Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

Booker T and Garvey redeemed

In the past two weeks or so there have been various reports regarding the unemployment level of blacks in NYC. Apparently the stats show a rate of 49% unemployment among black men and 43% unemployment among black females. A New York Times article entitled: Nearly Half of [New York City] Black Men Found Jobless written by Janny Scott gave the following statistic:

Mark Levitan, the report's author, found that just 51.8 percent of black men ages 16 to 64 held jobs in New York City in 2003. The rate for white men was 75.7 percent; for Hispanic men, 65.7; and for black women, 57.1. The employment-population ratio for black men was the lowest for the period Mr. Levitan has studied, which goes back to 1979.

"We're left with a very big question,'' Mr. Levitan, a senior policy analyst with the society, said in an interview. "As the economy recovers, will we see a rise in employment among black men in tandem with the rise in employment of city residents generally? In other words, is this fundamentally a cyclical problem or is it more deeply structural? I fear that it is more deeply structural."


What I ask the reader to consider is the following pattern. The greater the economic independence of the group the lower their reported unemployment rate. So given that whites in general "run the roost" then their relatively low rate of unemployment is expected. Looking at Hispanics we are forced to look at a few things. In contrast to Blacks (note some Hispanics are black, but for simplicity sake we'll entertain the implied dichotomy), Hispanics have greater economic power than blacks, specifically American born blacks. I specify American born blacks because there is a large and growing population of non-American (as in descendents of those enslaved) blacks who demonstrate similar economic activity as to Hispanics and other non-black immigrants. When one goes into a black community one thing that generally stands out is that the ownership of various businesses are of people who are not of the same racial or ethnic grouping. Laundry by Asians, Gas stations by Indians and Arabs. Pharmacies by Indians or Whites, Fast food places generally owned by whites, Fish markets owned by Asians. Supermarkets are generally owned by whites. American Blacks generally own hair salons and mom-and pop "Soul Food" joints. So there is a discernible pattern that links business ownership and employment. Why does this redeem Booker T Washington and Marcus Garvey?

When I was a youngster I was indoctrinated into believing that although Booker T Washington was "the man" for founding Tuskegee Normal Institute, he was still a sellout for his "accomodationist" views towards whites. Apparently his sin was to tell blacks (and whites) that blacks should forgo politics in favor of developing skills and various industries and building up themselves economically and then moving into politics. This was summed up by his "cast your bucket where you are" story. This view was and continues to be derided by much of the black intelligensia. They favor WEB Dubois' idea that the talented tenth should put social and political pressure on the white establishment to "let them in" and "treat them equally." Of course we now see what the Talented Tenth does when they "get in." Marcus Garvey was also of the opinion that Blacks had to develop industrially to become economically independent of whites. Once they had done so they would be able to demand the political and social respect of whites regardless of what the latter thought personally of them.

Both of these views were uniformly rejected by black "leadership" and "intelligensia." fast forward to today. Blacks who rejected black business and development to "integration" and "political favors" are now facing unemployment at high rates. Manufacturing jobs, or the "steel plantations" are being pushed over seas. The impact is the precipitous drop in family incomes as black men are unable to bring bread to the table. Black farmers, who have been losing land to large white corporations are also the victim of the Talented Tenth, who failed to use their talent to found large black corporations to protect black farmland. So too has the black consumer failed to support black businesses, including banks. This failure, especially virulent after integration, has resulted in the near decimation of black businesses. There are many black businesses today that are more wary of black consumers than white businesses in Jim Crow days.

Now we have Black organizations, such as the NAACP, the Urban League, etc. who now support the idea of Black business ownership and development on a large scale. Yet these same organizations, well The NAACP were prime movers in the demotion of "manual labor" and "international black business."

As an aside, my understanding is that people who are self employed are not included in the employment records. I wonder what impact their numbers would have if these persons were included in the employment figures.