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How the Tea Party Rebellion Could Disproportionately Hurt Blacks

By Jay Anderson on Jan 21st 2011 3:34PM
Filed under: News, The Economy

Comments (16)

Tea Party and African Americans

With with Dow pushing 12,000 and unemployment down to 9.4 percent, it's fair to say the economy is finally pointing in the right direction. Still, with black unemployment on the verge of a 25-year high, I don't think anyone's breakin' out the bubbly just yet. The reality is that the current economic depression is hitting us worse than anyone else, and the recovery is passing us by.

As the new Republican-majority House settles in, the political crosshairs are now fixed on cutting non-military spending in the name of deficit reduction. Programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are likely to experience some level of belt-tightening cuts, and public sector jobs are likely to be eliminated. An unintended consequence of this drive to chip away at governmental austerity is that black people will likely suffer more than anyone else (as usual):

Whenever governments cut spending, the pain is uneven. But African Americans are especially vulnerable, as a disproportionately high number rely on government dollars for crucial services, a new study has found. As black people are more dependent than white people on public safety nets, and are more likely to be on public payrolls, governmental austerity could wound the black community especially severely.

In the wake of the worst economic downturn since the Depression, local, state and federal governments have contended with often massive budget deficits. As officials cut spending to compensate for diminished revenue, society's most vulnerable members are losing essential services. In a political climate where austerity is considered a virtue, and where "belt-tightening" is seen as necessary for re-energizing the economy, many black Americans could see their lives upended.


Nearly 60 percent of older black people rely on Social Security for more than 80 percent of their income, according to the study, released Friday by the Boston-based nonprofit United for a Fair Economy. That's compared to 46 percent of older white Americans.


The safety net is not all that's at stake. African Americans are 30 percent more likely than the overall workforce to hold public sector jobs -- and 70 percent more likely to work for the federal government, the study found.

Budget austerity would come at a time when unemployment among African Americans has reached epidemic proportions. Last month, the national unemployment rate was 9.4 percent, and the white unemployment rate was 8.5 percent. For black Americans, it was 15.8 percent.

As plunging home prices have ravaged household wealth, the effects have been particularly painful in black communities. Neighborhoods with a disproportionately high concentration of African Americans have experienced a dramatically higher rate of foreclosure, according to a study released in October. At a time when the national foreclosure rate was 4.14 percent, in black communities that rate increased by 1.68 percentage points.


One thing that's always perplexed me is how military spending is never a consideration when it comes time to cutting costs, but programs like the ones mentioned above -- which aren't as much of a financial drain -- are always fair game. What's the point in protecting the country when its citizens are already vulnerable for reasons that have nothing to do with terrorists or IEDs?

Maybe this country needs to re-examine its definition of Homeland Security.

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