Democrat and liberal policies have hurt the black community

Thank you for accepting. The first thing that is important to mention is that anything I say is not in any way, shape or form, racially based or inherently racist. I will make the use of statistics, studies, and evidence that may cast African-American"s in a bad light, but this is more a critique of policies implemented by the "left" that has hurt, held back, or caused regression. This is a debate about economic and social policy, not about genetics, race, or racism. 1.Affirmative action We shall first start with a definition. af"firm"a"tive ac"tion noun an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education; positive discrimination. The Democrat party has been the pressing party for affirmative action for roughly 5 decades. In 1961, Democratic President John F. Kennedy introduced the term, and cited it would be used to redress past discrimination. Fast forward several years Lyndon B. Johnson would enforce some "Affirmative action" legislation, also putting emphasis on creating "equality"1. The biggest problem with Affirmative action is it is rewarding blacks not based on merit, but on the color of their skin. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for a color blind society, but when governmental policy is focused on having different hiring quotas, regulations, and laws apply to members of different races it is clear that that affirmative action is a step AWAY from a color blind society. Economist Thomas Sowell, in a Senate Judiciary Committee, told current Vice President Joe Biden in 1987 what issues this might cause in education. "I think one of the great handicaps that blacks and other minorities face across the country, is that they are systematically mismatched with universities in the admission process" The average black student at MIT is in the bottom 10% of MIT students in math, but he is in the top 90% of all Americans students in math because MIT students are so phenomenal at mathematics. Roughly " of black MIT students don"t graduate! You are talking about a pool of people who are in the 90% in math who you are artificially turning into failures by mismatching them with a school."2 The entirety of this statistic is hard to comprehend. Due to affirmative action allowing African-Americans with lower SAT scores and an unqualified educational backgrounds to get into elite schools that they aren"t able to do well in, it results in thousands of intelligent, driven black Americans who drop out, get loaded with student-debt, and are less productive members of society. This is but one of many ways Affirmative action has hurt the black community. Affirmative action is effectively racism. When governments, universities, and business practices have affirmative action towards the African-American community, it creates strife. An African-American may never know if they deserved the position, or if it was given to them based on the arbitrary darkness of their skin. Similarly, people snubbed in favor of said individual might feel as if it is unjust, and fellow colleagues or co-workers may suspect that said person got the position due to their race. The problem this creates is human interaction, from the workplace, to business to education, where merit should be the only thing people are interested in, have now become a race issue. If we are to accept Martin Luther King Jr."s assertion that we wish to create a color blind society, can you think of a way to make hiring practices less color blind? Affirmative action creates the stereotype that African-Americans need special rules apply to them, so they don"t have to meet the same expectations as other races, and in affect get treated as lesser beings or children who need help. Personally, as someone who is completely against any idea of inferiority of the races, it disgusts me that Democrat politicians, although well meaning, baby and protect certain sectors of our population from important aspects such as competition and merit. 2.Minimum wage The Minimum wage is a known Democrat issue, and has been pushed very recently by Barak Obama to be increased3. What is amazing, however, is that very few people question whether not an increase in the minimum wage would actually help poor black families. A)Inflation Since the price of goods we consume must have the cost of production included, a rise in the minimum wage causes a rise in cost4. This results in higher prices. Since there are large portions of the black community who are on the lower end of the socioeconomic structure, they are reliant on cheap stores such as Walmart and Target. If Walmart and Target saw their wage bills rise they would in turn increase prices. These price increases have an adverse effect on groups such as African-Americans who have low income to begin with, and shop at stores such as these to get a discount. B)Job loss Young black teenagers, in particular, have staggering unemployment rates. But is this a product racism? Or is in indicative of bad economic policy, fostered by liberals, of the minimum wage? The evidence indicates the latter. Black unemployment have been double that of white unemployment for over 50 years5. But has this always been the case? Economist Walter Williams lays out the facts for us. "From 1900 to 1954, blacks were more active than whites in the labor market. Until about 1960, black male labor force participation in every age group was equal to or greater than that of whites. During that period, black teen unemployment was roughly equal to or less than white teen unemployment. As early as 1900, the duration of black unemployment was 15 percent shorter than that of whites; today it's about 30 percent longer."5 During an era of segregation, blatant racism, Jim Crow legislation, and numerous other obstacles to blacks in the Labor Market, their job perspectives were still better than under the oppressive force of liberal market-hampering policies. The Minimum wage rate was raised by $0.73 (1996 dollars) in 19617, and t6at was the first year where white labor participation rate started to overtake black5. Rises in the minimum wage has done nothing but make low-skill and low-income workers uncompetitive in the job market. Since low wage jobs are the start of a career, or the first wrung of the ladder to use a clique, a minimum wage essentially cuts off the bottom of the career ladder stopping the advancement of skills and on-the-job training. To show the twisted logic of Democrat politicians, Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House has been fighting for a minimum wage increase, while having unpaid interns work for her7. Her main defense is internships are great learning experience for young workers, and they do it voluntarily, but can"t the same be true for minimum wage jobs? It is clear that the Democrat support for the minimum wage is focused on polls rather than results. Conclusion From just the policies of affirmative action and minimum wage, it is clear Liberal polices hurt the black community. Given more time and character space, elaboration on factors like rent control, government housing, and education could also be addressed, but alas I assert this is enough evidence to sway readers to vote Pro for this resolution Sources: 1.http://www.dol.gov... 2.United States. Cong. House. Senate Judicial Committee. Hearing on the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork. 1987. Washington: GPO, 1987 (statement of Thomas Sowell, economist). 3.http://www.nytimes.com... 4.http://inflationdata.com... 5.Williams, Walter. "Black Unemployment." Townhall (2013). 10 April. 2013. Web. 20 Jan. 2015. 6.United States. Department of Labor. Infoplease. Web. 17 Jan 2015. 7.Pelosi"s Double Standard on the Minimum Wage. Nancy Pelosi and Jan Helfeld. Youtube. 23 Aug. 2008. Web.