The African American Depression

Obama spoke to Wall Street recently about the need to carefully guard the apparent economic recovery, ordering financial titans to act with integrity as the recession slowly dwindles away.

But The New York Times is painting a much different economic picture for African Americans. For blacks in large numbers, we are not coming out of a recession -- we are experiencing a depression that germinated nine years ago. In addition to that, we are being blamed by disgruntled whites for their increasing economic misery.

From The Times:

When you're going down, as the white middle class has been doing for several years now, it's all too easy to imagine that it's because someone else is climbing up over your back.

Despite the sense of white grievance, though, blacks are the ones who are taking the brunt of the recession, with disproportionately high levels of foreclosures and unemployment. And they weren't doing so well to begin with. At the start of the recession, 33 percent of the black middle class was already in danger of falling to a lower economic level, according to a study by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University and Demos, a nonpartisan public policy research organization.

In fact, you could say that for African-Americans the recession is over. It occurred from 2000 to 2007, as black employment decreased by 2.4 percent and incomes declined by 2.9 percent. During those seven years, one-third of black children lived in poverty, and black unemployment - even among college graduates - consistently ran at about twice the level of white unemployment.

That was the black recession. What's happening now is more like a depression.

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Obama Talks to Wall Street

President Barack Obama greets the audience after speaking about the financial crisis, on the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, at Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Obama Talks to Wall Street

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 14: U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a speech at Federal Hall on Wall Street about the financial crisis September 14, 2009 in New York City. Obama discussed steps the Administration has taken to help the economy recover and financial overhaul actions the United States and the world should take to prevent crises in the future. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Barack Obama

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Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, center, talks to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Sen. Barney Frank, D-Mass., right, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, prior to President Barack Obama delivering a speech on the economy, Monday, Sept. 14,2009, at Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, right, talks with Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer, before President Barack Obama spoke about the financial crisis, on the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, at Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama takes the stage before speaking about the financial crisis, on the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, at Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama speaks about the financial crisis, on the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, at Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama sternly warned Wall Street against returning to the sort of reckless and unchecked behavior that threatened the nation with a second Great Depression, Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, during a speech at Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

In response to these alarming trends, the Times op-ed authors ask: "Does a black president who is inclined toward bipartisanship dare address this destruction of the black middle class?" Their harsh answer? "Probably not." While this is aggressive criticism, it does beg the questions:

1. Should President Obama address the recession's racial disparity?
2. What should the federal government due to address the predatory, racist lending practices in sub-prime lending that caused disproportionate economic harm to middle-class black communities?
3. How can we prevent the universal economic decline from further harming the racial divide between blacks and whites?

Read more about what the New York Times is calling 'The Recession's Racial Divide,' -- and leave your responses below.