Broadband use among blacks has grown, but still lags behind whites.

The rate of African Americans adopting broadband has grown to 56% from 46% at a similar point in 2009. That translates to a 22% year-on-year growth rate, much higher than the national average and the highest growth rate of any major demographic group, according to the latest research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

While the gap between whites and blacks has been cut approximately in half over the last year, African Americans still lag in their use of broadband technologies. In 2009, the gap between blacks and whites was 19 percentage points (65% vs. 46%); in 2010 that gap stands at 11 points (67% vs. 56%).

When survey participants were asked: “Do you think that expanding affordable high-speed Internet access to everyone in the country should be a top priority for the federal government, important but a lower priority, not too important, or should it not be done?” People under age 30 and African Americans were the most likely to favor expanded government efforts towards broadband access. Older Americans were among the least likely to back the expansion of affordable broadband access as a government priority.

African Americans were also significantly more likely than whites to say that a lack of broadband access is a “major disadvantage” when it comes to finding out about job opportunities; getting health information; learning new things to improve or enrich one’s life; using government services; and keeping up with local community happenings.

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If a solid college education is a necessary journey on the path to wealth and prosperity, then African Americans are being derailed, according to new data that delves into closing the graduation gap between African Americans at four-year institutions and their white peers.

The graduation rate for African-American students in the private colleges and universities in their analysis is 54.7%, compared with 73.4% for whites—an 18.7 percentage-point gap. Similarly, at public institutions, only 43.3% of African American students graduate within six years, compared with 59.5% of whites — a 16.2 percentage-point gap, according to the Education Trust. The researchers excluded for-profit institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities and studied the matriculation rates of 293 public and 163 private nonprofit colleges that have sufficient numbers of students of both races to calculate reliable gaps.

To close that gap, researchers recommend institutions follow these practices that worked well for Winthrop University in South Carolina, and three institutions in the University of North Carolina system:

• A mandate that all students, regardless of race, be given intentional support.
• Create an early alert system, in which faculty members are notified of students who are struggling academically. The college then works with each student’s adviser and resident assistant to provide the student with intrusive counseling.
• Collect detailed data about retention programs and use the data to evaluate programs and decide whether to expand or eliminate them.
• Creating programs that focus on the specific needs of African American male and female students.

A total of 71,000 jobs were added in July, below the 200,000 needed to reduce the jobless rate, the Department of Labor reported Friday morning. Total employment decreased by 131,000 in July, reflecting the departure of 143,000 temporary Census 2010 workers from federal government payrolls.

• Related Reading: New Study Reveals Same Old Reality for Blacks

In July, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed at 6.6 million. These individuals made up 44.9% of unemployed persons.

“The net loss of jobs reported in today’s employment report captures a job market stuck in neutral,” writes the Economic Policy Institute. “It is time for the government to do substantially more to create jobs so the backlog of unemployed workers can get back to work.”

Manufacturing employment increased by 36,000 over the month. Motor vehicles and parts had fewer seasonal layoffs than normal for July, contributing to a seasonally adjusted employment increase of 21,000. Manufacturing employment has expanded by 183,000 since December 2009. The healthcare sector continued its upward climb, 27,000 jobs in July. Over the past 12 months, healthcare employment has risen by 231,000.

All told, there were 14.6 million people looking for work in July. That’s roughly double the figure in December 2007, when the recession began, writes the Associated Press.

This debacle hasn't been about Shirley Sherrod, but about the country's inability to have a dialogue about racism.

In the last 24 hours, Shirley Sherrod has gone from being portrayed as a racist government official who was vilified by conservatives, liberals, and the White House, to someone who is being held up as a victim of a rush to judgment without anyone bothering to get the facts straight. Both the White House and the NAACP were tripping over their feet to be first to condemn Sherrod’s comments. But what’s the point of being first if you aren’t correct? Is it worth it to potentially ruin someone’s life? Let me be clear, this was never about Sherrod, it was about the country’s racism problem.

• Further Reading: Reverse Racism, or Hatchet Job?

Let’s face it, once the NAACP accused the Tea Party movement of having racist elements, the group was going to be under extreme scrutiny from critics. And though the NAACP claims it was “snookered” by Fox News and the edited video clip on the Big Government blog, the organization had a duty to make sure that the accusations of racism were true. The group didn’t watch the full video. Instead, the NAACP threw Sherrod under the bus when his group initially issued – and later — removed a statement condemning Sherrod’s acts. All this was done in an effort to make sure that its glass house remained intact.

Did USDA Secretary Tom Vislack “overreact” as the Congressional Black Caucus claims? Was Vilsack kowtowing to a PC agenda? Or was he simply trying to respond to racism at an agency that is under fire for its documented discriminatory practices against black farmers? I’ll take B and C for $500, Alex.

“If they had just taken the time to — even without looking at the tape — to look at me, to look at what I’ve stood for, to look at what I’ve done since I’ve actually been at the department, I don’t think they would have been so quick to do what they did and so insistent,” Sherrod said during an interview with CNN.

It would have been wonderful if the NAACP, conservatives, and the White House had looked at Sherrod’s record, but we know this was never about her. It was all about racism and pointing fingers.

Are there lessons to be learned in all this madness? I hope so. No one wants to be seen as tolerating racists within their ranks, but there has to be a better way to address the problem than what we’ve seen in the last 48 hours. Race isn’t a pawn in a political chess game. There needs to be an open and honest dialogue about race and racism and how they inform and affect people.

I hope that the NAACP and its leadership remembers that with their great power comes great responsibility. Hopefully conservatives have learned that their tired smear tactics aren’t going to work as people repudiate knee-jerk responses. And I hope the White House and members of the Obama administration realize that they can’t play politics with people’s lives. And to all the so-called journalists out there, do your research.

Deborah Creighton Skinner is the editorial director at BlackEnterprise.com.

Shirley Sherrod (Source: CNN)

When I first heard about former USDA official Shirley Sherrod’s comments at a March NAACP banquet in Georgia, I was appalled and disgusted.

There she was, proudly explaining how 24 years ago when she worked for the Georgia field office for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund she purposely didn’t help a white farmer save his farm. How could she stand there and be so insensitive as she recalled this man’s plight when so many black farmers have been seeking justice from the USDA over past discrimination.

Here it was, less than a week after the NAACP condemned elements of the Tea Party for being racist and now I see video of someone speaking at an NAACP event doing just what the organization is rallying against. How can it be?

• Related Reading: NAACP Condemns Racism of Tea Party Movement

Video of the speech appeared on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government blog. And it is damning. So much so, that the NAACP initially released – and then rescinded — a statement supporting Sherrod’s resignation from the USDA. (Thanks to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for keeping the statement on its site.)

“Racism is about the abuse of power. Sherrod had it in her position at USDA. According to her remarks, she mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race. We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers. Her actions were shameful.” wrote the NAACP, according to the AJC.

Ooh, I was getting hot under my vintage collar. But then I did a bit of research and my questions were answered and my outraged tamped down. I learned that Sherrod says more than what’s in the clip released by the blog.

In an interview with the Associated Press Tuesday, Sherrod said the video clip is taken out of context and misconstrues the message of the story, which is that the case taught her that whites are struggling just like blacks.

“My point in telling that story is that working with him helped me to see that it wasn’t just a black and white issue,” she told the AP. “That’s why I take the time to tell that story is to tell people we need to get beyond it and work together.” She added: the farmers’ situation ultimately “opened my eyes” that helping farmers wasn’t so much about race but was “about the poor versus those who have.”

Meanwhile, the wife of the white farmer in the story says she plans to stand up for her friend, and help her just as Sherrod helped her and her late husband.

‘How Can It Be?’ I asked earlier. Well in this highly polemic society, people/groups will too often resort to any means necessary to try to prove their point. Once the NAACP called out the Tea Partiers for their some of their racist ways, it was open season on the group. While the NAACP was able to cite credible evidence to support its argument that there are racist elements in the Tea Party movement, biggovernment.com used specious and underhanded tactics – anyone remember ACORN? — to accuse the NAACP of supporting racism.

Deborah Creighton Skinner is the editorial director at BlackEnterprise.com.

The NAACP resolution condemns racist elements of the Tea Party movement as seen in these signs from Tea Party rallies. (Source: NAACP via ThinkProgress)

NAACP delegates passed a resolution Tuesday to condemn extremist elements within the Tea Party, and called on Tea Party leaders to repudiate those who use racist language in their signs and speeches.

“We take no issue with the Tea Party movement,” said NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. “We believe in freedom of assembly and people raising their voices in a democracy. What we take issue with is the Tea Party’s continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements. The time has come for them to accept the responsibility that comes with influence and make clear there is no place for racism & anti-Semitism, homophobia and other forms of bigotry in their movement.”

The resolution was adopted during the civil rights group’s 101st annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri, and was amended during the debate to specifically ask the Tea Party itself to repudiate the racist elements and activities of the Tea Party. The resolution came after a year of high-profile media coverage of attendees of Tea Party marches using antagonistic racial slurs and images, according to the organization.

The move has sparked sharp criticism from conservatives. Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who is a very vocal supporter of the Tea Party movement, took to her Facebook account to share her “sadness” over the move.

“I am saddened by the NAACP’s claim that patriotic Americans who stand up for the United States of America’s Constitutional rights are somehow ‘racists.’ The charge that Tea Party Americans judge people by the color of their skin is false, appalling, and is a regressive and diversionary tactic to change the subject at hand,” Palin wrote.

She said the motive of such an “unfair accusation of racism is to dissuade good Americans from joining the Tea Party movement or listening to the common sense message of Tea Party.

The NAACP says it is not trying to stop the Tea Party movement, but just the racist discourse. The language of the resolution has been misconstrued to imply that the NAACP was condemning the entire Tea Party movement itself as racist, says the organization.

“We don’t have a problem with the tea party’s existence. We have an issue with their acceptance and welcoming of white supremacists into their organizations,” Jealous told the Associated Press.

The resolution will not become official NAACP policy until approved by the national board of directors in October.