[BISHOP]

THE GREATEST CHALLENGES TO AFRICAN AMERICANS IN 2008

Abortion. Gay marriage. Immigration. For years we have debated these issues behind closed doors. Now GOP strategists are selling such subjects to us as the greatest threats to African-Americans, seizing on the conventional wisdom that we are politically liberal yet socially conservative. As 2008 approaches, we asked Black America’s keenest minds to weigh in on the real pressing issues we will need to deal with in the coming year


CORNEL WEST, scholar, intellectual

The criterion has to be this: If we can overcome it, would it qualitatively transform the Black community? Look at these other issues and ask, If there were none of that, would Black people still be poor, still be disrespecting themselves, and still not have quality health care, education, child care or employment? If you stop abortion tomorrow, you still have Black people who are poor. Okay, no more immigration whatsoever. That’s going to affect a certain slice of the job market, but not that many. Let’s ban gay marriage. Is that going to eliminate poverty? So if I had to prioritize what would be the greatest threat, then it’s poverty. FAST FACT: Nearly 25 percent of Blacks live in poverty, as opposed to 8.2 percent of Whites, according to 2006 U.S. Census figures.

DONNA BRAZILE, Democratic strategist, Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute chairwoman

When I was a child, my parents and grandparents drilled into me and my siblings the need to get an education. Here we are in the twenty-first century, and the most appalling thing to me is the conditions and inequities that exist across the board for huge percentages of African-American children—from per-pupil spending to decrepit facilities to lack of access to technology to narrow curriculum offerings. FAST FACT: In school districts serving mostly students of color, states and localities spend on average $908 less per student and $825 less in districts serving poor students compared with what they spend in districts that are wealthy and White, according to the Education Trust’s Funding Gaps 2006 report.

DR. JULIANNE MALVEAUX, president, Bennett College for Women

The greatest threat to African-Americans is economic injustice. We see the disproportionate amount of poverty and unemployment in our community, the way predatory lending has imperiled so many African-American home owners, and the whole issue of inadequate access to higher education. It is an issue that Dr. King highlighted very early on, but what is amazing to me is how, as more African-American people move into the middle class, we seem to be unwilling to address these issues. FAST FACT: African-Americans were more than a third more likely to get a high-priced loan than White borrowers, according to a 2006 Center for Responsible Lending report.

GEOFFREY CANADA, president, Harlem Children’s Zone

The real challenge is around education. We are in a global economy in which African-Americans are increasingly unprepared to compete. The kind of money other countries are spending on their intellectual capital development is significantly greater than what the United States spends on its own. When people aren’t prepared to increase their skills to be able to compete on a higher level, they end up living on the margins of society where there’s lots of crime and violence. FAST FACT: The nationwide college graduation rate for Black students is 42 percent, as opposed to 62 percent for White students, according to statistics from The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education


Now, if these folks are suppose to be the best and brightest of our community....none, not one list "interracial dating/marriage" as an issue. I like how West put it....(I'll steal his line of thought) If there was no more interracial dating/marriage would that then increase employment in the Black community.....increase the number of Black college graduates.....decrease crime & poverty...would ith even increase marriage amongst Blacks period....