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Despite setbacks, blacks still embrace America

By Carl T. Rowan

This is the second of two columns about blacks in America.

The distinguishing thing about the cur-rent generation of black Americans is their struggle to get enough educa-tion to compete. Today some 80 percent of blacks ages 20 to 24 have finished high school, and more than 12 percent ages 25 to 34 have completed college.

But statistics can be de-ceiving. Disparities in the quality of schooling, plus en-trenched discrimination, have made it very difficult for blacks to translate diplo-mas and degrees into eco-nomic equality. It is ironic that despite their great ad-vances in education, blacks have lost ground in family incomes. Last year more black graduated from col-lege than were enrolled in 1950. But the median income of black families, 61 percent of that for whites in 1969, had dropped to 56 percent by 1983.

Anyone wanting to under-stand the black people of America must begin with a realization that the black family is trying to do with $56 what the white family is doing with $100. This re-flects both an inability of many black workers to go any job and a historical diffi-culty in getting good jobs.

For most of the 36 years that the federal government has kept track of it, the black unemployment level has been more than twice as high as for whites. Currently it is 15.2 percent for blacks, compared with 6.2 percent for whites. For black teen-agers, unemployment stays well above the 40 percent level. Moreover, employed blacks are still generally rel-egated to the least disirable, lowest-paying jobs. This reinforces a powerful American mindset. Whites enter a res-taurant expecting the waiter to be white, the busboy black. What is it that cripples millions of young black Americans? Chancellor Wharton believes it is the breakdown for the American family. "For centuries," he points out, "the family was the single strongest fortress against deprivation and dis-enfranchisement. The family was our source of strength, ambition, self-worth. Now, however, more than half of all black children are raised by single mothers. Until we find a way to strengthen black families, institutional reforms will be less than ful-ly effective."

Another question often heard today is whether, from New Deal to Great Society, blacks became too dependent on the federal government. A few blacks are saying that government doles softened millions to the point that they cannot complete. But others consider social pro-grams to be vital, while con-ceding that peril surrounds any group whose well-being depends too much on who controls Congress and the White House.

So blacks in America seek a new strategy. More and more and deciding that po-litical power must be the backbone of every new ad-vance. Nothing much changes in America unless it is run through the political system. It is in this area that black Americans recently have made some of the most impressive gains.

In 1984, 5,7000 blacks held elective office, almost four times as many as just 15 years ago. And that political power has been won - in Los Angeles and Charlotte, Philadelphia and Atlanta - in alliance with white voters who sense that blacks want the same things as they for their children, families, com-munitites.

The going is still rough for the ordinary black family. But, remarkably, black peo-ple remain the most dogged-ly American of all Ameri-cans. They shunned Marcus Garvey's call for abandon-ment of this land and a re-turn to Africa. They have rejected the blandishments of those offering communism as their salvation.

Black Americans continue to say: We have worked, sweated, even died to build this nation. We are of Amer-ica for all time. So let us join with all other Americans to make it a joyful place for those who come after us.

[pencil sketch] SUN-TIMES 6/22/85