The National Urban League in its annual report: Disparities between Blacks and Whites in foreclosures

The National Urban League in its annual report, ‘State of Black America’ stresses that disparities between Blacks and Whites in foreclosures need to be urgently addressed. There are also discrepancies in education as well as health facilities.

The election of a coloured man to the highest post in America will not change the reality of the number of Blacks being unemployed being twice that of the Whites. Their poverty is three times worse. The number of Blacks being jailed will count to being six times more than the Whites.

Obama however has commented that the new government will address the difficulties of the minorities and improve the figures in employment, health facilities and educational services. Marci Morial the president of this Urban League that has stepped into its 99th year said that the government has to be more specific. He said, “The issue is not only (blacks) doing better, but in closing these persistent gaps in statistics in this country. Our index shows that the gap in African-American status is about 71 percent that of white Americans. We will not rest until that number is at 100, and there is no gap.”

The report covers 288 pages and includes in it the policy debates and writings from scholars, elected personnel and ordinary citizens. There are 31 explicit suggestions including making available green jobs for the poor city dwellers, increasing funds for job training and placement of the workers who are at an disadvantage, ensuring full-day schooling for all those who are aged from 3 to 4 years, expanding the school day to see that parents who are working and families without relatives living close by can help with after-school care, funding counseling for mortgages and education for the minorities and implementing universal health care facilities and making it comprehensive to include the Blacks.

Morial admitted that in this the Blacks too had a responsibility in improving their life styles. He said, “We have some things in our own community where we have to step up, when it comes to focusing and emphasizing the basic value of achievement and accomplishment in our children, and doing it in a very young age. We have to not be afraid to say, ‘Turn off the TV, shut down the Internet. SpongeBob, Dora, all these folks need to take a little break.’” But he emphasized that the government has a very important role to play.

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