Posted on 05/11/2005 3:55:44 AM PDT by The Great Yazoo
Ministers Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Washington, D.C.'s Mayor Anthony Williams and others recently met to discuss plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October 1995 Million Man March. Whilst reading about the plans, I thought of an excellent topic for the event: how not to be poor.
Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior. If you graduate from high school today with a B or C average, in most places in our country there's a low-cost or financially assisted post-high-school education program available to increase your skills.
Most jobs start with wages higher than the minimum wage, which is currently $5.15. A man and his wife, even earning the minimum wage, would earn $21,000 annually. According to the Bureau of Census, in 2003, the poverty threshold for one person was $9,393, for a two-person household it was $12,015, and for a family of four it was $18,810. Taking a minimum-wage job is no great shakes, but it produces an income higher than the Bureau of Census' poverty threshold. Plus, having a job in the first place increases one's prospects for a better job.
The Children's Defense Fund and civil rights organizations frequently whine about the number of black children living in poverty. In 1999, the Bureau of the Census reported that 33.1 percent of black children lived in poverty compared with 13.5 percent of white children. It turns out that race per se has little to do with the difference. Instead, it's welfare and single parenthood. When black children are compared to white children living in identical circumstances, mainly in a two-parent household, both children will have the same probability of being poor.
How much does racial discrimination explain? So far as black poverty is concerned, I'd say little or nothing, which is not to say that every vestige of racial discrimination has been eliminated. But let's pose a few questions. Is it racial discrimination that stops black students from studying and completing high school? Is it racial discrimination that's responsible for the 68 percent illegitimacy rate among blacks?
The 1999 Bureau of Census report might raise another racial discrimination question. Among black households that included a married couple, over 50 percent were middle class earning above $50,000, and 26 percent earned more than $75,000. How in the world did these black families manage not to be poor? Did America's racists cut them some slack?
The civil rights struggle is over, and it has been won. At one time, black Americans did not have the same constitutional protections as whites. Now, we do, because the civil rights struggle is over and won is not the same as saying that there are not major problems for a large segment of the black community. What it does say is that they're not civil rights problems, and to act as if they are leads to a serious misallocation of resources.
Rotten education is a severe handicap to upward mobility, but is it a civil rights problem? Let's look at it. Washington, D.C. public schools, as well as many other big city schools, are little more than educational cesspools. Per student spending in Washington, D.C., is just about the highest in the nation. D.C.'s mayors have been black, and so have a large percentage of the city council, school principals, teachers and superintendents. Suggesting that racial discrimination plays any part in Washington, D.C.'s educational calamity is near madness and diverts attention away from possible solutions.
Bill Cosby had the courage to speak out against individual irresponsibility. Surely those who profess to have the best interests of blacks at heart should be able to summon the courage to do so as well.
©2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Conservative, not Republican, Bump!
Bigotry is an amazing thing. It shows in everything we do and say! It is subtle, and colorblind.
We question the words, and motives, of other people to determine whether they "think like us". We try to determine whether we should have 'fellowship" with them, or shun them.
Color is a fact of life, and so is intelligence. We are all granted enough of each, to make us who we are...
Sorry if I am offensive. I just want us all to get along...
> Dunno, but he cracks me up when he talks about Mrs. Williams.<
His conversations about Mrs Williams must send every militant Code Pink-O into foaming-at-the-mouth fits. Heh, heh. Makes me love Dr Williams even more.
Dyson? I'll be sure NOT to watch.
That's Hannity and Puke, don't you know nothin'?
Don't stop now.
LOL!
There is no blame game here. The article owns responsibility. It's a good thing that there are black leaders who recognize their responsiblities to themselves and their black community.
I'm heading out to the mountain, to go walking with my dog! He will run for about five miles, in front of the car. Then, I walk 3-5 miles on the trail, while he is incessantly criss-crossing and backtracking, running constantly. I get back in the car, and he runs another 2 miles to the lake, where he goes for a swim. I like that part, because he rarely misses a puddle...
I think my time will be better used this morning! My feet are getting in the way!
I'd be willing to bet Mr. Williams rarely tries any of his claims at home. I was driving once when he mentioned he was purchasing Mrs. Williams an ironing board for their anniversary. It was most entertaining.
We know what you meant though.
bump
The two of the are almost always refreshing voices of sanity in an otherwise very insane world.
When I grow up, I want to be Walter Williams. Which, considering I'm white, would be a pretty neat trick.
But then, we all knew that. ; 0
OMG.....it's it amazing how common sense can be so uncommon these days?
I think it was a poorly constructed turn of phrase, but he stated it exactly as intended. Cosby spoke out against individual IRresponsibility. He spoke out for individual responsibility, which probably would have been a clearer way to state the point.
The simplicity staggers the imagination, doesn't it?
It's obviously Superman. Captain America is a wimp.
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