New York Times - Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn

[undergroundrailroad]

Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn

March 20, 2006

By ERIK ECKHOLM


BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups.

Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men.

Especially in the country's inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined.

Although the problems afflicting poor black men have been known for decades, the new data paint a more extensive and sobering picture of the challenges they face.

"There's something very different happening with young black men, and it's something we can no longer ignore," said Ronald B. Mincy, professor of social work at Columbia University and editor of "Black Males Left Behind" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).

[msgadget]

1. Great rebuttal to the 'economic boom and welfare overhaul' b.s.

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It's not hard to disagree with the first part of the paragraph. But, welfare overhaul has been a disaster for women. It has pushed tens of thousands of them into poverty. Here's what Fred Block points out about the Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) the 1996 welfare measure that ended the entitlement to benefits--promoted and signed into law by Bill Clinton.



In 1994, for example 63% of poor children received benefits from the earlier welfare program--AFDC. By 2004, the new program, TANF, provided smaller benefits to only 36% of poor children. Nationally, total annual assistance to the poor through TANF, food stamps, and the Earned Income Tax Credit dropped by more than $19 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars as a result of the new program.

Since TANF eliminated any legal right of poor families to get help, the changes were most dramatic in states that had historically been reluctant to provide assistance to the minority poor. In Louisiana, for example, $168 million in assistance was paid to 245,000 recipients in 1994. By 2004, there were only 42,000 recipients receiving benefits of only $57 million. (The change would be even greater if the dollars are adjusted for changes in price levels.)

...

Or as Heather Boushey and Bethney Gundersen found:



Much has been made of the success of welfare reform in the past couple of years. The dramatic declines in caseloads and the relatively high employment rates among families who have left welfare have led researchers to call the reforms a success. The reforms are only a success, however, if families that have left welfare are better off than they were on welfare. Our research indicates that, overall, former welfare families experience relatively high rates of hardship. Former welfare families with a full-time
worker experience the lowest rate of hardship, but even among these "successful" families, work is not enough to ensure the family can meet its basic needs. Furthermore, not all former welfare families have a full-time worker, nor will all families be able to have one.

The second piece of nonsense is the idea of an "economic boom." What boom is Eckholm referring to? The boom that has left wages for workers in the lower and middle brackets stagnant or even lower in real terms? The boom that has seen any meager increase in wages eaten away by rising health care costs? The boom that has seen the elimination of pensions for tens of thousands of workers? The boom that has brought a worldwide global trading system based on the single concept of lowering wages?
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Thanks, UGRR! :hi: