More Racism

[liberty]

Obama had two years when Democrats controlled it all, so why didn’t he fix any of this:

The 2014 Black Agenda: 5 Things to Focus On
Here are five key issues to focus on in the new year.

A town hall-style meeting in Chicago, hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton to address gun violence, Dec. 19, 2013 Scott Olson/Getty Images
As we enter into a new year, the black community should remain focused on five key areas that are vital to the promotion of racial justice and economic equality in 2014.

Reducing Violence in Black Communities NationwideChicago’s violence-plagued communities have received the most national attention, in part because of President Barack Obama’s ties to the Windy City, but also due to its prolific number of murders. The latest victim was a 17-year-old pregnant teenager who died of a gunshot wound to the head. The miracle of this tragedy is that her baby survived. Local activists have done heroic work to stave off increased gun violence, efforts that have drawn the participation of national civil rights leaders such as Al Sharpton. Unfortunately, this has not been enough to stanch the bleeding. Obama must prioritize the issue of violence in Chicago and other predominately black, brown and poor communities, as the national crisis that it is.

Public School Should Help Black Children Fulfill the American Dream
The achievement gap between black and white students in America continues to grow. Too many black children attend overcrowded and underfunded public schools that are racially and economically segregated from mainstream America. Instead of learning to become critical thinkers and tomorrow’s leaders, our children are suspended from school at higher rates than their white counterparts, and introduced to the criminal justice system in elementary school. To be young, black and poor in America is to be confined to some of the nation’s most dangerous, violence-ridden and vulnerable spaces. 2014 marks the 60th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case. What instantly became a symbol of racial progress is slowly devolving into one of national shame.

Mass Incarceration of Nonviolent Drug Offenders Must End
Deteriorating public schools have become a feeder system into the nation’s prison-industrial complex. The drug wars of the ’80s turned poor black neighborhoods, including public schools, into incubators of racial injustice and oppression. The social, political and economic stigma attached to felony drug convictions has been defined by legal scholar Michelle Alexander as The New Jim Crow, a new caste system that contains striking parallels with the separate and unequal regimes of racial injustice constructed in slavery’s aftermath. Mass incarceration is the civil rights issue of the 21st century, and the black community should utilize this year, which is the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to push to end a system that discredits our democracy.

Renewing the American Dream for African Americans Requires a Bold Jobs Program, Especially in Inner Cities
Problems of violence, education and mass incarceration are intimately linked to black America’s jobs crisis. The unemployment rate for blacks is double that of whites, but in many poor communities the disparities are even more staggering. Chronic unemployment and underemployment fractures families and neighborhoods and chokes off hope. Now is the time for civil rights activists, community leaders, elected officials and, yes, President Obama to focus on a national and targeted jobs program. Obama can start by issuing an executive order to raise the minimum wage for employees doing work related to federal projects.

[Econoline]

Obama had two years when Democrats controlled it all

Wrong. The Democrats had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate for a total of just 72 days.