Geraldine Ferraro has made a thought-provoking and surgical comment about why Barack Obama is doing so well with the electorate and the American people in his campaign to be chosen as the Democratic nominee for President.
Essentially she said that he was "lucky" that he was a black man. That all of his successes have come easier to him because of the dark pigment of his skin.
I thought I would examine her theory.
Is Barack lucky to be black? Is that why he is beating Hillary Clinton?
Well, first I wanted to look at the general "luckiness" of being a black man in America. The facts are really staggering. Below you will find some lucky statistics.
A) More Whites Use Drugs, But More Blacks Are Imprisoned
The report said that African Americans accounted for 62 percent of the drug offenders sent to state prisons nationwide in 1996, the most recent year for which statistics are available, although they represent just 12 percent of the U.S. population. Overall, black men are sent to state prisons on drug charges at 13 times the rate of white men, according to the study, which analyzes a wide range of Justice Department information for 37 states to come up with its findings.
These disparities exist even though data gathered by the Department of Health and Human Services show that in 1991, 1992 and 1993, about five times as many whites had used cocaine than blacks, the report said.
B) Blacks Are Incarcerated at 4 times the rate of Blacks in South Africa during the apartheid era
Black men in America are more than 8 times more likely to be incarcerated than White men.
The disproportionate representation of black Americans in the U.S. criminal justice system is well documented. Blacks comprise 13 percent of the national population, but 30 percent of people arrested, 41 percent of people in jail, and 49 percent of those in prison. Nine percent of all black adults are under some form of correctional supervision (in jail or prison, on probation or parole), compared to two percent of white adults. One in three black men between the ages of 20 and 29 was either in jail or prison, or on parole or probation in 1995. One in ten black men in their twenties and early thirties is in prison or jail. Thirteen percent of the black adult male population has lost the right to vote because of felony disenfranchisement laws.
Quote from
this link
C) Today only [one-third] of black children have two parents in the home.
The sad truth is that Black children are only half as likely as white children to be living in a two-parent household, and are eight times more likely than white children to live with an unwed mother. For black children under six, " the most common arrangement-- applying to 42 percent of them -- was to live with a never-married mother."
During the days of slavery a black child was more likely to grow up living with both parents than he or she is today.
D) Blacks represent 30% of the poor in America today
From the book The American Directory of Certified Uncle Toms (Chicago: Lushena, 2002):
While constituting roughly 13% of the total population, Black America represents nearly 30% of America's poor. That compares with 11%, or 16 million, whites, who live in poverty; and 27%, or 8 million, Latinos. Black family income is just 60% of white income, and 43% of all Black children live beneath the poverty line-a figure almost identical to that which existed on the day Martin Luther King was assassinated, and 4 times the average for western European countries. Black children today are much more likely than whites to lack early pre-natal care, and have single mothers or unemployed parents. White Americans possess 12 times the average net worth of Blacks. Blacks are twice as likely as whites to be among the working poor-those who are employed at wages below the poverty level. 70% of elderly Blacks have no financial assets.
E) If Blacks had the same mortality rate as Whites, 64,000 more of them would be alive EVERY year
Again, from the book:
The state of Black health scores below every other race in the U.S. Every year 250,000 Blacks-a number of people equal to the population of Birmingham, Alabama-are killed by the 10 biggest killers of Blacks of all ages: heart disease, cancer, stroke, AIDS, accidents, homicide, diabetes, pneumonia and influenza, chronic pulmonary diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, and infant mortality. 79,680 Black boys and men were violently murdered between 1985 and 1993, mostly by other Blacks. If Blacks had the same mortality rate as whites, about 64,000 people each year-more than all Americans who died in the Vietnam War-would still be alive. Whites live 6 years longer than Blacks.
Black infant mortality is more than twice as high as that for whites and higher than in many "Third World" countries. A Black baby is more than twice as likely as a white baby to die before its first birthday, yet babies of largely poor West African immigrants survive just as well as whites. 1 in 7 Black babies is born with a low birth weight, which makes them 40 times more likely to die.
Blacks have a 60% higher diabetes-related mortality than whites and suffer 30% higher cardiovascular mortality, 25% higher cancer mortality (including breast cancer). Blacks with prostate cancer are 2-3 times more likely to die than whites. African-American men have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the world. Blacks with lung cancer were 24% more likely than whites to die within 5 years.
F) 80% of America's Homeless are Black
55% of Blacks live in the cities, while 70% of whites live in the suburbs or rural areas. Los Angeles and New York are ranked 2nd and 3rd behind Sao Paulo, Brazil, in their homeless population, and 80% of America's homeless are Black. 60% of the total Black population in the U.S. lives in communities with one or more uncontrolled toxic waste sites.
43% of Blacks and 68% of whites own their homes. Blacks were 210% more likely than whites of comparable credit to be rejected for mortgage. It is estimated that the current generation of Blacks will lose about $82 billion in equity because of institutional discrimination; the next generation of Black homeowners will lose $93 billion. Blacks are 2.8 times more likely to be injured in a house fire than either whites or Latinos.
From This Link
G) It is estimated that 40-44% of Blacks are functionally illiterate
From the book, The American Directory of Certified Uncle Toms:
69% of Black children cannot read in the 4th grade, compared with 29% among white children. Only 12% of Black high-school seniors are "proficient" readers, while 54% have "below basic" reading skills. It is estimated that 40-44% of Blacks are functionally illiterate. Black children are almost 3 times more likely than white children to be labeled mentally retarded. Blacks are 2.5 times more likely to be placed in remedial or low-track classes. Even when Black students show potential that is equal to or above that of whites, they are 40% less likely to be placed in advanced or accelerated classes.
Two-thirds of "minorities" in public school fail to reach basic levels of national tests. There continue to be marked disparities between Black and white students in the national SAT scores. 32% of all suspended students are Black. Black students are twice as likely as whites to be suspended or expelled. The high-school dropout rate in some inner-city communities approaches 50%. Only 26% of Blacks who do finish high school go to college, while 37% of whites go. College-educated Blacks are 4 times more likely than whites to experience unemployment
Barack is obviously one lucky S.O.B.!!
But what about his campaign for presidency?
I think being BLACK must have helped him with the main reason why he is beating Hillary Clinton.
A) He took nothing for granted
He worked from the bottom up. It started in Iowa. When Hillary had visited 38 counties in Iowa, Barack had visited over 90. When Hillary was spending money on high-paid consultants and Dunkin Donuts, Barack was forming grass-roots support and opening field offices across the freaking country. When Hillary sat back and watched the results of Super Tuesday roll in, she was surprised. Barack wasn't. When Hillary ran on her name, Barack was handicapped by his. When Hillary was fighting with her advisors and blaming the press, Barack had his nose to the ground meeting with his staff and volunteers in consensus-based meetings. When Hillary was insulting 40 states and trying only to win the biggest, Barack was busy working and campaigning in every one, and honoring the system and the people who have cared to vote for him in EVERY state. Hillary pissed on her supporters in small states because they happened to live in a place she doesn't recognize as being important to her party.
I guess being Black has helped him to garner a better work ethic and plan for winning the nomination?