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Stimulus Cash Isn't Making It to Hard-Hit Minorities

African-Americans, Hispanics pummeled by recession

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 15, 2009 1:58 PM CDT
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(Newser) – With unemployment at 14.7% among African Americans and 12.2% among Hispanics, the recession is hitting minority communities particularly hard. But as is often the case with so-called “colorblind” spending, stimulus funds, intended to be equal-opportunity, aren’t making it to these groups. The government must “start targeting recovery efforts toward communities that the recession itself is already targeting,” writes Angela Glover Blackwell in Salon.

“There are countless seldom-seen barriers to communities of color getting the help they both need and deserve,” Blackwell writes. Stimulus funds are going toward highways, not public transportation, which gets countless lower-income minorities to jobs; meanwhile, states are spending less than half their stimulus cash on cities. “The legacy of racism remains baked-in in the way our government spends its money,” Blackwell concludes, and it’s time to change that.

In this July 2, 2009, file photo, Hector Riser uses a computer to do a job search at the New York State Department of Labor in Brooklyn.
In this July 2, 2009, file photo, Hector Riser uses a computer to do a job search at the New York State Department of Labor in Brooklyn.   (AP Photo)
Janet Francis searches on a computer for jobs while her daughter, Kayli, 2, waits at the New York State Department of Labor, July 2, 2009, in Brooklyn.
Janet Francis searches on a computer for jobs while her daughter, Kayli, 2, waits at the New York State Department of Labor, July 2, 2009, in Brooklyn.   (AP Photo)
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The stimulus was supposed to be a shining example of broad-based, equal disbursement of federal dollars. Ostensibly, this was supposed to mean all communities got an equal share. It has not. - Angela Glover Blackwell

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 13 comments
freethemall
Jul 16, 2009 12:19 PM CDT
Anchower: I support the government economic uplift for all who are in need of it. I acknowledged that economic downturns (this one certainly not being an exception), always disproportionately effect those ethnic groups who have historically suffered from racial prejudice.
emptycalm
Jul 16, 2009 2:05 AM CDT
That is true but you would have to be a damn fool to think minorities don't get the shorter end of the stick.
coco-jin
Jul 16, 2009 1:48 AM CDT
I agree. SE Michigan is not a pretty site these days. And I also agree when I, someone who lives in the city of Detroit, the effects of the "recession" are more than palpable in the burbs. But as a working highly educated professional living in the city, I would suggest that things are a lot "rougher" here in the city for most residents than for those who admittedly are struggling elsewhere in the state. It is and is not about race. I am always amazed at the number of really, really, I mean really down and out white folks here in the city. But they stand out among the sea of non-white men, women, and children here who live in conditions that should anger anybody with a brain and/or soul.
US • Money

 
recession • unemployment • cities • minorities • economic stimulus package • African-Americans • Hispanics • jobless • economic recovery

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