What We Must Do!!

February was a tough month for me this year. I spent the entire month trying to get well! I had a severe cold that has taken me over 5 weeks to shake but I’ve finally come to the end of it and I’m back on message! At least I ended the month with a bang because my birthday was the last day of the month. I had a great time enjoying my family and received nice messages from friends:)

Today, I want to talk about some statistics concerning Black Americans. When I look at the stats that I am going to share with you, it reminds me of my never-ending point of WHY we need our Savior Jesus (Yeshua) to do as is promised in the Holy Bible and turn our situation around. He is the only one that can and He promises that He will. But we must help ourselves and be doers, movers, and shakers.

The stats that I will share here come from the book “Black Stats,” written by Monique W. Morris.* I will focus on 4 major areas concerning Black/African American people: Education, Health, Justice, and Homeownership.

Education:

• 46% of Black students are educated in low performing schools.
• 58% of Black students who drop out of high school were attending one of the nation’s lower-performing high schools.
• 42% of Black children are educated in high poverty schools with 76%-100% receiving free or reduced lunch. By comparison, 6% of White children are educated in high poverty schools and 38% of Latino children are educated in high poverty schools.
• Some improvement~The national dropout rate has improved slightly from 2006-2010. The dropout rate is 8% for Black youth ages 16-24. The national dropout rate for all youth is 7.4%. The US Department of Education has projected a 2% decrease in high school drop out rates for Black students between 2007-2020.

As for Higher Education and College Preparation:

• Only 44% of Black students in the 9th grade have college counselors compared to 60% of Asian 9th graders and 51% of White ninth graders.
• Some improvement~ Black student college enrollment. 3 million are enrolled in college nationwide between 2000-2010. Black student college population increased from 11%-14.5%. In addition, 38% of Black Americans ages 18-24 are enrolled in degree-granting institutions, which is more than double the amount of Black Americans those same ages enrolled in 1970. (15.5%).
• Black students account for 13% of all students enrolled in higher education.

Health:

• Black and Latina girls 15-19 have higher rates of pregnancy…52 per 1000 and 56 per 1000 respectively.
• Some improvement~African American girls 15-17 years old are having fewer pregnancies, which decreased by 39% between 1998-2008.
• Black people have the highest infant mortality rate in the US, (13%).
• African Americans are disproportionately infected with HIV, in which they account for 44% of newly acquired HIV infections. 1 in 16 Black men and 1 in 32 Black women in the US are expected to be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime.
• There are more than 10 million obese African American adults in the US~36% of Black people ages 18 and over nearly 1/4 of the total Black population.
• 25% of Black youth 6-17 years old are overweight compared to 15% of White youth.
• Black adults over age 20 consume more fast food than Whites and Latinos.

Justice:

• 28% of all persons arrested in the US are Black.
• Black Americans account for 50% of total arrests for murder and manslaughter and 56% of robberies.
• Black males account for 36% of all male prisoners and Black females account for 25% of all female prisoners under federal and state jurisdiction.
• Black people are only 14% of the total US population yet account for 38% of all inmates in local jails nationwide.
• The average time Black Americans serve in state prison for all offenses is 32 mo (2.7 years) compared to 26 mo (2.2 years) for White counterparts.
• 58% of youth admitted to adult state prisons are Black.
• Wages grow 21% slower for Blacks who were formerly incarcerated than for Whites who were formerly incarcerated.

Homeownership:

• Black homeownership rate is 45.6%, which is nearly 29% points lower than the rate of White homeownership. The gap between Black and White homeownership has continued to widen since 1990.
• African Americans are nearly twice as likely than all Americans to have been affected by the mortgage lending crisis. It is estimated that up to 14% of all African Americans who purchased a home leading up to the 2008 recession may lose it.

As we can see, most of our stats are pretty grim. That is why our churches must mobilize, our communities must mobilize, our politicians must continue to fight on behalf of what’s good and fair and our teachers must not give up. The present presidential administration does not look promising for Black people and the strides we have made could be stripped backward. We must be ever vigilant, sober and prayerful so that we can continue to make positive progress…which is the L-rd’s Will for His people. Let’s turn it around by being aware and knowledgeable!

Shalom

~SAT~

Contact Sylvia A. Thomas at sylviathomasministries@gmail.com for speaking engagements!

*Morris, M. (2014). Black stats: African americans by the numbers in the twenty-first century. New York: The New Press.