So Fresh and So Green

Are you unemployed, all non void? If you are chances are you are a male. This great recession is being called a “he-cession” by some due to the staggering levels of male unemployment this time around.

The loss of male dominated industries like manufacturing is considered a major cause for this. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics gives us more information on who theses males are and surprise surprise many of them are Black males.

Maybe you and I don’t need stats to tell us this but these studies can be necessary, particularly when dealing with government funded aid when race is involved, to “justify” the release of funds to specific groups. Anyway, it’s good to be informed.

Pac Div- “Young Black Male”

Lest you find yourself in danger of viewing young Black males as an abstract group of people you can’t relate to Pac Div has decided to let you know what their plight is from the horse’s mouth. This song was more surprising than these stats for me and didn’t sound like what I thought it would based on what I heard from them before and the title.

I like these guys. They don’t sound like what I knew the West Coast to sound like years ago which is what new, younger artists should do. Not only do they change who they sound like to me from track to track, they talk about things a regular person can relate too. Imagine that a rap song with lyrics you can relate to- Outrageous!

Many Black males were unemployed, like TV show patriarch James Evans was, during the “good times” this country had so when the economy takes a dive even more Black males are unemployed right along with those who haven’t been employed in years.

“The latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that African-American men over the age of 20 lead the country’s jobless surge with an unemployment rate of 17.1 percent.”

I’m sure those stats are conservative for many reasons and if any other group in this country faced such high unemployment rates action would be taken on many levels of government.

Sadly these stats can be met by not only non Black people but Black people as well with thoughts of “Well, how many of them didn’t want to work” or “They’re just lazy”.

One Black woman told me, “I’m not surprised, nobody wants to be around them, including me.”

What I find is that sadly information like this is seen as evidence of something wrong with Black men and not something wrong being done to Black men.

Surely, we all have our own personal responsibility and most of us play a bigger role than we know in shaping our own destinies, but numbers like the 17.1 percent African-American male unemployment rate are the result of institutionalized and systematic actions.

That includes schooling, incarceration, discrimination, outsourcing, increased employment of mothers whether through welfare or otherwise etc.

Job searches can be exhausting and unemployment can be taken personally thereby making the job search that much more exhausting.

I don’t know how much stats like this help those feelings but being able to read stats and analyze them oneself can be empowering.

So take these stats as information about where we are now and not as a symbol of the worth or usefulness of any human being.

I understand cause I’ve been there. Click on ADVENTURES IN NY UNEMPLOYMENT .

Because I care these companies were hiring for the holidays at some point. Click on WHAT’S THE SCARIEST THING ON HALLOWEEN? UNEMPLOYMENT!!! for the list.