Senator Landrieu Stands By Her Man
Most can agree that African-Americans have suffered under the current administration.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current unemployment rate for African-Americans (civilian non-institutional population) is 11.4 percent compared to whites (civilian non-institutional population) at 5.3 percent. (To be fair, this gap has persisted for decades). Also, a New York Times article states that the median income for blacks has declined 10.9 percent since the recession ended in June 2009.
A Real Clear Politics article highlights other issues that plague the black community such as a poverty rate at 25.8 percent and a declining labor force participation rate. Also, a high (72.2 percent) percentage of black children are born out-of-wedlock, and blacks comprise 1 million of 2.3 million incarcerated individuals in the US.
Three-term senator Mary Landreiu (D-La.) recently spoke at the Terrebone Parish NAACP 32nd annual Freedom Fund Banquet last week, where she discussed the high unemployment rate among African-Americans and encouraged 31 scholarship recipients to attend college and return to Louisiana to help the local economy.
She also said this:
“When President Obama came in and inherited the recession from the last president, unemployment in the country was over 12 percent. It’s now down to 6.2 percent. It’s lower than that in Louisiana where it’s down to 5 percent,”
There are issues with this statement, as well as the motive behind it.
As we all know, President Obama DID inherit a recession, but let’s take a look.
While the CURRENT national unemployment rate is 6.2 percent, the national unemployment rate in Jan. 2009, when Barack Obama took office, was 7.8 percent (Bush’s highest), a far cry from “over 12 percent.”
If Senator Landrieu was referring to the African-American unemployment rate, the “over 12 percent” comment is correct, but the 6.2 percent figure is incorrect. As mentioned earlier, the current African-American unemployment rate is 11.4 percent.
Does Senator Landrieu’s loyalties lie with President Obama, or the minority communities most Democrats claim to care about?
To Senator Landrieu, Democrats saved the day from the evil and incompetent Republicans, but have the lives of African-Americans improved since President Obama took office?
According to a Pew Research report, only 26% of African-Americans think their lives are better since President Obama took office, compared to 39 percent in 2009. Even the former president of the NAACP, Benjamin Jealous, said that African-Americans are doing worse under President Obama.
In fact, the unemployment rate among African-Americans has been HIGHER under President Obama than President Bush.
Surprisingly, President Obama’s job approval rating among African-Americans is 86%, thanks to the spin provided by politicians like Senator Landrieu.
Politicians of all stripes cherry-pick data to support their claims. While the state of black America deteriorates on President Obama’s watch, Senator Landrieu clings to the convenient and over-used narrative that will please her superiors in the Democratic Party: Glorify Obama. Blame Bush.
