Dr. LoveStrange: Or How I learned to stop Worrying and Love the Sequestration

Sequestration: Black-Run America (BRA) only exists through the extortion of the American people's earning via taxation (and by the 1948 Shelley vs. Kraemer Act -- Restrictive Covenants being declared unconstitutional)

You ever flipped those black and whites books, published by the invaluable Arcadia Publishing house, that show what major American cities looked like in the 1920s – 1950s?

Major American cities where commercial and retail property values have collapsed, such as Birmingham, Detroit, Camden, Baltimore, Cleveland, Rochester, and Memphis are featured in the Arcadia Publishing books, offering a glimpse back in time to a world where these currently destitute cities were brimming with life.

Forgotten Detroit, Detroit’s Downtown Movie Palaces, Hudson’s: Detroit’s Legendary Department Store, Camden: Images of America, Birmingham: Images of America, Birmingham’s Theater and Retail District… these are just some of Arcadia’s titles offering you a free ride back in time… when Cleveland, Birmingham, and Detroit were run by governments interested in protecting the property and people who built and sustained the city.

Truly, Arcadia Publishing has collected the most seditious titles in all of publishing – understanding that life was once enjoyed in downtown Detroit (when it was a white city) instead of being something you take into your own hands when you visit the same city – 84 – 90% black today – might help you understand why such laws as restrictive covenants and even those vile Jim Crow laws were on the books… to protect the society and civilization whites had built and to ensure commercial and residential property maintained their value.

Why bring this up? Because the ideology that helped build and sustain the cities shown 70-90 years ago in black and white photos of Arcadia’s books was replaced with the governing philosophy of Black-Run America (BRA) – the very ideology responsible for giving us 2013 Detroit.

And this. [Dems say sequester will hurt blacks, women more than others, The Hill, 3/4/13]

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus said Monday night that the $85 billion in cuts to federal spending, known as the sequester, will disproportionately affect blacks and other minorities, in part because they are more likely to work for the government.

"Sequestration will impact everyone, but it will have a particularly harmful effect on communities of color who were hit first and worst by the great recession, and have yet to significantly feel the effects of the recovery," Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said Monday.

"Federal budget cuts under sequestration would quickly mean cuts to federal, state and local public-sector jobs, which disproportionately employ women and African-Americans."

Lee said in 2011, employed blacks made up 20 percent of the federal, state and local public-sector workforce, and that women were 50 percent more likely to work in the public sector.

Lee was joined by Del. Donna Christensen (D-Virgin Islands), who agreed that cuts to public-sector jobs would hurt blacks disproportionately.

"African-Americans are more likely to work in the public sector, where the jobs are going to be cut," she said. "We already have the highest unemployment, and will be severely hurt by the reduction in unemployment benefits."

Lee cited several other reasons why the sequester will hurt, from a study conducted by the Center for American Progress. That study said minorities would be hurt by cuts to long-term unemployment benefits, workforce development programs, early childhood grants, youth job programs, healthcare research and home heating assistance under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

Venturing over to the Center for American Progress and looking at the study cited above [Top 10 Reasons Why People of Color Should Care About Sequestration, 2-22-13] is a crash-course lesson in understanding why those cities Arcadia books profiles (the past glories of Birmingham, Detroit, Camden, Baltimore, and Cleveland) - where life was once plentiful, fruitful, and meaningful – have all collapsed:

Arcadia Publishing: Proving Detroit was once one of the world's great cities... what happened?

Sequestration will impact all Americans but will have a particularly harmful effect on communities of color, who were hit first and worst by the Great Recession and have yet to significantly feel the effects of the recovery.

2. Workforce development programs that are vital to communities of color such as YouthBuild and Job Corps face significant cuts. YouthBuild, a program connecting low-income youth to education and training, could be cut by about 8 percentunder sequestration. Coupled with previous federal appropriation cuts in fiscal year 2011 by 37 percent, the program could see about one-third of its federal funding cut between fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2013. In 2010, 54 percent of YouthBuild participants were African American and 20 percent were Latino. Job Corps, an education and training program geared toward young adults, faces about $83 million in cuts in FY 2013 under sequestration. In 2011, 72 percentof Job Corps participants were people of color.

 

3. Cuts to critical job-creating programs such as the Build America Bonds program are also on the chopping block.Build America Bonds, which were created in the 2009 stimulus bill, provides incentives for infrastructure investments through the tax code. Since its inception, the program has helped states and cities fund thousandsof job-creating infrastructure projects at lower costs than traditional tax-exempt municipal bonds. Build America Bonds could see budget cuts of up to 7.6 percent, however, if sequestration goes through. Build America Bonds benefit all Americans, as more than $106 billion of Build America Bonds have been issued by state and local governments in 49 states and the District of Columbia since the program started. Infrastructure investments stimulate employment in sectors that employ disproportionately high rates of workers of color, such as constructionand public transit.

4. Federal budget cuts under sequestration would quickly mean cuts to federal, state, and local public-sector jobs, which disproportionately employ women and African Americans.In 2011 employed African Americans comprised 20 percentof the federal, state, and local public-sector workforce, and women were nearly 50 percent more likely than men to work in the public sector. According to the Congressional Budget Office, scheduled cuts in federal spending were the primary driving force behind slow economic growth projected for this year, meaning thousands of lost jobs and cuts to federal contractors. 

5. Early child care funding could be cut by more than $900 million, impacting the thousands of children of color who benefit from these programs. Such cuts will mean 70,000 children will be kicked out of Head Start, a federal program that promotes the school readiness of children from low-income families from birth through age 5. Sixty percent of program participants are children of color.

9. Since 2010 funding for housing has been cut by $2.5 billion, meaning any additional cuts would significantly hurt low-income families and communities. Many housing programs such as Section 8 Housing Assistance provide vouchers to low-income families for affordable housing in the private market. In 2011 Section 8 aided more than 2 million low-income families across the country. Data from 2008 indicate that 44 percent and 23 percent of public housing recipients are African American and Latino, respectively. 

10. As the nation continues to endure a cold winter, programs such as the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which helps bring down the cost of heating for low-income households, are crucial. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helped about 23 million low-income people pay their winter heat bills, is in jeopardy of being cut in FY 2013. Low-income communities, which tend to disproportionately comprise of people of color, depend on such programs to make ends meet during these tough economic times.

Birmingham, Alabama (a now 74% black city) once had a thriving downtown, where retail and culture flourished... what happened?

Heading over the United States Department of Labor report (titled “The African American Labor Force in the Recovery”), you learn this:

The President's 2013 Budget: The FY 2013 budget is built around the idea that our country does best when everyone gets a fair shot, does their fair share, and plays by the same rules. Because unemployment among African Americans remains unacceptably high and to provide security for African-American families, the President's 2013 Budget would:

•                Invest in low-income youth and adults: The President is proposing a new $12.5 billion Pathways Back to Work Fund to provide hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with opportunities to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries

◦                                  Support for Summer and Year-Round Jobs for Youth: The Recovery Act provided approximately 370,000 summer job opportunities through the public workforce investment system to young people in the summers of 2009 and 2010. Such programs not only provided young people with their first paycheck, but taught them life-long employment skills. Building on this success, the new Pathways Back to Work Fund will provide states with support for summer job programs for low-income youth in 2012, and year-round employment for economically disadvantaged young adults. This is particularly important for African-American youth who are experiencing an unacceptably high rate of unemployment of over 40%.

◦                                  Targeting Low-Income, Long-Term Unemployed Adults: This effort would connect the long-term unemployed, low-income adults to subsidized employment and work-based training opportunities. It builds off the successful TANF Emergency Contingency Fund wage subsidy program that supported 260,000 jobs through the recovery. This measure would be particularly helpful to unemployed African Americans, nearly half (49.5 percent) of whom have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks.

•                Revitalize Distressed Urban Neighborhoods: The President's 2013 Budget provides $150 million for the Choice Neighborhoods initiative to continue transformative investments in high-poverty neighborhoods where distressed HUD-assisted public and privately owned housing is located, a $30 million increase from the 2012 enacted level. The Budget would provide grants that primarily fund the preservation, rehabilitation and transformation of HUD-assisted public and privately-owned multifamily housing.

•                Put People Back to Work Rehabilitating Homes, Businesses and Communities: The President is proposing a $15 billion series of policies to help connect Americans looking for work in distressed communities with the work needed to re-purpose residential and commercial properties, creating jobs and stabilizing neighborhoods. Known as Project Rebuild, this approach will not only create construction jobs for African Americans who were disproportionately affected by the loss of jobs in the construction sector, but will help reduce blight and crime and stabilize housing prices in areas hardest hit by the housing crisis.

Target Investments to Modernize Schools Serving Low-Income Students: The President proposed a $30 billion investment in education infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools and community colleges — investments that will create jobs while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools and community colleges to meet 21st Century needs. Funds could be used for a range of emergency repair and renovation projects, and modernization efforts to build new science and computer labs and to upgrade technology. These investments would not only help black workers get back jobs in construction, but help African-American communities get access to better education and help the next generation of African-American workers.

Go flip through one of Arcadia Publishing books on Birmingham, Detroit, Memphis, Baltimore, Cleveland, Rochester, Camden, Milwaukee, or Chicago and see what life was like in the inner-city areas of these various cities back in the 1920s-1950s: urban areas we refer to as “war zones” today were thriving economic centers of activity, high culture, and growth.

No matter the money invested by the federal government to “fix” nightmarish “urban” settings in 2013 Baltimore, Detroit, Birmingham, and Memphis, the results will be the same as long as the demographics remain the same.

A neighborhood, a community, a city’s condition is merely a reflection of the character of the people who occupy it.

Arcadia Publishing offers a glimpse into a world where sanity prevailed, where freedom prevailed; the world of Detroit and Birmingham in 2013 is a reminder that freedom failed.

No matter how much money the government spends; no matter how many artificial black middle classes are created around the nation via public jobs; no matter the federal grants, set-asides, training, programs, or efforts to revitalize, rehabilitate, or modernize inner-cities and blighted neighborhoods... you’ll still be left with Detroit 2013 if the focus is on black empowerment through government assistance.

In the end, you can only laugh to stay sane.