Stimulus Plans to Prevent Foreclosures are Speckled with Injustice

Stimulus plans to prevent foreclosures are speckled with injustice towards Hispanics and Blacks. It is they who were main targets of exotic mortgages, main sufferers of the housing crisis and now mainly neglected in the rescue plans.
Jesse Jackson claims that they have recently come to know that from the stimulus plans of President Obama the minorities are getting a significantly fewer share than others. Adriene Hill of WBEZ radio said that of the 119 contracts issued by Illinois Department of Transportation the black contractors have got only 2% as reported by Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. This sidelines a whole generation of youth who could otherwise have been the pillars of a recovering nation.

While President Obama was in Copenhagen advocating the cause of Chicago to host the next Olympics a 16 years old high school student Derrion Albert was murdered in Chicago. Only those were shocked we were not unaware of the pattern being woven depriving the Blacks and Hispanics in a systematic manner. It should not be permitted to continue.

Following this particular tragedy the President sent his attorney general and education secretary to the Chicago. But this was more in reaction to the embarrassment the murder caused at a time when he was trying to place Chicago on the Olympics map. Adolfo Carrion, the urban “czar” of the president should also accompany them not only to investigate a particular murder but to analyze the slow death of justice that is happening in cities right across USA.

The answer to this challenge requires much more than discussions. In Chicago Jackson wants the citizens to take a stand. A safe passage to school has to be guaranteed. A challenge has to be thrown to the city authorities and to the federal as well state governments forcing them to do something and not just talk.
Next in priority, feels Jackson, is the creation of jobs in Chicago. Washington seems to be recovering but in many places, especially the urban pockets, recession has now become depression. The Black unemployment rate is double that of the Whites and the youth are getting angry. A whole generation may go awry and everybody will have to pay for it.

The law has to give equal protection to all. The predatory lenders preying on minorities have to be collared. All must be given an opportunity to avail of the new green jobs. Communities previously excluded from the energy sector should now be included. All this needs a blue print, time schedules, overseeing and above all legal enforcement.