Albert Bender, a columnist for News From Indian Country, writing in
the Communist Party's publication--- The People's World, wrote about
Native American unemployment in Indian Country and Obama. I wonder why
so few publications carried this article?
http://peoplesworld.org/native-americans-left-out-of-economic-recovery-as-always-2/
Native Americans left out of economic recovery, as always
June 11 2012
Up until the past few weeks, there had been a lot of hoopla about a
blossoming economic recovery. Job creation for the early part of the
year had been averaging 200,000 a month. (Keep in mind, though, that
responsible economists maintain that 345,000 jobs per month are needed
for at least two years to get back to even five percent unemployment -
and the latest numbers for May show only 69,000 jobs created.)
Indian America, looking at the historical record, would have found
little reason to rejoice at the so-called "good economic news." Why?
Because historically, economic recovery, as a national news pundit
recently said, "is growth for white America, but there will still be
three times the unemployment rate for blacks and Hispanics."
But that statistic can look good, considering that the Native
American unemployment rate would be 10x greater than the white jobless
rate. Indeed, as is well known in Native circles, on reservations across
the nation the unemployment for Native Americans routinely ranges from
80-90 percent - and this has been the economic situation for
generations. For urban Native Americans, the jobless rate averages
around 48 percent. In general, Indian Country is in a permanent
depression even when the national economy is on the upswing.
But once again it seems the economy was just having another false
start, as in the last couple of years, and now appears at the edge of
falling off the economic cliff. I cannot but take wry satisfaction in a
failing recovery, a recovery that bypasses Native American misery.
The above quoted statistics of Native unemployment are years old
because reservations in particular and urban Native Americans in
general, incredibly, have been purposely excluded from government
employment data since 2005. To cite a not atypical example, South Dakota
has nine reservations, with unemployment ranging from a "low" of 12
percent on one smaller reservation to 89 percent on the largest
reservation. These figures were last compiled in 2005. South Dakota's
overall unemployment rate is 4.7 percent, exclusive of reservations.
Native American joblessness is so high, it is off the charts. It is
so staggering and is not compiled because to do so would be an
additional stunning moral indictment of U.S. government treatment of
Native Americans.
The last absurd excuse given by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics for not collecting American Indian employment data was that
there was no money in the government budget for such compilation.
This government attitude is highlighted by the fact that as far back
as 1990, in statistical tables from the U.S. Bureau of Census that
contained information on American Indians, African Americans, Asian
Americans and others, the category "American Indian unemployed"
contained, instead of numbers, the letters MD=Missing Data. No other
population had such a classification. Again, this was a shocking, clumsy
attempt to hide astronomical unemployment.
The position of the Obama administration to combat joblessness in
American Indian communities and others of color is that an economic
recovery will uplift all the jobless; a strong, robust economy will
translate into jobs for all. This simply will not work due to the
institutional racism endemic in American society. The very disturbing
question is who always gets the lion's share of the jobs even when the
economy is on the upswing? Whites have always received a
disproportionate share of jobs.
To cite an example of who does not get the jobs: In early March, the
mainstream media was touting apparent job gains, but noted that Latinos
were being bypassed. The national jobless rate dropped to about 8.1
percent, but the Latino unemployment rate remained at 10.6 percent. The
white jobless rate dropped to 7.9 percent. Incredibly, the media posed
the question: Why the disparity? - and remarked that economists and
labor experts also weren't sure.
More absurdity: the 'experts' subsequently stated they simply didn't
know. Whites have always gotten the lion's share of employment. Without
massive employment programs for communities of color, this will
continue. After all, white Americans have for over 200 years had their
own special "jobs programs" - racism. Communities of color, in
particular those of Native Americans, need affirmative action jobs
programs; otherwise, "economic recovery" will do little to remedy Native
American joblessness.
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