Reprinted from the Black Agenda Report
Austerity, perpetually high unemployment and other aspects of the New Domestic Order are creating a new "precariat" -- a class condemned to permanent precariousness and insecurity.
Connecting the Dots to a Frightening Future
by Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III
" They are saddled with debt from school loans, working two and three jobs at subsistence wages with no health care, no pension, and no sense of permanency or security."
Post Racial America, New Normal, Austerity, and The Precariat Class.
These concepts, when discussed individually, make for interesting dialogue. Moreover, when assessed in a larger context, these same concepts should become a cause for concern.
Right after Senator Obama became President there were many discussions and articles written about a Post Racial America. Had we evolved into an America devoid of racial preference, discrimination, and prejudice? During the 2008 presidential campaign The New York Times published an article by Matt Bai entitled Is Obama the End of Black Politics? The premise of the article was that in 2008, 60 years after Strom Thurmond left the Democratic Party over the issue of integrating the armed forces and 45 years after Dr. King's " I Have a Dream Speech" the Democratic party was poised to deliver its nomination for the nation's highest office to an African-American. Bai's article asked if Obama's nomination somehow signaled the end of Black politics?
The answer to Matt Bai's question is; of course not. America cannot be closer to being post racial when a candidate for president has to run a deracialized campaign in order to make the masses comfortable with the obvious aesthetic. We are not in a post-racial America when the unemployment rate in the African American community is more than double the national average and the wealth accumulation of the average European American family is 20 times that of the average African American family. The dangerous subtext to that question is that it ignores the struggle for justice and equality that African Americans still face. It also reinforces the conservative view that the government should no longer enact and enforce legislation guaranteeing the rights of minorities.
" We are not in a post-racial America when the unemployment rate in the African American community is more than double the national average."
As the American economy has remained stagnate with 1.3 percent growth, the national unemployment number has stayed close to 8%, 17% in the African American community. Close to 5.4 million people have dropped out of the workforce and now analysts and commentators have started talking about a "New Normal." Americans are supposed to get used to dismal rates of growth and high unemployment while the stock market soars and American corporations sit on record cash balances. According to CNBC , corporate " cash balances have swelled 14 percent and are on track toward $1.5 trillion for the Standard & Poor's 500, according to JPMorgan. Both levels would be historic highs."
These record amounts of cash being stockpiled by corporations are not "trickling down" to the working and middle-classes. The "job creators" are not creating jobs. According to Pimco Investment founder Bill Gross. "It's time to recognize that things have changed and that they will continue to change for the next--yes, the next 10 years and maybe even the next 20 years." This is the "new normal" and it's not good.
The solution being proposed by conservatives and subtly endorsed by President Obama to address the financial crisis is "austerity." Austerity is t he policy of deficit-cutting by lowering spending via a reduction in the amount of benefits and services provided by the government. Instead of focusing on what to save, they are debating what to cut.
" The "job creators' are not creating jobs."
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