African-Americans hit inordinately hard by recession

An important story to consider, especially if many seek to keep Chatham a middle-class enclave especially for Blacks:

The cold fact, however, is that this deep recession is hitting African-Americans more severely than the overall population, due largely to the staggering levels of unemployment for this segment of the population.

When October unemployment data come out Friday, the nation's seasonally adjusted rate is expected to nudge upward, close to 10 percent. But among African-Americans, the jobless rate was 15.5 percent in September. In Illinois, the black unemployment rate was closer to 18.6 percent in the third quarter, according to estimates by the Economic Policy Institute.

For black teens nationwide, the rate was 40.8 percent in September.

The United States historically has seen higher unemployment rates for minorities, but the gap has widened in this recession, in part because of job losses in the manufacturing and auto sectors. And the jobless growth, coupled with the predatory lending that flourished in segregated neighborhoods during the real estate boom, have led to dramatic spikes in mortgage foreclosures, sending home values into a downward spiral. The bottom line: A silent depression for African-Americans.

"The untold story is that between unemployment, a significant drop in property values, the wave of foreclosures and a lack of credit, there is a whole generation of African-American wealth that is disappearing," said Jean Pogge, executive vice president of ShoreBank, which operates in many minority communities across the city and is under financial pressure itself due to loan losses.

"The traditional way Americans have acquired wealth and gotten into the middle class is through buying a home and building equity in that home," she said, "and a lot of that has been wiped out by the recession."

Read the whole thing! A lot of testimonials in this story as well, if you have any testimonials you can share them here.

Via CapFax morning shorts!