Black in America 2, the sequel to 2008’s Black in America documentary, hosted by reporter Soledad O’Brien, explores challenging issues facing African-Americans in this country.  This four-hour special, features profiles of African Americans who are making a difference in their communities and includes serious discussion with leaders who are focused on solutions.

In this footage, which focuses on the big risks Black entrepreneurs take in starting their own businesses, PolicyLink President and CEO Angela Glover Blackwell, states, that:

“Poor access to loans for Black businesses contributes to a huge wealth gap,” stating that “Black people have always sought small businesses as a way to be able to build their wealth. Historically, they sought their own businesses because they couldn’t get jobs in corporations.”

The clip goes on to profile groups who are helping to bridge this wealth divide, like Management Leadership For Tomorrow, a national nonprofit working to develop the next generation of African American, Hispanic, and Native American leaders in major corporations, nonprofit organizations, and entrepreneurial ventures.

Click here to learn more about this series.

A recap of this week’s equity news 

“N.A.A.C.P. Calls for Economic Equity,” - New York Times

BALTIMORE — The N.A.A.C.P. celebrated its centennial Thursday by calling on the Obama administration and Congress to spend more on education, establish a nine-month moratorium on foreclosures and ensure that the stimulus package is distributed equitably.

Federal lawmakers must guarantee fair hiring practices for new jobs at a time when black unemployment — consistently higher than it is for whites — is in double digits, the group said in a 38-page report describing its policy goals for the year.

“Wal-Mart eyes 12 Chicago ‘food desert’ sites,” - Chicago Sun-Times 

Wal-Mart is scouting 12 properties in Chicago’s “food desert” neighborhoods for new stores that sell groceries, a Wal-Mart spokesman said Friday.

About 500,000 Chicagoans live in food deserts with no easy access to mainstream grocery stores.

“Mixed-income housing debated,” - The Times-Picayune

Angela Glover Blackwell argued that a person’s neighborhood has become a proxy for his social mobility. Affluent areas tend to offer access to jobs, public transit, grocery stores and quality public education, and their residents often have longer life expectancy than those in poorer neighborhoods.

Blackwell said developers often try to lift up struggling areas by introducing market-rate apartments and hoping they will attract professional people who have a choice of where to live. But she said such a strategy sends the wrong message, by telegraphing that revitalization cannot come at the hands of the people who already live there.

In this country, 37 million people live below the official poverty line – $19,971 for a family of four. Another perspective to grasp the scale of poverty in America: Ninety million people – nearly one out of three of all Americans – have incomes below 200 percent of federal poverty thresholds. Millions of Americans are just one layoff, one health crisis, or one family emergency away from poverty’s door.

Angela Glover Blackwell founder and CEO of PolicyLink addressed the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions this week about strategies for moving people out of poverty.  If fully implemented, the strategies, developed by the Center for American Progress’ (CAP) Task Force on Poverty, which she co-chairs, have the potential to cut poverty in half over the next 10 years.

Blackwell’s committee testimony was drawn from the task force’s 12 recommendations, which are grouped under four principles:

Principle 1: Promote decent work

1. Raise and index the minimum wage to half the average hourly wage.
2. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and child tax credit.
3. Promote unionization by enacting the Employee Free Choice Act.
4. Guarantee child care assistance to low-income families, and promote early education.

Principle 2: Provide opportunity for all

5. Create two million new “Opportunity” housing vouchers, and promote equitable development in and around central cities.
6. Connect disadvantaged and disconnected youth with school and work.
7. Simplify and expand Pell Grants and make higher education accessible to residents of each state.
8. Help former prisoners find stable employment and reintegrate into their communities.

Principle 3: Ensure economic security

9. Ensure equity for low-wage workers in the unemployment insurance system.
10. Modernize means-tested benefits programs to develop a coordinated system that helps workers and families.

Principle 4: Help people build wealth

11. Reduce the high costs of being poor and increase access to financial services.
12. Expand and simplify the Saver’s Credit to encourage saving for education, homeownership, and retirement.

“Below the Line: The Changing Face of American Poverty”, the provocative series featured on the Tavis Smiley Radio Show, has profiled a vast range of people living at or below the poverty line in the United States. The series has critically examined what it looks like to be poor in America today, by telling stories as varied as the young, African American, single mother of two children who lost her job at Enron only to find herself making less than $10,000 a year as a nursing assistant; a young married couple, graduate student and carpenter, trying their best to sustain a family of five on the land by growing a community garden; and the Ethiopian immigrant working full time at a meat packing plant, and part time as a child care provider in rural Minnesota.

Angela Glover Blackwell frames each installment from a public policy perspective, while respective experts offer insight and strategic solutions for the foreclosure crisis, living wage, inadequate health care, homelessness, transitional housing, and ex-offender re-entry, along with other issues faced by a growing number of Americans.

Now you can catch the entire series right here on EquityBlog:

Episode One
The series begins with Terreal Grant of Baltimore who is coming out of poverty and drug addiction with help from the Thompson Mobility Program [PDF].

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Two
The second installment features Cici Youngblood, a college graduate who describes her path to poverty as “riches to rags” and Jeff Page, a former DJ who went from fame to a downward spiral into homelessness after cancer. Both profiles illustrate how poverty is compounded by health and how successful programs (e.g. Rainbow Apartments) in Los Angeles’s Skid Row community work to meet these challenges.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Three
Reporter James Mills shares the story of Abeba Adella of Minnesota. Originally from Ethiopia, Abeba left an abusive husband, raises two children alone, and works two jobs to barely avoid poverty.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Four
From Augusta, Georgia, reporter Charles Edwards speaks with two residents who struggle with less than the federal minimum wage. Richard Sparrow suffered a back injury and was shunned by employers as an insurance liability. Unemployed since 1996, Richard lives on less than 700 dollars a month, over half of which goes to medicine. Sunny Johnson, a former Enron employee, describes the sacrifices she makes with her wages from her day and night jobs.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Five
New Orleans producer Eve Abrams brings us the story of Vanessa Nevilles, who is struggling to find a job with health insurance, and Keith Carter who was shunned from employment after an arrest and a lengthy legal battle.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Six
Executive Producer Cheryl Flowers visits Mississippi to find two stories of poverty in small rural communities. Mississippi is home to one of the highest concentrations of poverty in America.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Wrap Up
Dr. Cynthia Duncan, Founding Director of the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire and Alan Jenkins, Executive Director of the Opportunity Agenda, joins Tavis Smiley and Angela Glover Blackwell for the series wrap up and analysis.

[53 minutes | MP3]

Audio courtesy of The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI. Check your local listings for more from Tavis Smiley.

A Message from PolicyLink founder and CEO Angela Glover Blackwell

There have been moments in this nation’s racial history when we’ve seemed ready to open the door that hides our collective prejudices, resentments, and pain.

During Reconstruction, we had the opportunity for an honest debate that may have helped heal still-fresh wounds of slavery. In the wake of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, we headed toward a national conversation about the injustice of America’s unequal schools. With the release of the Kerner Commission report, we came close to talking about the toxic lack of opportunity and hope that were dragging down our cities. In the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we inched toward having a true and honest dialog about race in this country.

But it seems like every time we get close to real dialog, the door is slammed in our faces by leaders unwilling to gaze into the American soul or those all too happy to reap the benefits of the crippling status quo.

Could this time be different? The country is in the midst of a long and difficult national election campaign, a race that on its face challenges outmoded notions regarding race and gender while remaining notably devoid of in-depth discussions about those issues. However, the door to discussion may be opening. Pundits and rank-and-file voters are saying that Senator Barack Obama’s speech on race and unity on Tuesday may present a turning point in our national dialog. I, for one, am hopeful the nation is finally ready to engage in a thoughtful, informed conversation that will help us confront the complexities and nuances of the past.

Too often, discussions on race remain on the surface, triggered by a current event or debate - an affirmative action law, say, or a race-charged case in the Supreme Court. But racial history is long and complex. It is rooted in black and white, but today is also Asian, Latino, Native American, and wonderfully multiracial. Through slavery, segregated schools, ongoing discrimination, and the violence and hopelessness they serve to perpetuate, race and racism have left an indelible mark on all of us.

This election season has given me and many others hope that the discussion is ready to change. Despite fleeting unpleasantness, the campaign has largely been waged on the high-road — a debate of issues among a phalanx of talented and bright candidates. We have now seen millions of Americans cast their ballot for a black man or a white woman.

When several colleagues and I wrote about the “uncommon common ground” early this decade, we were critical of politicians who claim to be searching for “the common ground” but are really settling for the lowest common denominator. This presidential race has challenged us to move beyond the well-trod back-and-forth of our national racial stasis.

It’s long past time to acknowledge the legitimate and real concerns underpinning the racial divide, and tackle the big issues and the complex problems that need fixing. It’s time we recognize that we need to build a platform for a true discussion - one where everyone is both welcome and necessary in the conversation.

As someone who has spent my career working for equitable social change, I know how difficult it is to confront people’s deepest fears and needs. But my long experience tells me we are watching an historic opening of that discussion. We cannot afford to let it slam shut again.

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