opinions/editorials
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By Charlene Crowell
Typical American household has only $100 after Monthly Expenses According to findings from the Center for Responsible Lending’s newest report, The State of Lending in America and Its Impact on US Households (State of Lending), the typical household has just $100 left each month after paying for basic expenses and debt payments. After controlling for inflation, the typical household had less annual income at the end of 2010 than it did at the beginning of
the decade.. Moreover, as worker productivity increased, the workplace has seldom rewarded them with higher pay. Even in households with two wage-earners, the amount of disposable or discretionary income after paying monthly expenses was less in 2010 than it was in 2000. The combined effect of stagnant wages along with unemployment and under-employment is forcing families to curb spending and use any available assets to keep pace financially. Families with no savings or as-
sets incurred new debt. “The recession and slow recovery have led to declining net worth for the average U.S. household and a disproportionate decline for African-American and Hispanic households”, states the report. In communities of color, income declines are higher in part because of declines in overrepresentation in two types of employment that historically provided stable and secure jobs: manufacturing and construction. These two industries suffered
Guest Columnist
job losses of 10 and 20 percent, respectively. African-Americans who formerly worked manufacturing and construction jobs lost more than twice the number of jobs between 2007 and 2011 than they previously gained in the pre-recession decade. These losses in income also caused losses of wealth that are even more severe. In fact, the decline in wealth from 2005-2009 between communities of color and White households is the largest documented wealth gaps since the Census Bureau began
publishing wealth estimates in 1984. The net worth for AfricanAmericans dropped 53 percent and among Latino families, 66 percent. By comparison, White household wealth declined only 16 percent in the same years. Households headed by persons aged 55-65 saw the largest losses in wealth. People at or nearing retirement lost an average of $90,000 from 20072010. As wealth and retirement resources declined, many older
See CROWELL on Page 29
By Cheryl Pearson-McNeil
How Social Are You? Channel surfing over the weekend, I stopped on a favorite old romantic comedy that was centered on a relationship that blossomed over emails. The movie isn’t even all that old, yet its premise now seems almost ancient. Because as we all know, in today’s world, there is a plethora of ways other than email to connect socially. Social media has exploded over the last 20 years. There is simply no
way to avoid it; no matter how bah-humbug you may be over all this “new-fangled” connecting. (Mmm-hmm. You know who you are, Mr. and Ms. “You Can Call Me if You Want to Talk to Me”). According to Nielsen’s latest Social Media Report, the total time spent on social media in the U.S. on both personal computers (PCs) and mobile devices (smart phones and tablets) jumped 37 percent between July 2011 and July 2012, from 88 billion minutes to 121 billion minutes.
As you know from reading this column regularly (right?), we love our mobile devices. Smartphones saturate more than 50 percent of the total mobile phone market. African-Americans account for 62 percent of smartphone owners; and tablets are owned by 20 percent of American households. It makes sense that our increased connectivity through the penetration of mobile devices has fueled the explosion of social media. Overall, more and more peo-
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ple are connecting to the internet and are connecting for longer periods of time. During the same time period, time spent on PCs and smartphones was up 21 percent. Of our time on the Internet, the report shows that we spend more time on social networks than on any other sites, with computers still our device of choice. However, it also reports that app usage has seen the biggest growth in accessing social content. Accessing mobile apps now accounts for
more than one-third of social networking time across PCs and mobile devices. That is a 76 percent increase in social app time over last year. And, where do we like to visit? Facebook is the reigning champ of time spent on social media whether people are getting there via their PCs, mobile web browsers or a mobile app. This is how the top social networks rank in the analysis of unique
See McNeil on Page 29
By Raynard Jackson
Jimmy Graham–A True Baller That’s right, Jimmy Graham! Most of the public is only recently becoming aware of the story of Jimmy Graham. I find this very unfortunate, but true. Jimmy Graham is a tight end for the New Orleans Saints football team. As of this writing, he is the leading tight end in the N.F.L. as measured by receptions and touchdowns. But most importantly, he is proving to be a true “baller” in the game of life.
He was born and reared in Greensboro, N.C. This 24-yearold has scored big both on and off the field. Just imagine, at the age of 11, being put in a parent’s car and then being dropped off at an orphanage. Well, unfortunately for Graham, he doesn’t have to imagine this—this was his life. Graham recounts the story of him being in the back seat of a van with his housemates from the orphanage and being beaten until his eyes were swollen shut. He called his mother and asked her to pick
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him up and she simply hung up the phone. Ouch! After bouncing around from house to house, he was eventually taken into the home of his future adoptive mother, Becky Vinson during his high school years. According to Graham, he and his biological mother are “slowly rebuilding a relationship, but it’s moving very slowly…I told her that I forgive her, but I won’t forget.” Graham is a better man than I am. I am very impressed with
the way he presents himself on TV. But, his attitude towards his mother goes to the type of character he has. Isn’t it a shame that more people are aware of Beyonce’s pregnancy than Graham’s story? Graham, who now stands 6’6” and weighs 260 pounds, earned a basketball scholarship to University of Miami (commonly referred to as “The U”). He didn’t play football in his last year of school (along with four years of basketball). He graduated in 2009 with a
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double major in marketing and management. He then enrolled in graduate school so he could play one year of football. During the 2010 NFL Draft, Graham was picked by the New Orleans Saints in the third round (95th overall pick). He was signed to a four year, $ 2.5 million contract. There is a lot more to this story, but because of space constraints, there is not enough room to write about everything; but just Google his name and
See Jackson on Page 29
Jan. 3, 2013 - Jan. 9, 2013
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