#TheTime #Farrakhan Blacks--and the U.S.--are in Dire Straits! The fact is that we are now facing the grim reality that everything The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has predicted has now come to pass. Today, we find ourselves in DIRE straits and slipping deeper and deeper into the abyss of poverty and want. And in this latest “economic downturn,” the so-called “Great Recession,” Blacks continue to suffer disproportionately more than any other people. Read the Stats: • Blacks make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but own a meager 1% of America’s total wealth [which is $65 trillion] —and whites still own nearly everything else. • Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure at a rate of 1 million a year (5 million so far), and the Black foreclosure rate is 80% higher than the rate of whites. • ALL of the financial gains made by the Black middle class over the last 30 years have now been totally wiped out. • 2.6 million Black Americans lost their jobs. The official unemployment rate is 7.8% and inching downward, but last month the official rate for Blacks shot up over a point from 13% to 14%—but these numbers are deceptive. Some economists say the unemployment rate for Blacks is closer to 30%. • one in every 15 black men is incarcerated — that’s a 500% increase since 1986. • there have been more than a quarter million black-on-black homicides since 1976. • the high school dropout rate among our poorest students approaches 60percent. • The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour; but nearly 7.7 million people are known as the “working poor,” workers who have incomes that put them below the poverty line; • in several cities the jobless rate for Black men is well over 50%; for Black teenagers it was over 40%. • 49 million people (16% of the American population) are now in poverty; 11 million of them are Black; • Although Blacks represent 13% of the general population, they represent 28% of the poor population; This is the largest number ever recorded. • 10 million American children are in poverty; 39% of Black children (under 18) live in poverty; 32% of households headed by a single woman were poor; • more than 5 million more women than men live in poverty. • Were it not for unemployment insurance 2.3 million more people would be in poverty; Blacks were almost a quarter of those receiving extended unemployment benefits. • 21 million people were kept out of poverty by Social Security. • A recent report found that more than 300,000 Americans with either Master’s degrees or Ph.D.s were receiving food stamps. • The picture for YOUTH worldwide is just as bleak: It is estimated that 75 million young people are out of work around the world. More than 200 million young people are working but earning less than $2 a day. • In the Middle East and North Africa, approximately 1-in-4 young people is without a job.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 23:32:36 +0000
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