…is that it has been most devastating to his most fervent supporters. The Labor Department’s current jobs report indicates that fewer black men now have jobs than at any time in recorded history:
If the election of America’s first African-American president was expected to give blacks an economic boost, it hasn’t emerged yet. Indeed, the percentage of African-American men with a job has dropped to its lowest level since records began in 1972, according to the government’s monthly jobs report released last week.
[T]he percentage of black males over 20 who are currently employed dropped slightly to 56.9, the Labor Department’s April report shows. For whites, the equivalent figure is 68.1 percent. Before this recession, the percentage of black adult men with a job had never dropped below 60 percent, according to Labor Department statistics.
It is easy to understand why most African-Americans were enthusiastic about President Obama’s candidacy. In their shoes, I probably would have been excited, too. But by now it is painfully obvious that what blacks needed was a president who understands the economy and who would staff his administration with people who know how jobs are created. A redistributionist job-killer like Barack Obama has proved the worst possible choice for the very people who supported him the most.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.