Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

The bad news just keeps on coming

Posted in:

Illinois

* Oy…

Chicago ranks 65th out of 70 metro areas for employment equality for blacks and 62nd out of 70 for income equality, according to the 40th annual State of Black America report, published yesterday by the National Urban League.

Unemployment for blacks in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin area stands at 18.6 percent, compared with 5.8 percent for whites. Unemployment for blacks in the metro area that ranks first, Providence-Warwick, R.I., is 9.9 percent, compared with 6.8 percent for whites.

Black households in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin area have a median income of $35,169, versus $74,759 for whites. By contrast, black households in the city that ranks first, Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., have a median income of $46,438, with $60,668 for whites. That means in that area, black households’ median income is 76.5 percent that of white households; in Chicago, it’s 47 percent.

“Chicago is in a crisis, a perfect storm of inequities,” says Shari Runner, president and CEO of the Chicago Urban League. The unemployment rates for blacks ages 20 to 24 is 47 percent, and for 16- to 19-year-olds it’s 88 percent.

The report can be found here.

There was a bit of good news for Latinos in the region. They had the 49 highest unemployment in the 2015 report at 10.6 percent, but that was down to 42nd highest at 8.6 percent in the 2016 report.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 11:50 am

Comments

I would love to hear the White House comment on this and perhaps the President to propose some solutions to this as well as the crime problem in these areas. He would have unique perspective.

Comment by Lucky Pierre Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 12:04 pm
PBS News Hour recently ran a piece on middle class African Americans leaving Chicago due to the violence, which only exacerbates the wage disparity.

Illinois tax payers have a limited and probably shrinking pool of funds to support the priorities catered to by our pols. Sadly, African-Americans and some other needy groups are paying the price.

Comment by Cook County Commoner Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 12:06 pm
I have two recommended policy proposals that will not solve the problem but will certainly keep from making it worse:

1) fund the MAP grant, a need-based education grant for low income college students so they can get the skills they need to find employment.

2) fund higher ed instead of intentionally starving it to death so that schools like Chicago State can continue to serve low income college students so they can get the skills they need to find employment.

Comment by The Captain Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 12:15 pm
So what is the point of this article? What does the Chicago Urban League propose to do to change this. Real solutions that are not just dependent upon more tax dollars.

The city has been run by one political party for over a century. Perhaps that should receive some more attention.

Comment by Federalist Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 12:34 pm
Madigan is doing such a good job of protecting the middle class.

Comment by Thanks Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 12:48 pm
FEDERALIST

Lets focus on another issue.
Obama’s new rules, regulations, etc. that stymies growth and job creation.

Comment by MOON Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 12:48 pm
“”The three pillars of middle-class African-American life were the public sector, good manufacturing jobs, and black entrepreneurs that served the black community during segregation,” says economist Steven Pitts, who led the Berkeley Center’s research. “With the end of segregation, you put pressure on the black entrepreneurs, and then there was the decline in manufacturing. Now we see the erosion of the third pillar — the public sector.”" http://www.npr.org/2012/05/09/152297370/government-job-cuts-threaten-black-middle-class

Comment by NoGifts Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 1:00 pm
=Obama’s new rules, regulations, etc. that stymies growth and job creation.=

Now there’s the answer! Send them all to work in the coal mines!

Comment by MSIX Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 1:02 pm
==I would love to hear the White House comment on this and perhaps the President to propose some solutions to this as well as the crime problem in these areas. He would have unique perspective.==

Obama will not comment on this. What would he say?

chicago/illinois are pretty hostile states for african americans particular young black men. ironically its old south states like georgia and tx which are seen as greener pastures by blacks. Expect another 200,000 black families to leave the city entirely.

Comment by astuishim Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 1:04 pm
The two findings aren’t coincidental - Coretta Scott King and Barbara Jordan recognized the impact illegal immigration has on African-American unemployment. In 2008 the U.S. Civil RIghts Commission put out a report on this citing a variety of economists and since then there’s been a couple of other studies backing their findings up (there’s also an outlier study saying the reverse). It’s an inconvenient truth that progressives talked about through 2006 and Kennedy-McCain, but stopped talking about after 2008.

What can be done locally? “Flood the zone” but there are no bucks for it. I remember a Bob Greene column where a former chief judge of the Northern District of Illinois once told Greene over lunch that he thought all available resources should be directed at children and more or less give up on adults (I think he was nominally referring to Chicago poor in general). I think a combination of that with public school choice might have an effect, but I don’t know how you enact it. As Jim Webb argued in the few (one?) presidential debate he appeared in, there should also be at least a preference in affirmative action for African Americans and Native Americans over other minorities.

And as countless of people (from Bill O’Riley to Commissioner John Fritchey)have argued: violence in African-American areas simply wouldn’t be tolerated elsewhere. Yes, call out the guard, even if you only use them for desk duty to put more police on the streets. Legalize most drugs or at least don’t create a system that puts so many African-American males into “the system” which is a weight around them for life.

Comment by lake county democrat Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 1:15 pm
MSIX

With a remark like that I think you need to get out of the coal mine.

Comment by MOON Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 1:16 pm
Madigan, The defender of the middle class… with numbers to prove it!

Comment by Big Muddy Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 2:03 pm
“Unemployment for blacks in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin area stands at 18.6 percent, compared with 5.8 percent for whites.” and “Black households in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin area have a median income of $35,169, versus $74,759 for whites.”

But, those types of comparisons assume that skills, education, criminal backgrounds, etc. are equal among the two groups? What is the comparison, say, between college educated blacks and their white peers? What’s the comparison between black ex-offenders and white ex-offenders. How do black and white machinists or welders compare with each other.

Let’s compare apples to apples, please.

Comment by Questioner5000 Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 2:05 pm
As a AA man this is old news to me. The stress that I go through is unreal to most. Always in the back of my mind I think did I get pasted up for the job because I’m AA? And yes I have a 4 year college degree, never been to jail, and have a 710 credit score. It’s sad that the focus is on AA gang members that want nothing out of life and youth unemployment. What about the educated Black man that is getting left behind?

Comment by Berry the Prince Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 2:07 pm
Berry the Prince - I hope you’ll post here more often (I’m not here every day so apologies if I’ve just missed your posts in the past).

Comment by lake county democrat Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 2:14 pm
“But, those types of comparisons assume that skills, education, criminal backgrounds, etc. are equal among the two groups? What is the comparison, say, between college educated blacks and their white peers? What’s the comparison between black ex-offenders and white ex-offenders. How do black and white machinists or welders compare with each other.

Let’s compare apples to apples, please.”

There in lies the problem. There is nothing equal among the groups. With respect to offenders, there again, they don’t get equal treatment - hence mass incarceration.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 2:36 pm
One might think Democrats had something to do with the problems Chicago blacks have.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 8:20 pm
Anonymous @ 8:20 - I have a similar thought. Why do African Americans continue to overwhelmingly vote for Democrats in big cities? What have they received in return for this support? Zip.

Comment by Anony Wednesday, May 18, 16 @ 9:56 pm