During the early 1980s, the overall black unemployment rate stood at 15.5 percent-"an all time high" since the Great Depression-while unemployment among African American youth was a staggering 45.7 percent. At this point Reagan chose to slash the training, employment, and labor services budget by 70 percent-a cut of $3.805 billion.90 The only " 'urban' program that survived the cuts was federal aid for highways-which primarily benefited suburbs, not cities." In keeping with Lee Atwater's mantra that "blacks get hurt worse than whites," Reagan gutted aid to cities so extensively that federal dollars were reduced from 22 percent of a city's budget to 6 percent. Cities responded with sharp austerity measures that shut down libraries, closed municipal hospitals, and cut back on garbage pickup. Some cities even dismantled their police and fire departments.91"
( Carol Anderson )
[ White Rage: The Unspoken Truth ]
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