Over at Breaking Brown, Yvette Carnell does a stellar job of breaking it all down as usual.

This from Breaking Brown:

An old adage says that when America catches a cold, blackAmerica catches the flu. A recent study has found that there may actually be a reason for how poorly blacks fair during tough economic times. It seems that blacks are perceived as “blacker” to whites during economic downturns and whites tend to become much more exclusionary.

 

A study from New York University found that whites become more prejudiced when times are hard and are less likely to prefer someone outside of their own group. Researchers Amy R. Krosch and David M. Amodio determined that the economic environment alters the perception of race.

 

“Although prior explanations for this phenomenon have focused on institutional causes, our research reveals that perceived scarcity influences people’s visual representations of race in a way that may promote discrimination,” wrote the researchers, according to CBS DC. “Across four studies, scarce conditions led perceivers to view Black people as ‘darker’ and ‘more stereotypically Black’ in appearance, relative to control conditions, and this shift in perception under scarcity was sufficient to elicit reduced resource allocations to African-American recipients.”

 

The worst the economic conditions become, the “blacker” African-Americans are perceived, which could explain elevated levels of racism and nativism during tough economic times.

Yvette goes on to establish the correlation between much of the racist micro-aggressions of late, and the economic downturn. Which is interesting because all this time I thought it was all the result of a black guy being in the White House. But, as usual,I was wrong.

You can read the study yourself to find out the methodology. Not that how they arrived at this conclusion is unimportant. If you really want to test whether this is real or not in the event that you’re one of those, “Correlation isn’t causation,” types. Or one of those members of the “We’re post-racial — racism is dead,” crowd. Do yourself a favor and ask yourself why did it take six years for black unemployment to reach an all-time low since the recession? Which, ironically happened at the time when all jobs lost under George W. Bush, have been regained by President Obama. And yet, even so, recent black college graduates are having a hard time finding jobs.

This from Al Jazeera:

Recent black college grads ages 22 to 27 have an unemployment rate of 12.4 percent, more than double the 5.6 percent unemployed among all college grads in that demographic and almost a threefold increase from the 2007 level of 4.6 percent, before the Great Recession took its toll on the U.S. economy. More than half of black graduates, 55.9 percent, are underemployed.

 

Even for those who enter the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, areas where grads are the most needed and paid the highest, African-Americans still have a 10 percent unemployment rate and a 32 percent underemployment rate.

 

The study’s authors blame racism, a faltering economy and an unequal playing field.

“We live in a racist society,” John Schmitt, one of the authors, told Al Jazeera.

 

“We internalize a lot of views about the way people are that are deeply embedded in a lot of our economic and social policies. It’s extremely complicated, but the first step is that we need to acknowledge that we have a problem.”

Lemme guess: they all wear hoodies and sagging pants exposing their underwear to job interviews.

More on the New York University study from The Root:

“Our research reveals that perceived scarcity influences people’s visual representations of race in a way that may promote discrimination,” the authors said in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America journal, Time reports.

 

One of the studies went directly to the economic root, asking participants to divide $15 between people in two images. The images of the darker-skinned individuals were seen as “blacker” than they actually were, and they were also given less funds.

 

According to Time, the researchers pointed out that economic hardship affects how people treat others outside of their own social group.

And thus explains the simple definition of white supremacy, folks. That would be, the preservation or the saving of “whiteness” at the expense of everyone seen as the other — oh, and by “other” I’m referring to the melanin-challenged people of the world. Yep, see how that White Privilege thing works? Clearly it can’t be bad enough to be motivated to become a “freedom fighter: and start a “revolution,” by killing three innocent people like those fucking idiots in Las Vegas this past weekend.

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And now we will see just how long the privileged illiterates in Congress can hold their breath to stop the Affordable Care Act, which having been passed by Capital Hill, signed by the President and vetted by the United States Supreme Court, was unstoppable to begin with.

It is rolling out as planned, right on schedule, while the “Get Obama Party” prays to their teabag jesus for glitches and problems in that roll-out, so they can jump up and down and scream that it’s not working.

Meantime, they still get to take their paychecks home to the little lady, their kids won’t miss a day at their private school, and their mistresses and undercover boyfriends will still get to see them at the designated, weekly tryst time, per usual.

All is right with their world….It’s our world that is fucked up and soon to be completely penniless for all of us below the millionaire poverty line level of what…$250,000? If you’re not making that amount of money, you’re considered poor in America these days, it seems..

Most of us don’t, by the way….not even close.

Still don’t think it’s not about the black man in the White House…well…note to the clueless….watch as the teabags make your 401K and pension disappear…..Will no money make you understand that these guys and gals are not looking out for your interests and frankly, don’t give a good goddamn about you and yours…punishing white people for supporting Obama…got that?

Ya’ll all niggas now…get it?

Die poor people, die. The middle class is dead, long live poverty.

Need another clue? Still not sure about your station in life? Check out Gawker.com today. You can find it right here.

It links you to a game called the “Privilege Game” where white boys can play a game about who has the least amount of power and privilege in the United States….In other words, who is at the bottom of the social heap…

(Hint, Hint…it ain’t white boys or white women…unless you’re queer)

The game is set up like an NCAA bracket and all you gotta do is make your choices…a new March Madness with a twist….Pick a winna!

Except this game has been going on since the dawn of this country and it’s name is Bigotry,

It’s easy to see what is real when you’ve been looking up from the bottom all your damn life solely because you’re the wrong color, or gender as designated by the jokesters.

White boys don’t get what they want…game doesn’t go their way…they can’t find a rope and lynch it or take an AK-47 off their back and obliterate it or tie it to the back of their F150 truck and drag it down a dirt road….they first rail at it and hold their breath….then ridicule it and then find some other way to deny it…all the while claiming that they are just joking…that they are really not the vile bigoted ass wipes that some of us know them to be…

It’s easy to see what is real when you’ve been looking up from the bottom all your damn life solely because you’re the wrong color, or gender as designated by the jokesters..

Except the joke is never on them…only on us…

All as a way of showing that they are still in charge of the universe..

The privilege game…playing since 1619,…where the motto is…

“if we can’t have it…neither will you”

Yep…last darkie out, turn off the lights…

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Yes, the housing market is bouncing back. However, let’s not pretend that black and brown folk — you know, those disproportionately affected by the economic fallout? — are for the most part in a position to run out and buy up entire neighborhoods. Of course I can be totally wrong about this. But last time I checked, the unemployment rate for black and brown folk in America was still double that of the un-melanined; and, black women in particular are still having to resort to creating resumes with those not-so-ethnic-sounding names, to even get interview callback.

This is one of the problems I have with this racist Bloomberg BusinessWeek cover. To me, the cover seems to intentionally sound the alarm as warning of irresponsible coloreds purchasing homes. For black folk in particular, there’s no need to be worried. Because, as recent report shows, the wealth gap between blacks and whites has tripled in the last twenty-five years. And of course with all this talk of austerity, sequester, fuck the poor folks, or whatever fancy name politicians use today, one can imagine that the gap with continue to widen as folks claw to dig themselves out of the hole.

The dramatic gap in household wealth that now exists along racial lines in the United States cannot be attributed to personal ambition and behavioral choices, but rather reflects policies and institutional practices that create different opportunities for whites and African-Americans, new research shows.

So powerful are these government policies and institutional practices that for typical families, a $1 increase in average income over the 25-year study period generates just $0.69 in additional wealth for an African-American household compared with $5.19 for a white household, in part because black households have fewer opportunities to grow their savings beyond what’s needed for emergencies.

This groundbreaking study, The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap: Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide, statistically validates five “fundamental factors” that together largely explain why white households accumulate wealth so much faster over time than African-American households.

On February 27, 2013 there was a webinar hosted by the Insight Center’s Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative, PolicyLink, and Tom Shapiro, Director of the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University. (source)

So what then are the contributing factors to this stark economic reality for black folks? Well, it surely isn’t because we’re all buying twenty-six inch rims and booming systems for our automobiles; and, it damn sure isn’t about black women gettin’ their hair and nails done er’y week either. I know, it’s hard for some of you to believe, but none of the aforementioned has any impact on the widening of the wealth gap — yep, the same goes for some of our cousins purchasing those $250 Nike Air Jordans either. So, in the event that you think I’m full of shit, do yourself a favor and checkout the following segment from the Melissa Harris-Perry show which features IASP (Institute on Assets and Social Policy)) Director, Tom Shapiro from Brandeis University. Oh yeah, don’t worry; unlike myself, he’s a smart white man you can trust.

When the moral coward does this, this isn’t good for society at large. Thankfully, however, there are people of all walks of life coming together to affect change as is the following case in Detroit, Michigan. I’m pretty sure that the individuals in the following all did the right thing, but a moral coward wouldn’t recognize this. So, while promoting marriage might sound cute in a speech targeting communities of color a fix to its woes, how about some policy designed to keep “certain people” in their homes? Given the fact that The Great Recession did happen, naturally, doing so would be a nice start, no? Given the current attack on the Voting Rights Act, I’m all for fighting to preserve the right to vote. However, what good is said right when the economic plight of people of color is largely ignored by elected politicians who continue to pay us lip service each election?

The post What Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Racist Cover Says About You appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Or so we’re supposed to think, right?

Meanwhile, checkout the clip below to see how well the wealthy made out:

So let’s recap, shall we? Taxes were only increased on 0.016% of the top earners in the country; and, of course as Think Progress points out, the deal makes it easier for corporations to pay less taxes than before. And of course this is bad because it’s not like they’ve been paying anyway:

US banks and other large cross-border companies will retain a key tax break covering billions of dollars in foreign income under this week’s fiscal cliff deal.

Extending the so-called “subpart F exception for active financing income” will allow multinationals to defer paying US taxes on certain financial transactions undertaken outside the US. The companies are taxed by the US on that income only when it is brought back to the country. […]

Companies including Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, General Electric and JPMorgan Chase have banded together to form the Active Financing Working Group, to lobby for renewing the exemption in recent years.

The group has paid $1.03m to lobbying firm Elmendorf Ryan since 2009 to campaign for the tax break to be extended, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Extending the exemption will cost the US Treasury some $9.4bn in lost revenue in 2013, according to estimates from the Senate Joint Tax Committee.

Yep, who needs to create jobs here in the US when you can invest overseas, and not pay a dime on your returns, right? Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t this one of the reasons we refused to vote for Mitt Romney last November? OK, don’t answer that. But isn’t it nice to know that while banks are able to borrow from the Fed at 0% and sit on $1.4 trillion in cash, that 2 million unemployed people are able to get an unemployment check for at least one more year? Never mind the fact that jobs aren’t being created while interest rates will remain at 0% until the unemployment rate hits 6.5% as Ben Bernanke said recently — it’s estimated that the US will not see 6.5% unemployment until 2016. Yep, let’s just keep feeding the wealthy at the expense of the poor. So again I ask: How’s that inequality thing working out for you again? OK, don’t answer that one: I’d hate to force you to think.

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If it wasn't for the record number of filibusters, the GOP would have been able to create more jobs

You see, Boehner’s brand of leadership is just what America needs right now.

Let’s be honest: without him and the House Republicans, where would we be today?

So, I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to Speaker Boehner — a man who not only asked, “Where are the jobs?” But a man who actually went out and created them. And for that, we owe him a wealth of gratitude for his effective leadership, and commitment to America, and the millions of jobless workers oppressed from the moment Obama took the oath of office back in January, 2009.

But of course, left-wing haters are trying to make Republican patriots look bad:

The economy added 114,000 jobs in September and unemployment declined to 7.8 percent. Not great numbers, but paired with major upward revisions to previous monthly reports and taken in the context of a slowly recovering economy, the report was viewed as good news for America.

Unless, of course, you were hoping for bad news. And apparently quite a few of President Obama’s critics were — so much so that they suggested the Bureau of Labor Statistics was part of a vast conspiracy.

The leader of the “job truther” movement: former GE CEO Jack Welch.

“Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers,” he said on Twitter.

He had some friends in Congress too. Rep. Allen West (R-FL) tweeted “I agree with former GE CEO Jack Welch, Chicago style politics is at work here.” He added on Facebook that the jobs report was “Orwellian to say the least and representative of Saul Alinsky tactics from the book ‘Rules for Radicals.’” FOX News’ Stuart Varney apparently sensed where his audience was going. Within minutes of their release he told viewers that “there is widespread mistrust of this report and these numbers.” “How convenient the rate drops below 8% [for the] first time in 43 months, five weeks before the election,” he added later.

As you could expect, Obama’s pro-socialist minions were easily swayed (as always) by the lamestream media as they slapped high-fives to celebrate America’s do-nothing lazy president. Like all Obama Kool Aid drinkers, they were quick to defend his obvious attempt to smear Jack Welch on Twitter rather than congratulate Boehner as I have. I mean, isn’t it pretty obvious that Obama has hacked into Welch’s Twitter account, and Allen West’s Facebook account for political expediency? I mean, that’s what a desperate man who was recently embarrassed in a debate on national television would do, right?Exactly! He’d rig things to make himself not look like an abject failure that he is.

But, don’t tell that to the Obamabots:

The post Unemployment Drops to 7.8%, and Right-Wing Goes Batshit appeared first on Madness & Reality.

The big international banks have misrepresented these LIBOR rates in order to set savings and loan interest rates at what will make them, the corporate executives and stockholders, the most money, at the expense and without the knowledge or consent of their customers.

Basically, they set their savings interest rates very low and their loan interest rates very high, in order to make more money for themselves. And those rates do not bear any relation to the actual flow of money between the international financial insitutions.Notice that last phrase: “between the international financial institutions”. Among those are the same big banks that we have here in the United States. J.P.Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo to name a few.

Interesting thought: there are only a few big banks left. And they all have offices on Wall Street, which we all know by now, or should if we’ve been paying any attention at all, are wrapped up in their own schemes to defraud the taxpaying public. President Bush’s bailout, which has been blamed on President Obama, played into that fraud, by not putting any restrictions on the bailout money. Those big banks all trade on the international market. And they all set their interest rates based on the financial indicators and predictors. So it’s a good bet that they’re all involved in this
fraud that is coming to light in England. Every one of them.

I recall when I was a teenager, mowing lawns for my pocket-money in Florida. I took some of that money to the bank down the road, got
a passbook that had printed in it the amounts of my deposits and withdrawals. That passbook was inserted in a machine that printed
out the type of transaction and the amount, plus the balance after the transaction.

At the time, in the early 1970’s, my bit of money was earning an interest rate of somewhere around 6%, compounded daily. But over the years, that interest rate gradually lowered, while the interest rates on loans gradually increased. It was barely noticeable as it was happening, unless you were paying close attention. And now you’re lucky if you get 2% on you savings. And unless you have a top credit rating, don’t even think about the rates on loans.

What this boils down to is that the banks, which have been eating each other up at an alarming rate through mergers and takeovers, are making more money while paying out less to their customers. And with the prices of necessities like food and shelter going up at what seems to be an increasing speed, our money is buying less. We have less buying power, even with more money.

I remember a McDonald’s commercial from my teen years; buy a burger, fries and a shake, and get change back from your dollar. Yeah, that’s right; a full meal for less than a dollar. And it was real food back then, too, not these chemically enhanced genetically altered junk they serve now. But that’s a whole different article.

suffice it to say that, as prices increase, value and quality decreases, in nearly all areas of the economy.

So what can we, as individuals and as a society, do to change the way things are going? There are a number of things that could work: start your own cooperatives for food and other goods and services. Barter for those same goods and services, which can ease the tax burden.

But I think the biggest thing to do, especially in conjunction with other methods of becoming self-sufficient, is to take all your money out of the big banks. Start accounts with small local banks, if there are any where you live. Or join a credit union. The only way, short of a massive change in the banking laws passed by Congress, is to deprive the crooks of their resources. Vote with your wallet or your purse. They will get the message. The Occupy Movement has shown that this can work, and work fast. Just look at how quickly Bank of America dropped new fees they wanted to impose
when people started removing their money.

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I mean, people lose their freakin minds at this time of year! Forget WWE wrestling, if you wanna see some bloodshed, wake up about 3am and find a line of idiots waiting to make purchases the day after Thanksgiving. Its even better if its real cold…the colder it is, the more aggressive the consumers are. Yeah, just don’t try cutting the line in front of anybody or else you’ll be the recipient of a serious beatdown. People take this Christmas shopping thing seriously.

I’ve always had a sincere problem with people who equate price tags to happiness. Or, “If you don’t get me something nice then it must mean you don’t like me”. The biggest mistake people make during the holiday’s is assuming that everyone around them has the same level of “Give-a-Fuck” that they have. I like the holidays but I get sick of running around the mall for 5 days straight trying to find the “perfect” gift for someone.

This is why God invented Gift Cards. I don’t have to stand in a store wondering if this shirt will fit you. Or keeping up with the receipt so you can take back something I know you’re not going to like. I love gift cards. They’re all I’ll ever ask for. I don’t even care what store. Hell if you know a stripper that offers gift cards please grab me one.

Asking for a gift card only frustrates the die-hard Christmas shoppers that much more. These people are DETERMINED to force-feed the true “spirit” of Christmas down your throat by DEMANDING that you specify a gift and not a gift card. Newsflash you Shop-A-Holic Chowder Head, the true spirit of Christmas has nothing to do with $380 shoes or a wish-list. It has something to do with this dude named Jesus (ever heard of him?). Swing by church next Dec. 24th and you might learn a thing or two. He’s the one who “allegedly”started this Christmas stuff so give me my damn Gift Card and shut up! Hell, Jesus was born in a barn and had to smell goat shit and sleep on hay, but all you people are concerned with is an Xbox game system.

Personally, I think all Christians should get like a refund check from the church as a gift for Christmas. Instead of presents you’ll look forward to that check like a tax refund. I mean after all, your money went towards the work of God in the form of tithes and offerings, and your preacher drives a new Cadillac. And God DID so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son? Since he was so generous, how about a check?!! Besides, no man over 21 years old should have a “Santa Wish-List” anyway. If so, he should be beat unconscious and then revived…and then beat unconscious again. But like everything, you take the good with the bad.

As an independent thinker I see the Pro’s & Con’s of the Christmas holiday season:

Pros…

1) You get present.

2) You put up color lights on your house so your electric company can benefit.

3) Some people don’t act like dicks in the weeks leading up to and after the holiday .

4) It’s the best window of probability for someone you don’t like to kill themselves .

5) Drunk drivers who get away with it all year get caught.

Cons…

1) Pedophiles dressed as Santa get to feel children up unimpeded at the mall.

2) Gas prices usually peak around Christmas filling the coffers of those Saudi bastard.

3) More people kill themselves on Christmas than any other day in the year.

4) Christmas music on the radio 24-7 is a vicious assault.

5) Being asked what you got for Christmas – That’s as intrusive as asking your mom if she ever gave your dad head. Mind your own fuckin business!

Lastly, a message of Christmas is to be good to each other because “it’s that time of year” is fucking bullshit. You should be good to others and treat people well throughout the ENTIRE YEAR. If you’re only nice to people during the holidays because of Hallmark, then you should have been aborted.

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Oh how times have changed:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

The latest census data depict a middle class that’s shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government’s safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

“Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too ‘rich’ to qualify,” said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.

“The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal,” he said. “If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years.”

Yeah, it’s pretty cruddy these days for po’ folks, but as always, somebody got something stupid to say:

[…] Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, questioned whether some people classified as poor or low-income actually suffer material hardship. He said that while safety-net programs have helped many Americans, they have gone too far. He said some people described as poor live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.

“There’s no doubt the recession has thrown a lot of people out of work and incomes have fallen,” Rector said. “As we come out of recession, it will be important that these programs promote self-sufficiency rather than dependence and encourage people to look for work.”

Obviously there are two Americas, and clearly, “certain people” just don’t get it:

[…} Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, questioned whether some people classified as poor or low-income actually suffer material hardship. He said that while safety-net programs have helped many Americans, they have gone too far. He said some people described as poor live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.

[…] About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by theCensus Bureau that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the U.S. population. That’s up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly developed poverty measure.

The new measure of poverty takes into account medical, commuting and other living costs as well as taxes. Doing that pushed the number of people below 200 percent of the poverty level up from the 104 million, or 1 in 3 Americans, that was officially reported in September.

Broken down by age, children were most likely to be poor or low-income — about 57 percent — followed by seniors 65 and over. By race and ethnicity, Hispanics topped the list at 73 percent, followed by blacks, Asians and non-Hispanic whites.

Even by traditional measures, many working families are hurting.

“There’s no doubt the recession has thrown a lot of people out of work and incomes have fallen,” Rector said. “As we come out of recession, it will be important that these programs promote self-sufficiency rather than dependence and encourage people to look for work.”

1.6 Million Children Now Homeless

[…] Among low-income families, about one-third were considered poor while the remainder — 6.9 million — earned income just above the poverty line. Many states phase out eligibility for food stamps, Medicaid, tax credit and other government aid programs for low-income Americans as they approach 200 percent of the poverty level.

The majority of low-income families — 62 percent — spent more than one-third of their earnings on housing, surpassing a common guideline for what is considered affordable. By some census surveys, child-care costs consume close to another one-fifth when a mother works.

[…] A survey of 29 cities conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors released Thursday points to a gloomy outlook for those on the lower end of the income scale.

Many mayors cited the challenges of meeting increased demands for food assistance, expressing particular concern about possible cuts to federal programs such as food stamps and WIC, which assists low-income pregnant women and mothers. Unemployment led the list of causes of hunger in cities, followed by poverty, low wages and high housing costs.

Across the 29 cities, about 27 percent of people needing emergency food aid did not receive it. Kansas City, Mo.; Nashville, Tenn.; Sacramento, Calif.; and Trenton, N.J., were among the cities that pointed to increases in the cost of food and declining food donations. Mayor Michael McGinn in Seattle cited an unexpected spike in food requests from immigrants and refugees, particularly from Somalia, Burma and Bhutan.

Among those requesting emergency food assistance, 51 percent were in families, 26 percent were employed, 19 percent were elderly and 11 percent were homeless.

“People who never thought they would need food are in need of help,” said Mayor Sly James of Kansas City, Mo., who co-chairs a mayors’ task force on hunger and homelessness.

Clearly, as you can see, ballin’ just ain’t the same anymore these days; hell, I don’t even know if MTV still airs Cribs. However, I do know that 50% of all workers made less than $36,000 in 2010. Now I don’t know about you or how old you are. But, $26,000 a year isn’t enough to raise a family on. It can be done, pre-recession po’ folk did it. But please believe, there are a lot of people new to this reality, or the soon-to-be, new normal. Last week a woman in Texas denied social services shot her two kids and killed herself. Here’s to hoping this doesn’t become the new normal as well.

Times sure have changed, indeed.

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Scott Pelley, CBS “Evening News” anchor: How do you create jobs in this country?

Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET): Unfortunately now, I don’t think we have the leadership either in the White House or the Congress to end what I call a zero-sum game mentality towards the U.S. economy. And until both parties agree that the goal is to rebuild the American economy to reflect the 21st century on a global environment – we’re going to be stuck. And it’s a little bit frightening from the standpoint of a business person and particularly an African-American business person.

Pelley: What do you mean frightening?

Johnson: The facts are African-American unemployment is 16.7 percent, almost double the national average and probably higher than that when you factor in those people who’ve given up or those people who can’t find real jobs. And studies continue to show that African-Americans are falling behind by every indices that you can imagine – home ownership, economic opportunity, access to capital. And that to me, creates a prescription that could lead to two societies, separate and unequal, but also to a lot of social unrest.

Pelley: Your message to Washington then is what?

Johnson: My message to Washington is simply sacrifice your political job for the job that American people want you to do. That’s as simple as that. Be willing to be a one-term congressperson. Be willing to be a one-term president, be willing to be a one-term senator. Take that position. That the issues before the country are far greater than me returning to Washington and starting the same old treadmill over again.

Watch it here for yourself and tell me what you think:

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