RBG State of the Black America, The Masses of Our People and The Obama Factor in Change ?

(Image and link embellishment is mines for enhanced learning / teaching purposes and further research. The images are from the 1960s / 70s (source link below) and are provided herein to further provoke thought. The point being, "The more things Change, The More Things Stay the Same)

Intro to Lesson: Mumia Abu Jamal "Is Obama's Victory Ours/Real Change"

Min. Farrakhan-Black Facts:

The Time for Reparations & Separation

These statistics appear in the book, The American Directory of Certified Uncle Toms (Chicago: Lushena, 2002) .

The American Directory of Certified Uncle Toms is a well documented, scholarly, and witty critique of the most stridently "Eurocentric" elements of the black community. The book clearly distinguishes black interests (economic, political, and creative Black self-determination) from the practices of Black Eurocentrists (undermining grassroots black leadership, justifications for white supremacy, artistic portrayals of black pathology for financial gain, and fronting anti-Black agendas with no accountability to Black constituencies). Finally, we have a publication that courageously critiques white-liberalism, black conservatism, elitism in the black upper and middle classes, and an inordinate Zionist influence (the section where Ron Dellums was forced to have a family meeting because he feared a political backlash for not supporting aid to Isreal was especially telling). Whether you agree or disagree with all entries (Dubois and Washington both with five stars!), The American Directory of Certified Uncle Toms is an important work.Those who view these devastating facts must question the "civil rights" coalition leadership that led us here. As Blacks, we are responsible for allowing ourselves to be misled and deceived into this sad state of affairs. If you are not engaged in some effort to reverse one or more of these statistics you have sentenced us and yourself to total destruction.

POVERTY

While constituting roughly 13% of the total population, Black America represents nearly 30% of America's poor. That compares with 11%, or 16 million, whites, who live in poverty; and 27%, or 8 million, Latinos. Black family income is just 60% of white income, and 43% of all Black children live beneath the poverty line-a figure almost identical to that which existed on the day Martin Luther King was assassinated, and 4 times the average for western European countries.

Black children today are much more likely than whites to lack early pre-natal care, and have single mothers or unemployed parents. White Americans possess 12 times the average net worth of Blacks. Blacks are twice as likely as whites to be among the working poor-those who are employed at wages below the poverty level. 70% of elderly Blacks have no financial assets.

DRUGS & CRIME

For many Blacks, drug use (including alcohol) amounts to self-medication for depression rooted in hopelessness caused by white racism. This medical need is exploited by a corrupt society hell-bent on criminalizing the Black race. Blacks, who comprise only 13% of the population and account for about 13% of drug users, constitute 35% of all arrests for drug possession, 55% of all convictions on those charges, and 74% of all those sentenced to prison for possession. Blacks are incarcerated at a rate that is more than 6 times that of whites. In total, between 1980 and 1999, the incarceration rate for Blacks more than tripled from 1156 per 100,000, to 3,620 per 100,000. This is more than 4 times the rate of incarceration of Blacks in South Africa during the apartheid era.

The number of college-aged Black males in prisons and jails in the U.S., 583,000, is greater than the number of Black males enrolledin higher education, 537,000. On any given day, about 1 in 3 Blacks between the ages of 20 and 29 is in prison, on probation, or on parole. In 1999 nearly 1.5 million children in the U.S. had at least 1 parent in state or federal prison (up from less than 1 million in 1991).
The Black male homicide rate is 7 times the white male rate. Black women are 18 times more likely to be raped than white women. The death penalty has been imposed in 682 capital cases since 1995. The U.S. attorney recommended the death penalty in 183 of them-of those cases 26% involved white defendants, 74% "minority." Blacks make up 40% of the death row population.
Between 1989 and 1994, there was a 78% increase in the number of Black women under correctional supervision, the highest for all demographic groups within those years. Approximately 65% have children. The rate of imprisonment for Black women is more than 8 times that of white women.

AIDS

There is strong evidence that AIDS is a disease created by white bio-chemists and deliberately released in Africa through vaccination programs. Blacks account for 30% of people with AIDS in America. 54% of children under age 13 with AIDS are Black. HIV/AIDS is the number 1 cause of death for Blacks aged 25 to 44.
In recent years, the estimated incidence of HIV/AIDS has declined for every race except Blacks. In 1997, four times as many Latinos and eight times as many Blacks as whites contracted AIDS. Whites with HIV are far more likely to receive advanced drug therapy-a trend that slowed the white death rate from AIDS by 28% from 1995 to 1996, but by only 10% for Blacks. Blacks account for 57% of new infections of HIV and by the year 2005, African Americans will account for 60% of AIDS cases.

HEALTH

The state of Black health scores below every other race in the U.S. Every year 250,000 Blacks-a number of people equal to the population of Birmingham, Alabama-are killed by the 10 biggest killers of Blacks of all ages: heart disease, cancer, stroke, AIDS, accidents, homicide, diabetes, pneumonia and influenza, chronic pulmonary diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, and infant mortality. 79,680 Black boys and men were violently murdered between 1985 and 1993, mostly by other Blacks. If Blacks had the same mortality rate as whites, about 64,000 people each year-more than all Americans who died in the Vietnam War-would still be alive. Whites live 6 years longer than Blacks.
Black infant mortality is more than twice as high as that for whites and higher than in many "Third World" countries. A Black baby is more than twice as likely as a white baby to die before its first birthday, yet babies of largely poor West African immigrants survive just as well as whites. 1 in 7 Black babies is born with a low birth weight, which makes them 40 times more likely to die.
Blacks have a 60% higher diabetes-related mortality than whites and suffer 30% higher cardiovascular mortality, 25% higher cancer mortality (including breast cancer).

Blacks with prostate cancer are 2-3 times more likely to die than whites. African-American men have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the world. Blacks with lung cancer were 24% more likely than whites to die within 5 years. The death rate of middle-aged to elderly Black women from coronary heart disease is more than 70 percent higher than that for white women.
Blacks and Latinos run a higher risk than whites of getting Alzheimer's disease, though it is virtually unheard of in Africa. Blacks have almost twice as many strokes as whites. Black males who suffer a stroke have a 95% higher death rate than whites-75% higher for Black women. 30% of Blacks are smokers, 23% of whites. Blacks are more likely to be obese and to have hypertension. For African Americans, high blood pressure is epidemic. It's the severe high blood pressure that leads to greater rates of stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure. Further, for African Americans, the darker the skin, the higher the blood pressure. Africans generally have low blood pressure.
Blacks, in particular, receive outdated or far less aggressive treatment, even when their condition and health insurance are identical to those of whites. Doctors are less likely to perform high-tech, diagnostic procedures on Blacks and less likely to go to extreme measures to keep them alive if they go into cardiac arrest on the table. Whites are two-thirds more likely to receive kidney transplants than others. When hospitalized for pneumonia, whites are more likely to receive intensive care than Blacks are.

Twenty-five percent of Blacks in the U.S. have no health insurance.
The rates of syphilis and gonorrhea are many times higher among Black teens than white. 90% of Black women suffer complications in pregnancy-a rate 3 times that of whites. Suicide now ranks among the top 10 major killers of Blacks in their teens to mid-40s. Sixty percent of all deaths of Black boys between 15 and 19 in 1990 were from guns. In 1997, that rate had dropped more than 40%, but was still more than 4 times the rate for their white peers. The Justice Department estimates that one out of every 21 Black men can expect to be murdered, a death rate double that of U. S. soldiers in World War II. A young Black male in America is more likely to die from gun fire than was any soldier in Vietnam.

HOUSING

55% of Blacks live in the cities, while 70% of whites live in the suburbs or rural areas. Los Angeles and New York are ranked 2nd and 3rd behind Sao Paulo, Brazil, in their homeless population, and 80% of America's homeless are Black. 60% of the total Black population in the U.S. lives in communities with one or more uncontrolled toxic waste sites. 43% of Blacks and 68% of whites own their homes. Blacks were 210% more likely than whites of comparable credit to be rejected for mortgage. It is estimated that the current generation of Blacks will lose about $82 billion in equity because of institutional discrimination; the next generation of Black homeowners will lose $93 billion. Blacks are 2.8 times more likely to be injured in a house fire than either whites or Latinos.

FAMILIES

62% of Black families (up from 23% in 1967) are now headed by single women. 67% of Black children (up from 17% in 1967) are born out of wedlock. The percentage of Black women who are married declined from 62% to 37% between 1950 and 1998. In the same period the percentage of never-married Black women doubled, from 21% to 41%. The pregnancy rate of young women 15-19 years old is twice that of whites. The rate of abortions is 50 per 1,000 pregnancies for Blacks, 17 per 1,000 for whites. Blacks account for 41% of all abortions. Blacks report higher rates of domestic violence than whites.

EMPLOYMENT

Black adult unemployment has remained twice as high as white unemployment for more than 30 years; 3 times as high among young people. Black women make 89% of what white women make; Black men make 67% of what white men make. 53% of Black men aged 25-34 are either unemployed or earn too little to lift a family of 4 from poverty. 21% of Black high-school graduates are unemployed, 10% of whites. 34.4% of Black high-school drop-outs are unemployed-18% of whites. Blacks hold only 10.1% of U.S. jobs and are dramatically underrepresented in many professions. They are only 3.2% of lawyers, 3% of doctors, and less than 1% of architects. Black males have both the lowest average level of educational attainment and the highest percentage-nearly 50%-of workers with more education than their jobs require. White males with a high-school diploma are just as likely to have a job, and tend to earn just as much as Black males with college degrees. Light-skinned Blacks have a 50% better chance of getting a job than dark-skinned Blacks. Blacks are rejected twice as often for small business loans than whites of comparable credit.

EDUCATION

69% of Black children cannot read in the 4th grade, compared with 29% among white children. Only 12% of Black high-school seniors are "proficient" readers, while 54% have "below basic" reading skills. It is estimated that 40-44% of Blacks are functionally illiterate. Black children are almost 3 times more likely than white children to be labeled mentally retarded. Blacks are 2.5 times more likely to be placed in remedial or low-track classes. Even when Black students show potential that is equal to or above that of whites, they are 40% less likely to be placed in advanced or accelerated classes.

Two-thirds of "minorities" in public school fail to reach basic levels of national tests. There continue to be marked disparities between Black and white students in the national SAT scores. 32% of all suspended students are Black. Black students are twice as likely as whites to be suspended or expelled. The high-school dropout rate in some inner-city communities approaches 50%. Only 26% of Blacks who do finish high school go to college, while 37% of whites go. College-educated Blacks are 4 times more likely than whites to experience unemployment. Black women account for nearly all of the gains made in Black enrollment in higher education since the mid-1980s. At Black colleges women make up 60% of enrollment and 80% of the honor rolls. Babies with poorly educated mothers are more likely to die in the first year or have chronic health problems growing up.

For the actual stories behind these images see:
American Pictures: Insights about oppression

Post Script: "And The Beat Goes No"

Wise Intelligent - Globe Holders, Video by capone662

So there we have it. Now you tell me what you
dream Obama is going to do about any of this.
RBGz comment box is open to discussion.

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