A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

Where did all the Black men go? Analysis of population data shows so many Black males have gone to prison, died of disease of accidents, or by violence, that Black females in many communities outnumber Black men by ratios of 6 to 10. A national policy of mass Black incarceration is the primary factor – a factual basis for a charge of genocide.

We Charge Genocide: 1.5 Million Black Men “Missing”

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

“There are more Black men missing from their communities than the combined Black male populations of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Washington and Boston.”

A new analysis of population data confirms what has long been obvious to every minimally conscious Black person in the United States: a huge proportion of the Black male population is missing, physically absent from the daily life of the community. Many are prematurely dead, but the largest group has been consigned to the social death of incarceration. According to a study by the Upshot unit of the New York Times, when prison inmates of both sexes are taken out of the equation, there are now 1.5 million more Black women in the country, age 25 to 54, than there are Black men. In some locations – for example, Ferguson, Missouri – there are only six Black men physically present in the community for every ten Black women.

In white America, there is almost no imbalance in gender among the 25 to 54 age group. For every 100 white women, there are 99 white men.

There are more Black men missing from their communities than the combined Black male populations of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Washington and Boston. Six hundred thousand of them are in prison, and that’s not counting Black male prison inmates that are younger than 25 and older than 54. The analysts estimate that roughly half, and maybe as many as three-quarters, of the other 900,000 missing Black men have died before their time from diseases and accidents, and that 200,000 are no longer here due to homicide.

“The war of attrition is a race war.”

Black life in America does not start out with these bizarre imbalances between the sexes. There is no gender gap among Blacks in childhood. Roughly the same number of boys and girls are born, and the ratio stays stable until the teenage years, when the war of attrition begins mercilessly grinding down the numbers of Black males. How else is this phenomenon to be described except as a war, in which 600,000 are held captive during their most productive years, 200,000 are killed by violence, and most of the rest go to early graves from accidents and diseases that cause far lower casualties among whites.

The data show that U.S. society has become much more toxic for Black men during the very period in which Blacks were supposedly making such fantastic “progress.” The numbers show that the missing-Black-men phenomenon “began growing in the middle decades of the 20^th century.” The increasing ratio of Black women to men is primarily a product of the age of mass Black incarceration. The war of attrition is a race war deliberately and methodically initiated by the U.S. government, the effects of which have been devastating to Black society on the most fundamental level: stunting the formation of Black families and the Black American group as a whole by physically removing and eliminating the men.

The data support a totally plausible, factually grounded charge of genocide, based on international law. The U.S. government, through its mass Black incarceration policies of the last half century, has been guilty of a) “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” as well as b) “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.”

The facts bear witness to the indictment. So do 1.5 million missing Black men.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com

By Doug Cunningham

The boycott campaign against Staples organized by the American Postal Workers Union was supported in Boston Wednesday by teachers who delivered a “don’t buy school supplies at Staples” message. Staples is being boycotted for taking postal jobs in a deal with the U.S. Postal Service to provide mail services at Staples stores. The Lynn Teachers Union joined APWU members in urging a Staples boycott. An August 27th rally is planned for City Hall Plaza in Boston. The APWU objects to outsourcing postal work to poorly trained, low wage workers at Staples. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers both support the Staples boycott in solidarity with postal unions.

By JoAnne Pow!ers

[Carrietta Hiers]: “I’m excited about the agreement. We gave the boss the proposals; they told us that our proposals took their breath away, and that we would never see fifteen dollars an hour.”

That was Service Employees International Union organizer Carrietta Hiers celebrating a fair wage victory for hospital workers at Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. After a four-month struggle workers won a major victory in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. The hospital and SEIU 1199 reached a tentative agreement on a new four-and-a-half year contract which guarantees substantial wage increases to workers, with raises as high as 38% for low-paid workers over the life of the contract, and a minimum wage of up to 15 dollars an hour for long-time workers. The Union membership will vote on ratification at the end of this week.

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By JoAnne Pow!ers

Advocates for workers’ rights joined with a wide coalition of activists last week, including supporters of women’s reproductive rights and access to healthcare for all, to protest at Hobby Lobby stores across the nation.  The protests come on the heels of last Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court Decision, in which the court ruled that the religious convictions of the company’s owners meant that it did not have to follow provisions of the Federal Affordable Care Act requiring employee health care plans to provide contraception coverage.

The police in the US can kill youth, especially youth of color with impunity. The murder and incarceration of youth of color in this country is at epidemic levels. We reprint this from the blog Dark Are The Days  for our reader’s interest. Please spread the word about yet another youth murder by police.  We are interested in what Kshama Sawant has to say about this issue and will contact her office to find out.  It is important that socialists stand in the forefront of the attacks on youth.

Oscar Perez-Giron and the Fight for Justice

 

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By Doug Cunningham

Johns Hopkins hospital is still refusing to meet 1199 SEIU’s demand that wages for 2,000 workers at the hospital be raised to $15 an hour for workers with at least 15 years experience. The union averted a planned strike by agreeing to a cooling off period and another bargaining session after the intervention of Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley. The union says the latest Johns Hopkins hospital offer would still leave many workers relying on food stamps, Medicaid and other public assistance because of their low wages. No new bargaining sessions are scheduled for now.