Is Black Unemployment a Human Rights Issue?

African American unemployment is currently at 16.5 percent, nearly twice the national average of 9.7 percent. For African American males age 20 and over, the unemployment rate is 19 percent, nearly twice the national average. For African American women, the rate is twice that of their white counterparts, and among African American teenagers, the unemployment rate looms at 41 percent.

The visible successes of a relative few African Americans can mask the widespread structural inequality facing many of our communities. Research by Algernon Austin at the Economic Policy Institute has demonstrated the consistently high rates of under- and unemployment among African Americans as evidence of a "permanent recession." This is true, he argues, when the economy is strong. So, when the rest of the nation is experiencing a recession, what are African Americans experiencing? That's right, a depression.
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(WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT "CHANGE" YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT?)