Unemployment, In The Red: We Are In This Together, Obama Says

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by Shanita Bigelow

The national unemployment rate is 10.2%. In Illinois it is 11%, with some counties suffering from rates near 16% and others significantly lower. America is searching for solutions, ones that would provide both immediate recovery and long-term stability.

The millions of unemployed Americans havent just lost the paycheck they need to live, said President Obama in his opening statement at the White House Job Summit, held December 3. [T]heyre losing the sense of dignity and identity that comes from having a job.

The sense of dignity and identity 15.4 million Americans have lost or are losing right now is the sense many minorities have continuously fought to maintain. Before the financial crash and housing market meltdown, minority communities, particularly African American communities, have suffered from rising poverty and unemployment rates. As all of America now contends with the struggling economy, measures, public and private, must be taken to restore economic stability and encourage economic growth.

Even when the national unemployment picture is good, the black unemployment rate is more than twice that of the white unemployment rate. This means that in what looks like good economic times nationally, most of black America is still experiencing a recession. When white America is in recession, black America is in an economic depression, according to the 2008 report, What a recession means for black America, by Algernon Austin of the Economic in what looks like good economic times nationally, most of black America is still experiencing a recession. When white America is in recession, black America is in an economic depression, according to the 2008 report, What a recession means for black America, by Algernon Austin of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The Forum for Jobs and Economic Growth brought members of the business community (labor leaders, small business owners, prominent CEOs, etc.) together to brainstorm, to share ideas and to discuss successes and failures.

[T]he most important message, Obama said at the close of the forum, is that if we combine traditional American optimism with an acknowledgment that we cant go back to business as usual and that we have to rediscover a sense of seriousness of purpose when it comes to educating our kids or when it comes to government managing money properly or it comes to CEOs feeling some obligations to their workers and their communities if we can recapture that sense that were in this thing together America is not great because its owed to us, but weve been great because previous generations have put in the hard work to get us there The forum was an invitation to the nation to come together, think creatively and as one forum participant, CEO of Ethan Allen, Farooq Kathwari, said, create opportunity from crisis. This moment provides an opportunity to root out the systemic problems, an opportunity to address the needs of individuals as well as institutions.

Prominent black leaders arent asking for a favor or a handout, but the recognition of issues often not directly addressed in broader national initiatives.

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