By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
As the economy continues to emerge slowly from the depths of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, the blame game remains very much en vogue. By this, I mean who gets vilified or blamed for the current economic misfortunes of White Americans.
Of course, a great deal of criticism has been leveled at President Barack Obama since assuming office. Mr. Obama has been demonized by a sundry of different names: Black Hitler, communist, socialist, and job destroyer – to mention just a few of the irrational monikers. When
President Obama took office in 2009, the country was losing more than 700,000 jobs per month – a staggering figure. This downward spiral of job losses has steadily been corrected and just last month the country witnessed the creation of 220,000 new jobs in the private sector. This is indeed bad news for the GOP – who have made defeating Barack Obama its number one priority.
Undocumented aliens have also been put in the cross hair in terms of explaining the shortage of employment opportunities for White Americans. There is currently legislation in the state of Kansas that requires employers to use E-Verify to check the workplace eligibility of new hires.
America has a propensity for creating bogymen and people of color have often been the convenient scapegoats for the dominant White majority.
Undocumented immigrants are not the reason why the lion’s share of white Americans are unemployed – that blame should be placed elsewhere.
Most, if not all, the blame for the current scarcity of jobs rests with the skittish financial sector (Wall Street and the banks). It is estimated that the financial sector is sitting on more than $1.3 trillion that could be pumped into our sputtering economy to stimulate new jobs by extending loans to existing businesses.
But Wall Street and the banks have opted to hedge their bets by keeping their money on the sidelines, while waiting the results of this year’s presidential election. It’s no secret that Wall Street would prefer Mitt Romney in the Oval Office, who has already said that he would repeal Obama’s Wall Street investment reforms.
So, if you are one of the 12 million Americans seeking employment don’t blame President Obama or undocumented aliens for your economic woes. The real culprits are the bankers and Wall Street. The very folks that got us into this mess in the first place.