[Posted Mar. 5, 2008]
NUL Report Amplifies Voices of Black Women
By Hazel Trice Edney
NNPA Editor-in-Chief
WASHINGTON (NNPA)—Historic tragedies and controversies have marked the beginning of the 21st Century: The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the disparaging Don Imus remarks, the Jena Six debacle, the mortgage and sub-prime lending crisis, and the resurgence of noose threats, fueling marches and protests against social and criminal injustices.
Amidst it all, there is often the voice of the Black male that is publicized – too often overlooking the Black woman who is actually holding the pieces together, says Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. That is why, he says, this year’s annual State of Black America is dedicated to “The Black Woman’s Voice,” with all responding essays written by Black women.
The report is a stringent contrast to last year.
“Our 2007 State of Black America: ‘Portrait of the Black Male’ report examined the plight of young Black males faced with grim prospects,” states Morial in the 254-page 2008 report, slated for release March 5, aptly during Women’s History Month.
Dr. Dorothy Height
“This year’s report explores the challenges encountered by the females within our community—the mothers, grandmothers, aunts and sisters who have been the backbone of the Black family. Women typically hold the family together, especially in the African-American community, where the marriage rate is lower than in other communities and where a higher percentage of single mothers are the heads of households.”
He adds, “These women are the matriarchs and leaders of our community. They have risen to the challenge of maintaining the Black family unit in spite of trying conditions and limited opportunity.”
Writing the foreword for this year’s report is Dr. Dorothy I. Height, president emeritus of the National Council of Negro Women.
“Too often, our needs, concerns, struggles, and triumphs are diminished and subordinated to what is believed to be the more pressing concerns of others,” says the civil rights icon. “But who better than us understand and empathize with the very real challenges that our brothers, fathers, husbands and sons face as they make their way in a nation that still has far to go to adequately address issues of race?
And who better than us can understand the very real boundaries that all women face in navigating a cultural dynamic that still assigns roles and oftentimes limitations based upon gender. Yet, it is also true, that there are special, dual challenges intricately linked to blackness and womanhood that we black women face and navigate alone.” Height knows well the loneliness of Black women at the top.
A peer of the Big Six civil rights leaders–A. Philip Randolph, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, and John Lewis–she was the only one not allowed to speak during the 1963 March on Washington.
“With no apologies, the time is now, to finally focus on us,” she says. “It is Black women who face most strikingly a double disadvantage in the world of work. Our earnings, for example, are reflective of both a race and gender pay gap. Yet despite this double disadvantage, we clearly understand what it means to work and work hard. Our participation in the labor force eclipses that of all other women and by 2014, is projected to grow by twice the amount expected among White women,” she writes. “Still, in spite of this effort, too many of us continue to live life on the economic fringe; Black women’s poverty more than doubles that of white women and noticeably outpaces that among Latinas. And even with all of the employment struggles that Black men face, it is Black women who are, in the final analysis, most likely to be poor.
According to key findings outlined in the report’s tables and essays:
• The economic sub-index for Black America is at 56 percent, meaning it is unchanged from last year. This means the economic standing of Black people is only 56 percent of the economic standing of Whites.
• The poverty index changed only minimally with three times as many Blacks than Whites living 125 percent of the poverty line.
• The gap in totally uninsured people increased this year, with the index falling from 56 percent in 2007 to 53 percent in 2008.
• The social justice sub-index is the largest increase and the greatest improvement. Jail sentencing for Blacks decreased 15 percentage points from 93 percent in 2007 to 77 percent in 2008. Also, the average sentence for Blacks decreased from 44 months to 40 months and the average sentence for Whites increased from 34 to 37 months.
• In education, the drop out rate for Black high school students decreased from 15 percent last year to 13 percent this year. However, the index showed a 15 percent decline in college enrollment for recent African-American high school graduates from 2007. Black students were less likely to enroll, compared to recent White high school graduates.
• In the sub-prime lending crisis, according to Height, “It was Black women who were most likely to have been targeted and ultimately victimized by unscrupulous mortgage lenders. And it was upper-income Black women who, in the end, fared the worst, being nearly five times more likely to have received a high-cost loan than upper-income white men—thereby putting their economic futures as well as that of their families in serious peril.”
The report contrasts from last year’s in which Morial outlined statistics showing the underachievement of Black males as being among America’s greatest crisis.
This year’s report was not meant to give a statistical breakdown of the social issues that affect Black women as much as it was to “Look at the problem of the overall community through the voices of Black women,” Morial said in an interview on Monday.
The report is not without answers to the persistent problems facing African-Americans. Morial outlines detailed policy recommendations. They include:
• Mandatory early childhood education, beginning at age 3 as well as guaranteed access to college for everyone.
• Closed gaps in health care insurance system to ensure universal healthcare for children.
• Creation of an urban infrastructure bank to fund reinvestment in urban communities.
• Increasing economic self-sufficiency for individuals and working families by indexing minimum wage to rate of inflation and expanding the earned income tax credit.
• Expand “second chance” programs for high school drop outs, ex-offenders and at-risk youth to secure GEDs, job training and employment.
• Reform public housing to assure continuing national commitment to low-income families.
• Ensure greater minority participation in government contracting by stringently enforcing federal minority business opportunity goals.
Among 10 other women responding with essays in the report are: Julianne Malveaux; president, Bennett College of Women; Maudine Cooper, president and CEO, Washington NUL; Renée R. Hanson, NUL Policy Institute emerging scholar; Johnnetta Betsch Cole, chair, Global Diversity & Inclusion Institute named for her at Bennett College; Andrea Harris, president, N. C. Institute for Minority Economic Development; Lisa Mensah, executive director of Initiative on Financial Security; Alexis Herman, former labor secretary and chairman and CEO, New Ventures, Inc.; Lucy Reuben, visiting professor at Duke University; Melanie Campbell, president and CEO, National Coalition of Black Civic Participation; and Kimberly Alton, public policy counsel, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law.
Morial concludes, "When Black women hurt, the American family suffers. When we ignore Black women's issues, we ignore an entire community. But by uplifting Black women, especially those struggling hardest to keep their families together and their dreams on track, we lift up every American community."
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