On Wednesday, February 24^th, Blue Collar Corner attended Black Forum at the National Women’s Republican Club in NYC. The event was hosted by David Webb (The Grinder Show).

The first panel consisted of Charles Payne, David Banks, Tara Dowdell, Marc Lamont Hill and Janks Morton to discuss Employment, Business and Education in the African American community. According to Tara Dowdell, $89 billion is contributed to the economy by African Americans. Only a small percentage is being sent back into black owned businesses. The community as a whole needs to support their local businesses for them to have the ability to prosper. Marc Lamont Hill reflected on this by stating “You need a community that thinks outside the box. If we don’t support our own businesses, no one else will”.

Education was also a hot topic during this panel’s discussion. Early education, mentoring programs and after school activities are the building blocks to success. However, it was disappointing and shameful to know that not all children in at-risk communities have access to it. Lack of education is attributed to children dropping out of school, gang affiliations, drug use and criminal behavior. I do believe that most children do have a basic knowledge of right and wrong. How a child cultivates that knowledge is how he/she will choose either the path of being an upstanding citizen or a delinquent. The more a child is educated, the more chances the child will have to do well. The Eagle Academy and The One Hundred Black Men mentoring program are prime examples that if a child is given the foundation to succeed, they will do so. Janks Morton provided insight on Eagle Academy and One Hundred Black Men “The average child walking into Eagle Academy is already two years behind in reading and writing… young boys are not raised around men as they are raised predominately by women. The One Hundred Black Men mentoring program will help the young boys grow to be well adjusted adults”.

The second panel discussed Healthcare and Crime in the black community. The panel was comprised of Niger Innis, George Holmes, Jehmu Greene, Pras Michel, Vincent Morgan and Reverend Michael Faulkner. In light of current events such as the “Obama-Care” debacle, healthcare has become a hot button issue in the African American community. The lack of affordability and access is almost crippling in low income neighborhoods. It is common knowledge that healthcare in the U.S. is pandered to the wealthy. For far too long, special interest groups have won over our government in terms of what form the healthcare discussion will take for the people of this country while those same government officials hold white knuckled to their own platinum coverages. Niger Innis said it the best “(Healthcare) is the highest point of political theater”. Reverend Michael Faulkner stated that “We make millions and trillions on getting sick…a healthy person doesn’t cost as much as a sick person. If you are not a rich person, you cannot afford to get sick”. The U.S. has boasted about its doctors, medicine and science for decades. Then why is it that this medically advanced society hasn’t cured a disease since Polio in the 1950’s? The answer is quite simple: the money is in the medicine, not in the cures. If you can keep the people sick for long, extended periods of time, there is plenty of money to be made on the prescriptions to make them feel better. The special interests, the pharmaceutical companies, will not take the monetarial loss in exchanging drugs for cures. This is political theater. The play is the same, just the performers have changed. Women’s health has also taken a turn for the worse. Jehmu Greene pointed out that this is “the largest roll back in reproductive rights for women of color and low income communities. It is not about Democrats or Republicans, it is about taking away a women’s right to choose”. Jehmu also had an opposing viewpoint on Tort Reform. “We can not prioritize the needs of the insurance companies over the needs of the people”. I do not agree with this as it is not just the insurance companies that suffer under outrageous claim settlements. It is the doctors and the public who pay the high premiums to have their healthcare who suffer the most. Most physicians have to pony up almost half of their salary to pay for malpractice insurance which is addition to the lower price the insurance company pays them for services rendered. How many doctors starting out are able to keep up with such high overhead while trying to pay off six figure student loan debt? The insurance companies also have high premiums to help cover the cost of multimillion dollar settlements. I think it is very important to cap medical malpractice settlements to help control the insurance companies trickled down losses. Has anyone ever given thought to the jury in these settlement cases? In most instances, all twelve members can barely figure out the proper use for a Band-Aid, let alone know how to put a price on a catastrophic illness. Wait, would they even know what a catastrophic illness is? Probably not and they shouldn’t be able to fork over huge amounts of money for it either.

The last part of the discussion was about crime and role models in the African American community. The lack of personal and family responsibility is attributed to higher levels of crime. In most family settings, the T.V. has become the babysitter, video games have taken priority over actual physical activity, and parents no longer have the time to interact with their own children. The children in the African American community have fallen prey to this. Pras Michel, formerly of The Fugees, stated “The black community created a subculture and victimized itself. It is a culture thing, not a family thing that creates the path that children take”. All children will try to emulate what is current in pop culture. However, the family needs to pull these children back into reality by letting them know that they can like whatever it is that they like, but they cannot base their lives around it. Self responsibility and family responsibility are essential to ensure that children grow into well adjusted adults that will pass on the same care and responsibility to future generations.