Opinion: Color-Blind Solutions Aren't Enough

(March 10) -- Although many in this country are floundering, it would be disingenuous to argue that we're all doing so at the same rate.

When it comes to the largest economic decline in more than half of the century, the darker you, are the greater you've suffered.

It's evident in report after report that details just how damaging the economy has been to minorities.

The unemployment rate for blacks is 15.8 percent -- almost 6 percentage points higher than the overall rate. More than a third of young black men are unemployed. Even a college education isn't helping these days, with unemployment among black male college graduates running twice that of white male graduates.

African-Americans ages 45 and older are twice as likely as the general population to say they're having trouble paying mortgages or rent, are cutting back on medications or had to borrow money to meeting basic living expenses, according to an AARP survey.

Health care disparities are severe, especially if you are a woman of color. A recent report from Los Angeles County health care officials found that minority and low-income women in their county are more likely to have limited access to health care and struggle with chronic diseases.

These and other problems targeting the black community need solutions, but I wouldn't count on self-appointed black leaders -- who often pose as having greater sway in the black community than they do -- for concrete solutions.

Tavis Smiley, only two months after ending his annual "State of the Black Union" conference, has announced plans to hold a new event in President Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago on March 20 to press for a "black agenda."

If you're familiar with the kind of symposium Smiley is proposing, chances are you know that if you've seen one of them, you've seen them all. These events often appear to be more about the cast than the cause, pushing trite talking points and unrealistic political policies.

When Obama was elected, I thought his victory would help lessen the influence of these "leaders" who seem to fancy themselves as the pope or prime minister of black folks. Regrettably, Obama's race-neutral outlook on policy -- while necessary and understandable in a campaign -- seems to have only further empowered them.

But, while I don't agree with messengers like Smiley, I understand the message in this instance: The government ought to take a greater role in aiding the plight of people of color. It's difficult to ensure color-blind solutions to problems that seem rooted in hue.

Like many who voted for Barack Obama, I hoped that he, as a black man, could counter the mistakes made by the previous two administrations that helped create some of the madness minorities contend with today.

And to be fair to the president, he has taken initiative by announcing plans to address high school dropout rates, and has already allocated funds for community health centers and minority college campuses.

But despite the good he's done, the issues of joblessness, mortgage foreclosures, disparities in education and health care, and high incarceration rates -- which have all hit minority communities hardest -- still have gone largely unanswered.

So while I don't care to hear Smiley -- the politician nor the preacher -- push the president to adopt the "black agenda" (a scenario that's as likely as the opening of "Six Flags: Havana"), I share the general belief that President Obama should push harder to aid the plight of the black, brown and poor.

Whatever he chooses to call it.