New Year - New Me? What Black America Continues To Face in 2024
By Natalie H. Rozzell
America is bringing many problems into the year 2024. An economy that we’re told is thriving
yet, doesn’t quite feel that way to our pockets. A big illegal immigration issue and all that comes with it - sanctuary city statuses, funds and services going to the migrants while some citizens are left homeless and abandoned, voting rights for non-Citizens, etc. Lots of headaches coming into the new year...
Also, 2024 is an election year. I’m sure we’ll be told once again that this is “the most important election of our lives” and “to vote like our lives depend on it” by politicians old and new. Yet many Americans, not just Blacks, are disillusioned with the current administration. When speaking to Black people, we remember President Joe Biden’s victory speech where he said that “The African American community stood up again for me. They always have my back, and I’ll have yours.” Well, as it has turned out, not much has been checked off of the Black folk’s list of demands in terms of reparations, an anti-Black hate crime bill or certain protections to address police brutality. Instead the Democratic party and President Biden have granted mostly Hip Hop holidays and the Juneteenth holiday to the Black community. Although Juneteenth is significant to Freedmen, it does not speak to the issues Black families face today nor does it help close the racial wealth gap that continues to widen daily. All of the issues mentioned above affect Black Americans the most, in my opinion. So, President Biden and Vice President Harris will have their hands full trying to convince Black America to vote them back into office.
What will America do about the illegal immigration problem in 2024? And how does this particular issue affect Black Americans the most?
I’m sure you’ve heard the cries from Americans that “immigrants will take our jobs” or “immigrants will replace us”, and while that is not entirely true for some groups of Americans, it is especially true for Black Americans. Yes, I understand that Blacks have moved away from the agrarian lifestyle we had in the South in the past, and migrants pick the majority of the fruit and vegetables cultivated in the United States. However, in terms of blue collar work and the labor market, the increase of undocumented workers has affected wages and has created economic barriers for Blacks. According to T. Willard of The Philadelphia Tribune in their piece “Immigration Comes At A Devastating Cost To Black Americans”, they state: “Indeed, as the supply of less-educated labor increased due to immigration, competition for jobs requiring a high school degree or less became much greater. And Black Americans suffered disproportionately.”
This is beyond simple xenophobia. This is a real hard fact and these life-changing opportunities for migrants come at the expense of Blacks. In comparison to whites, Black workers have never been able to close the wage and opportunity gulf until immigration levels were reduced in the past. According to Roy Beck, an immigration policy expert and author of “Back of the Hiring Line”, in the years 1940 to 1980, when immigration was considerably lower, Black men saw incomes rise four times and as a middle class, we grew from 22% to 71%. Yet, our lawmakers, including Black politicians from the CBC, continue to accommodate and place illegal immigrants over its citizens. And let me remind you - this is an election year and they want us to continue to vote against our best interests. Absurd!
With all the issues we continue to face as a people, we need to continue to fight for a better America for Black people. As Gregg “Marcel” Dixon, a reparations-based, Freedmen politician from South Carolina states “We need to repair Black America to fix America!” Those words could not be truer. Whenever Black people gained rights, services or restitution, it essentially helped all American receive the same.
More than ever before states have been creating reparations commissions to study what restitution should like and who exactly it should go to. But there is no clear support for a federal reparations program at this time. So what can Black America look forward to in this new year regarding justice, equality and our fight for reparations? If we continue putting pressure on our representatives, educating the public about our history and the fight for reparations, representing ourselves with dignity and poise, and accumulating wealth as a community, we will be able to make 2024 truly a new start for Black America. Continue the good fight, my family!
