an unfinished civil rights/human rights agenda in this country. But, when it comes to Black people, it is as if Selma represents the pinnacle of the movement, after which no meaningful direct action is required. We are reduced to commemorating the past with no explicit recognition of our present pain and suffering. It is as if we are “invisible.”

To be fair, President Obama did not create the crises afflicting America’s dark ghettos. For decades, urban inner-city areas have been victimized by massive disinvestment as a result of the “white backlash” against the “gains” of the Civil Rights Movement and deindustrialization occasioned by globalization. Blatant neglect has been the order of the day as politicians at all levels have essentially substituted “get tough on crime” policies, paramilitary policing strategies, tougher sentencing, jails and mass incarceration for social, economic and racial justice. Rather than continuing the War Poverty, Black people have been victimized by a “War on Drugs” that is a “war on us.” Ever since the era of Ronald Reagan, urban inner-city areas have been treated like dangerous, crime-infested wastelands that must be controlled/occupied.

So, President Obama did not create the crises, he inherited it. The problem is that like previous Presidents, he is guilty of ignoring the crises or failing to explicitly address it. As an African-American who experienced living and organizing on the south side of Chicago and attended Trinity United Church of Christ, deep down inside, President Obama must know and feel the pain and suffering of Black people struggling to survive in urban-inner city America. His real perceptions and feelings notwithstanding, it is abundantly clear that he and his advisors have made a calculated decision to keep race out of the public discourse and racial remedies off the public policy table. Apparently, there is a fear that to mention race or address “racial grievances” would lead to charges that he is partial to Black people or that it would fuel racial resentment. While the White House ponders and pontificates on how to develop “stealth” or “trickle down” strategies to address the State of Emergency in America’s dark ghettos, millions of Black people are suffering. This is a big problem and it cannot be allowed to stand!

Mr. President, it’s time for a wake-up call. The agenda you have put forth is commendable, but it simply does not go far enough to combat the crises in urban inner-city neighborhoods. We respect you, but just as Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders were compelled to confront John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson (Presidents who they respected) to demand government action to end southern apartheid, we today must raise our voices to demand social and economic justice for distressed Black communities. Race based remedies must be resurrected as part of the discourse on public policy. There is growing consensus among civil rights/human rights and political leaders in Black America that you must call for and educate the America people on the urgent need for social and economic policies and programs targeted directly to ending the State of Emergency in America’s dark ghettos.

Based on the Declaration of Intent to Heal Black Families and Communities, the Action Agenda of State of the Black World Conference III, IBW has already expressed our determination to use direct action, if necessary, to vigorously press for an end to the “War on Drugs;” jobs and economic development programs for distressed Black communities; and just and equitable immigration reform that protects the interests of people of African descent. Mr. President, race still matters in America.

It’s time to face this reality and act with vision, courage and conviction to end the state of emergency in distressed/marginalized Black communities. Be forewarned, we are not and will not be invisible.

Dr. Ron Daniels is president of the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century and Distinguished Lecturer at York College City University of New York. His articles and essays also appear on the IBW website www.ibw21.organd www.northstarnews.com. To send a message, arrange media interviews or speaking engagements, Dr. Daniels can be reached via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Civil Rights Leaders Applaud Obama's New Initiatives by Hazel Trice Edney

Feb. 17, 2013

Civil Rights Leaders Applaud Obama's New Initiatives
By Hazel Trice Edney

sotu_hero_03

President Obama gives his State of the Union Address Feb. 12. PHOTO: The White House

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Two Weeks ago, a group of civil rights leaders, led by National Urban League President Marc Morial, threw down the gauntlet, strongly urging President Obama to address the jobs crisis and economics in America’s urban communities.

Gauging applause following Obama’s Feb. 12 State of the Union address, he is at least beginning to meet the demand.

“We applaud President Obama for making clear his focus on job creation and preparing our youth for success in college, work and life as the keys to economic prosperity for our communities and country. We echo his call for swift passage of the American Jobs Act, which we believe will level the playing field for many Americans who have yet to benefit from the economic recovery,” said Morial in a statement immediately following the speech.”

NAACP President Ben Jealous agreed. “The President knocked it out of the park,” he said in an interview. “The President understands … that persistent poverty and violence are connected. This was a response to our call for clear and real solutions to the jobs crisis that’s been plaguing our community.”

His first State of the Union speech in his second term, the president was pressured by high expectations. With America’s gun violence suddenly spreading from the inner cities into the suburbs with a rash of mass shootings, his challenged was – in part – to speak to them both with equal compassion. However, an even greater challenge was to address the clearly different causes of the violence – one being the economic crisis in Black communities that the civil rights leaders have highlighted.

“Tonight, let’s also recognize that there are communities in this country where no matter how hard you work, it is virtually impossible to get ahead. Factory towns decimated from years of plants packing up. Inescapable pockets of poverty, urban and rural, where young adults are still fighting for their first job. America is not a place where the chance of birth or circumstance should decide our destiny. And that’s why we need to build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class for all who are willing to climb them,” Obama said in the speech, marked by repeated applause.

He continued, “Let’s offer incentives to companies that hire Americans who’ve got what it takes to fill that job opening, but have been out of work so long that no one will give them a chance anymore. Let’s put people back to work rebuilding vacant homes in run-down neighborhoods. And this year, my administration will begin to partner with 20 of the hardest-hit towns in America to get these communities back on their feet. We’ll work with local leaders to target resources at public safety, and education, and housing.”

Most recently, Chicago has become the central point of media attention on gun violence because of the killing of 15-year-old Inaugural majorette, Hadiya Pendleton, whose parents were guests at the State of the Union. They were guests of First Lady Michelle Obama, who had attended Hadiya’s funeral. After the speech, the President also went to Chicago, speaking at Hyde Park Career Academy near the site of Hadiya’s murder.

“There’s no more important ingredient for success, nothing that would be more important for us reducing violence than strong, stable families -- which means we should do more to promote marriage and encourage fatherhood,” he said, in a deeply personal address.

“Don’t get me wrong. As the son of a single mom, who gave everything she had to raise me with the help of my grandparents, I turned out okay,” he said. “So we’ve got single moms out here, they’re heroic in what they’re doing and we are so proud of them. But at the same time, I wish I had had a father who was around and involved.”

In the speech that was punctuated by light laughter and applause, the President also underscored some of proposals from the State of the Union such as improvements on public safety, education and housing as well as raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour.

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., who, the week before the State of the Union, called for President Obama to “Come home,” said he is also pleased with the headway the Obama administration is making in addressing urban crime and poverty.

“The point is that Chicago exposes the complexities of the urban crisis, which requires some plan for reconstruction because it’s been so destroyed,” Rev. Jackson said in an interview. “The issue in Sandy Hook was guns in the hands of a wild man and the gun culture for sport. In Chicago, like Baltimore, like Memphis, like New Orleans – it’s drugs in, guns in, jobs out, houses foreclosed, driving poverty and 40-50 percent unemployment. That’s a different combination.”

Jackson said he agrees with the President’s ideas on background checks and mental health checks before the purchase of handguns. But there’s much more need in Black communities, he said.

“Urban America requires something far more massive than the lack of guns.” He proposes a “reconstruction bank” with trillions of dollars to rebuild communities. “You cannot bring the communities back. You cannot revive the communities on the banks that destroyed them for greed and profit. You need a reconstruction bank.”

Regardless of what the proposals are, most will need to pass a bitter and divided Congress.

In that regard, U. S. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) encouraged the partisanship to end for the sake of a new beginning.

“Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial and proclaimed ‘We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.’ Tonight President Obama stood in the well of the U.S. House of Representatives, and echoed Dr. King’s sentiment. He took up the mantle of Dr. King in declaring, ‘It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation of ours,’” Clyburn said in a statement. “I applaud his vision, and I look forward to working with the President and my colleagues in Congress to get our country on a path of opportunity through economic development, job creation and investing in education, infrastructure and innovation to move our country forward. For too long, we have been hearing why it can’t be done. President Obama reminded us tonight that it can be done, we just have to have the political will to do it.”

Rosa Parks Statue to be First of African-American Woman on Capitol Hill by Krishana Davis

Feb. 17, 2013

Rosa Parks Statue to be First of African-American Woman on Capitol Hill
By Krishana Davis

parks-national gallery1

Rosa Parks PHOTO: National Gallery of Portraits

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Bravery, tenacity and maybe a little of her own stubbornness led Rosa Parks to refuse to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus on a cold December day in 1955. Almost sixty years after Parks’ act became the leading edge of the Civil Rights movement, she will be honored with a statue of her likeness on Capitol Hill.

Rosa Parks’ statue will be included in the Capitol Art Collection on the Capitol grounds. The statue will stand among other noted American figures including Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and founding father Alexander Hamilton.

Often referred to as “the first lady of Civil Rights,” seamstress Rosa Parks’ defiance of segregation transportation laws by her refusal to give up her seat in the colored section of the bus to a White passenger and her subsequent arrest triggered a boycott of the Montgomery Bus system led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Earlier this month, for her birthday, Feb. 4, Parks was also honored with her image on a U. S. Postage Stamp. The special Forever Stamp is part of their 2013 civil rights series.

The statue, commissioned by an act of Congress in 2005, will be the first full-sized statue of an African-American woman to be added to the Capitol grounds. A bust of African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth was unveiled on the Hill in 2009.

The National Endowment for the Arts oversaw the design competition for Parks’ statue as a joint partnership with the Joint Committee on the Library and the Office of the Architect of the Capitol. The winning artist was awarded $250,000 to complete a bronze statue and pedestal.

“In taking a stand for justice and equality, Rosa Parks stirred the conscience of our country in a way that changed American history. She has become such an enduring symbol of moral courage that it is only fitting that she be recognized by Congress with a sculpture in Statuary Hall,” National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia said in a press release.

Parks is being commemorated in numerous ways this year. In light of her centennial birthday celebration on Feb. 4, the United States Post Office honored Parks with a Rosa Parks Forever stamp featuring a gouache painting based on a 1950s photograph of Parks donning a green hat and matching suit. The Parks stamp is one of three stamps in a Civil Rights set celebrating freedom, courage and equality.

The statue of Rosa Parks will be unveiled later this year.