Impact of Capitalism on Blacks, Other Minorities, and the Poor

This workshop will review the true critical current conditions in the United States in relationship to United States domestic and international political and economic policies. The participants will consider the impact of modern U.S. capitalism on the African-American community: the Stock Market scandal, the $500 million savings and loan bailout, and other issues related to economic policies and issues and their effect on the black community.

Participants will discuss the political and economic implications of several current domestic and international political and economic policies, options for reform, and strategies for social change. The objective of this dialogue is to stimulate an analysis of the overall economic system in the United States and the effects of its policies, particularly on African-American families and the poor, in a service-based economy with increasingly high unemployment, increasing family dysfunction, 25% judicial custody and a high incarceration rate among Black males. A synthesis of statistical and historical data supports the contention that the difference in the impact of economic policies on Africa-Americans is structural and that the current trends forecast increasingly desperate conditions for the poor and for African-Americans, especially African-American males.

Workshop conveners:

• Rev. Jew Don Boney, Jr., Chair, Houston Chapter, National Black United Front and the Coalition to Free Clarence Lee Brandley, Houston, TX 77004.

• Dr. Robert Bullard, formerly professor of sociology at Texas Southern University, now teaching at the University of California at Riverside. He is author of Invisible Houston, which tells the story of the black experience during Houston's recent oil boom and bust days, and the forthcoming Dumping in Dixie.

• Rev. Henry Blaze, Associate Minister, Outreach Baptist Church, Houston, TX, Sociology and Theology student at Texas Southern University and Vanderbilt.

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