By Stephanie and Eric Stradford
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| "The Awakening" by J.Seward Johnson, Jr. |
“Vote for me! I’ll set you free!” is a slogan too often heard in a repeated quest for ball control. We heard it in a 70’s response to a multitude of global threats. Back then it was the Vietnam War, segregation, white flight, drug abuse, and crooked politicians. As the church warned us to “yield not to temptation,” The Temptations put forth a broader, more relevant message, "Round and around and around we go, where the world's headed, nobody knows."
That “Ball of Confusion” has been an African American view of world events since before the first celebration of Black History Month. New events and new spin on old issues merely reset what was originally established. Afghanistan replaces the Vietnam War, Liberation Theology is the latest code for segregation and white flight, drug abuse has become a professional revenue stream, crooked politicians are outing one another for, yes, another chance to control that “Ball of Confusion.”
It seems, nobody is talkin’ ‘bout love, but the preacher. But, even the preacher is becoming sidetracked by the economy, fewer jobs, higher costs, and less giving. “Many of our churches are in a survival mode,” wrote Dr. Calvin H. Sydnor, III. The editor of The Christian Recorder newspaper has called for a “Great Awakening” within the Christian family. In a recent editorial shared on Facebook, the chief scribe for the nation’s oldest black newspaper described a state of mind among black church folk “which prohibits them from reaching beyond the walls of the sanctuary and out to the wider community; and their ministry, or lack of ministry is focused upon what happens within the physical walls of the church.”
A “temporal reality” as such (or perception thereof) has little to no value in “The Kingdom of God” where there is never a shortage of resources. But in some places, folks will see a “Great Awakening” by some as a threat to life as they know it. The church is uniquely positioned to educate believers on shared values and to edify efforts that preserve, protect and promote American values.
The annual winding down of Black History Month and the progression of the Christian Lenten Season presents an opportunity for exploiting values within and beyond the inhibiting physical walls described by Calvin Sydnor. The opportunity comes in the heat of a national debate on the difference between Liberation Theology and the campaign promise, “Vote for me! I’ll set you free!”
Somewhere between fact and fiction in this debate is the reality of a $15 trillion national debt and a single-source solution for debt forgiveness. If economic security for African American Families is something to hope for, the evidence of things not seen might be in defining more clearly the role of the Black Church.
The Obama Administration has rolled out the welcome mat for African American participation in the governing process. “We must transform our economy from one focused on speculating, spending, and borrowing to one constructed on the solid foundation of educating, innovating, and building. That begins with putting the Nation on a path to living within our means – by cutting wasteful spending, asking all Americans to shoulder their fair share, and making tough choices on some things we cannot afford, while keeping the investments we need to grow the economy and create jobs.”
Some folks use to call this a boycott before America elected its first African American President. Now it’s public policy. The problem for African Americans, Black Church Leaders and the broader community of believers is that we don’t believe EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE!
In its report, The Black Labor Force in the Recovery, the U.S. Department of Labor statistically points to a community that may need enlightenment on its reality. According to the Obama Administration, African-Americans or blacks made up 12 percent of the United States labor force in 2010. Overall, 18 million blacks were employed or looking for work, representing 62.2 percent of all black people.
In 2010, about half of blacks aged 16 and older had a job and 17.5 percent of those employed worked part-time. Blacks are the only racial or ethnic group where women represent a larger share of the employed than do men—more than half (54.3 percent) of employed blacks in 2010 were women, compared to 46.3 percent among employed whites. Employed black women still earn less than employed black men.
More than a quarter of employed black workers aged 25 or older have earned a college
degree, a share that exceeds that for Hispanics, but continues to trail whites. While the share that are college graduates has risen 20 percent in the past decade, the gap in the share of employed blacks and whites who are college graduates has not narrowed and a 10 percentage point gap remains.
Black workers are more likely to be employed in the public sector than are either their white or Hispanic counterparts. In 2010, nearly 1 in 5 employed blacks worked for the government compared to 14.6 percent of whites and 11.0 percent of Hispanics. Conversely, blacks are less likely than Hispanics and nearly as likely as whites to work in the private sector, not including the self-employed.
Few blacks are self-employed—only 3.8 percent reported being self-employed in 2010—making them about half as likely to be self-employed as whites (7.4 percent).
Half of black workers employed full time earned $611 or more per week in 2010, 80 percent of that earned by whites. The gap in earnings has been similar throughout the recession and recovery period.
The confusion brought on by past practices is becoming clearer, if not in society at-large, certainly among those responsible for managing kingdom assets. After decades of eroding middle-class security and after a historic recession that plunged our economy into a crisis from which we are still fighting to recover, perhaps an inclusive economy that is built to last is our best collective step forward.
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