Photo: Swiatekj's Flickr page
Through the vision of its founder, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, “Negro History Week” began in February 1926 with people of African American Descent recognizing their contributions to the formation of this country and their communities.
Last week, the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, gave his third State of Union address. He stands little chance of making significant change, it seems though; however, as Black History Month begins, a good number of African Americans along with millions of other people will be marking a different common experience—the one where with “bottom having dropped out” from under them.
“Folks at the top saw their incomes rise like never before, but most hardworking Americans struggled with costs that were growing, paychecks that weren’t, and personal debt that kept piling up,” said the president. These facts surely contribute to the mounting stress working class families are experiencing. A Bloomberg article discusses how the “rich [are] getting richer” and lays out the “perfect” plan in this way: “the best way to get ahead financially is to be part of a married couple in which both partners have a college degree and a career.”
This “pathway” to wealth however difficult for some may even be completely unreachable for others: African Americans, Latinos, and immigrants who continue to regularly experience racism and discrimination, for example. In a study done by Daniel Schneider at Princeton University, he finds that African Americans and other communities of color with less education are some of the most systemically disadvantaged social groups who are less able to accumulate wealth. Schneider underscores that “what we see in America is a deep, entrenched inequality in wealth by race and by education.”
The deep roots of structural racism are as sturdy as ever.
In an open letter response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address entitled, “If Not Now, Then When: An Open Letter To The President,” Kevin Powell of Uptown Magazine commended the president for seating Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, repealing “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell,” and for calling on corporations, banks, and the “one percent” to chip in and rebuild America’s economy. Powell also unabashedly points to some realities for many African Americans and our communities:
“For if we simply survey the landscape, we see black unemployment wildly out of control nationwide [….] We see that a very high percentage of Americans losing their homes during this foreclosure epidemic are African-Americans. We see that only 47 percent of black males in America graduate from high school each year. We see a dysfunctional American public school system that is failing our girls and boys. We see one black business after another collapse under the weight of the Great Recession. We see record numbers of black males becoming a part of America’s prison-industrial complex. And we see a level of frustration and despair in our urban areas manifesting itself in black-on-black violence and out-of-control crime.”
Obama responded to skeptics with the following: “Nothing will get done in Washington this year, or next year, or maybe even the year after that, because Washington is broken.” Yes, Washington is broken, and that fact combined with the “corrosive influence of money in politics” only compounds the mistreatment of citizens as the usual pawns—the poor, the undereducated, the under-skilled, the hungry, and the misinformed. This combination will continue to block systemic change.
Yes, there is an African American President. Yes, Black History Month is observed in the US. But, no, Obama will not be allowed to foster meaningful change.