Should blacks worry about outsourcing?

Mike Faulk:

The most important point stressed by the keynote speaker at Monday night's State of the Black Union speech sponsored by the UA chapter of NAACP wasn't about civil rights, but outsourcing of jobs overseas.

"In this country, we [blacks] have been so focused in comparing ourselves to white people," said Andre McFadden, CEO of the MarNoel Company, an international communications provider based in Birmingham. "What we should be doing is asking: How do we compare to the Mexicans? How do we compare to the Chinese? How do we compare to the Russians?"

McFadden said globalization was bringing on a new set of issues the black community in the United States must face. He said this means it's time to shift some focus from the issue of civil rights to start addressing new issues.

McFadden said outsourcing jobs has a major impact on the black community because, percentage-wise, more black people work in many of the same low-wage and blue-collar jobs that are being moved to other nations by American companies.

Pushing for better equal opportunity hiring policies is still important to the black community, McFadden said, but if a company takes away the jobs altogether, "then what did that hiring policy accomplish?"

McFadden said the older generation of Americans need to lay a foundation for future generations to better handle globalization, and then it will be up to young people to step up to the plate. He said America's youth needs to vote more and get involved in the issues for the next generation to succeed.

"The youth needs to demand a bigger seat at the table," McFadden said.

McFadden also said relations between the black and Hispanic communities need to be stronger.

"Nationally, I think we're headed directly for a clash," he said. "We need to realize that if we work together anything is possible."

Blacks are no longer the biggest minority in the United States, and the black community predictably votes for the Democratic Party in elections, he said.

He said Democrats know they have the black vote, so they don't worry about appealing to blacks, and the Republicans know it's a lost cause to try making a significant effort to win black votes.

But, "no one knows how Hispanics will vote," so they get more attention from the parties and are thus becoming a more influential minority, McFadden said.

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