By James Agresti
March 25, 2015
The Washington Post recently published two opinion pieces in which the authors claimed that the economic policies of President Ronald Reagan—called Reaganomics—wreaked financial havoc on African Americans. To the contrary, the incomes of black households and families broadly rose during the Reagan administration, while in contrast, they have generally fallen during the current economic recovery.
In a March 1st column, Courtland Milloy showered praise on a playwright named August Wilson while wondering aloud if "there was a way for black boys in our public schools to benefit from Wilson's potentially life-changing insights." Milloy then proposed creating a school for "boys of color" in which Wilson's works would help the boys "understand the world around them." Milloy singled out one of Wilson's plays entitled King Hedley, which "represents the tumultuous 1980s, when Reaganomics and crack cocaine inflicted damages from which many black communities never recovered."
Relatedly, in a March 6th op-ed, poet and former model Jewel Allison joined a growing group of women who have stepped forward to accuse Bill Cosby of raping them. Allison stated that Cosby assaulted her in the late 1980s, but she waited more than two decades to reveal this because he was "one of the African American community's most celebrated and admired icons," and she did not want to damage his reputation for fear that this would harm other black Americans. "In the 1980s, when The Cosby Show aired," she explained, "African Americans were suffering more than most from the combined scourge of Reaganomics, AIDS and the crack epidemic."
Despite the very real harm caused by the transmission of HIV and use of crack cocaine, the claim that black Americans financially regressed during the presidency of Ronald Reagan is at odds with reality. Like President Obama, Reagan entered office under the specter of a major recession that ended early in his 8-year tenure (1981-1989). In the ensuing recovery, which began in 1982 and lasted through Reagan's second term, the Census Bureau records that the inflation-adjusted median cash income of black households rose by 12% or $3,306.
For a point of comparison, during the four years of available data on the most recent economic recovery (2010-2013), the median income of black households fell by 2.2% or $793.
(Excerpt)
Read more:
Black America Regressing Under Obama; Prospered Under Reagan | CNS News
I once heard a candidate claim that the present president at that time in 2008 was divisive and derisive and downright Un-American. In the passing eight years since the winner of two presidential elections has done more to destroy the core economy of America and derisively reduced the employment of Americans, especially those of color. The question must be posed as to why Obama has divisively raised racial bias and encouraged division of races whether black, brown or white. Was this the pledge of Obama to "Fundamentally Transform America"? After 7 years all indications seem to point to Obama's promise as meant to hurt not heal America.
