Political Quotes

“Thank you Congresswoman Beatty, and thank you for your words, and also thank you for your insight, as well as our other colleagues that have shared this evening with us tonight. We really, really appreciate it. And we hope that when we come back next year this time that we can see some improvements and not have to talk about the same things over and over and over. We have heard back from 1968 some of the same statistics, and here we are so many years later still having to talk about the same thing. So we hope to see progress toward this economic stability for the African American family. We have heard from my colleagues some staggering statistics. The story is even more disconcerting for our Nation's youth. Workers 19 years old and younger are finding it more difficult than ever to find quality afterschool and summer employment. The unemployment rate for White youth age 16 to 19 stands at 14.5 percent--again, roughly half that of their Black teenage counterparts, who have an unemployment rate of 27.5 percent. Over one in four Black teenagers who are looking for work are unable to find it. Over one in four. This is simply unacceptable. As a Nation, we must do more to invest in underserved communities and provide opportunities for self-empowerment and growth for our Nation's youth. Denying African American teens a summer job could cause them to miss out on a lifetime of opportunities and experiences.…”