Al and Jesse: Fixated On Race Not Solutions

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.  They preened before television cameras after the high-profile trial of George Zimmerman, acquitted of murder charges in the shooting death of a 17-year old black teenager.  But the self-anointed civil rights leaders are invisible in the battle to save black communities.

The two race agitators have failed the many African-Americans they profess to represent by turning a blind eye to the problems obstructing progress within the black community.  They have remained silent as black crime soared, children grew up fatherless and school graduation rates slumped.

Instead the faux leaders have moralized that African-Americans are victims of inherent racism that exists throughout society.  They have sermonized about the need for more government intervention and assistance to lift their people out of the depths of poverty and dependence.

Their grandstanding has done nothing to improve black communities.

Statistics offer a graphic but grim snapshot of what really plagues the black community.  These numbers were culled from published reports by the NAACP, Bureau of Justice, Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Health.

To put the figures in perspective, African-Americans make up 14 percent of the U.S. population, according to the latest census.     

• More than 72 percent of births to black women are out of wedlock.  Poverty rates for unmarried women are 70.8 percent compared to 29.2 percent for married households.
• A full 67 percent of black children under the age of 18 live in a household with a single parent, compared to 25 percent for whites. Black women are more often head of these households.
• Of all the women living with HIV in the country, approximately 66 percent are African-American women.  Most of the women (87 percent) contracted HIV by having unprotected sex.
• Only 61 percent of black students graduate from high school, compared to 82 percent for white and 91 percent of Asians. Education has the strongest influence on income and hiring.
• About 35 percent of black youths in grades seven through twelve are suspended or expelled at some point in their school career.  That compares to 16 percent for all other students.  
• One in 15 black men are imprisoned at some time in their lives, compared to one in every 106 white males.  The racial composition of U.S. prisons and jails is 60.2 percent African-American. 
• Forty-three percent of all murder victims are African-American.  An overwhelming number (93.1 percent) were killed by blacks.  

With issues like these in the African-American community, it is not surprising that unemployment in July among blacks was 12.6 percent, compared to 7.4 percent overall.  Twenty-eight percent of all African-Americans live in poverty, an increase since 2005.

But Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are not the only ones who have been derelict.  The nation's first African-American president hasn't done much to raise the standard of living for blacks.  President Obama can only claim to have expanded food stamp benefits to more Americans than ever.

But handouts are not the catalyst needed to snap the cycle of poverty, crime and joblessness in the black community.  Fearless leadership is required to address the issues facing African-Americans, instead of allowing cowardly apostles of race to preach the gospel of victimhood.

In the meantime, don't look to Al, Jesse or Obama for forthright leadership.