Black Men Out of Work

Unemployment is higher in the Black community, without question. However, the unemployment rate for Black females is 13.2%; the unemployment rate for Black males is 16.8%. You may have heard of cities and states where the unemployment rate is much higher than the norm. The District of Columbia has an unemployment rate of 11.1%. That rate is actually much higher than it is for Midwestern states, where individual cities have high unemployment rates, but the state overall fares well. Michigan, California, and Nevada had higher unemployment rates than the District of Columbia, but when you consider the fact that the District of Columbia is a city/state of less than one million people, that isn’t saying much. 

The unemployment rate for African-Americans is the worst in 27 years. This means that in 1983, more Black people were working than there are employed right now in America. So what can be done about it? One of the suggestions given by one of the local leaders in an article I referenced that ran in the local newspaper was that Black men need to become more active in the Black church and leaders of their households again. 

Black men that are in the military have a greater chance of being employed. Black men that are civilians, or never were in the military in the first place are more likely to be unemployed. Every other race, and every other gender, has a higher percentage of employment than Black men. How many Black men do you know that have “disappeared from society”? When I was working, I would see more Black men lounging and hanging out than I could even care to count or remember. There are White men and women along the side of the road asking for food or money, as they are homeless, but I only see one Black man out there panhandling, on a good day, out of perhaps four or five people begging for food. 

So where are these Black men? Are they on the streets hustling, are they collecting unemployment, are they running schemes out of their apartment, are they self employed exactly what are they doing with themselves? Is one of them sleeping on your couch tonight? Seriously, because the numbers may seem alarming, and a cause for discussion, but it is going to take a lot more than becoming aware of the problem to any change to come about.