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So are you implying that there are no talented candidates in this most recent GTA election? I would like to point to one in Ward 2. Munira Abukar. Look her up and see how she should be a rising star in GTA politics. Excellent public speaker, great resume and platform. Plus she is running against Rob Ford. Should there be an easier ballot to cast throughout the city? Unfortunately the major press she has garnered is linked to an unfortunate racial issue where her signs were vandalized and tagged with the term "Go home"....even though she was born and raised in Toronto.
Another talented candidate running in Ward 2 is Andray Domise. Another excellent public speaker, finance and insurance professional who also has experience running his own business. Once again running against Rob Ford.
There is talent, and then there is talent. If you read about Jindal, you will very quickly realize that he was a superstar at the national level before becoming governor. Early success with medicaid and multiple top appointments by Bush.
And these rising stars in GTA politics you mention may go on to win big positions some day. Where is the disagreement? I don't see what racism has to do with all of this.
I can tell that you know more than enough about politics in both countries. So, I'm sure you know that politics is a messy and complicated business. Even talented candidates have to be at the right place at the right time to win. For example, US is one of the few democracies to have never had a female leader (as President). One could very easily spin this into a case of extreme misogyny. There were no female front runners till Hillary's loss to Obama in 2008. Is that enough to conclude that US is a sexist society?
You can't discount the already established network, both politically and secularly that a black professional can tap into immediately once arriving in the US. To put things in perspective, if "Black America" was its own nation, its GDP would be $2.2 trillion which would place it as the 10th largest economy in the world. Why would it be so insane for a motivate professional of colour to want to be a part of that?
If I remember correctly, this nonsensical statistic was publicized by a conservative commentator who used it on CNN. And then it was picked up by every conservative talk show radio host and show.
Ed, we both know that this statistic makes little to no sense. It is designed to be a one liner that may be used to "wow" an audience.
Total GDP has nothing to do with the well being of the people. India has a GDP of $1.87 trillion, making it the 10th largest economy in the world. Yet, much its populations lives in extreme poverty. China ranks #2 and yet much of it's population lives in more poverty than other Western countries.
You may disagree with the calculations below but there should be no doubt that to calculate economic well-being or prosperity, you need to calculate GDP per capita, or earned income per family/person.
.....divided the most recent estimate of black earned income, $1 trillion, by the Census Bureau estimate of 44.5 million African-Americans. That would create a per capita buying power of around $23,000 a year, which would translate to around 34th around the world on the International Monetary Fund’s list of countries by GDP per capita (between the Bahamas and Malta).
But $23,000 doesn’t go as far in the United States as, say, in Lithuania. Economists multiply GDP per capita by a conversion factor called purchasing power parity to account for the different values of goods and services in different countries. If you apply these factors, the African-American population’s $23,000 a year ranks 44th (between Portugal and Lithuania).
If Black America were a nation, its population would be 31st in the world, poverty rate 27.4%, highest incarceration rate in the world, median household wealth just above Palestine, and human development index 30 places behind USA.
Haven't read the thread, but this is my opinion: Proportionally, there are more hard core racists in the US. At the same time, there are, proportionally, more people who more closely approximate the colorblind ideal. So proportionally there are more people at both 'extremes.' In Canada, people are more uniform, but they closer to the racist extreme than the colorblind ideal. (This may be more true of Toronto than other cities where there aren't many blacks.)
If I remember correctly, this nonsensical statistic was publicized by a conservative commentator who used it on CNN. And then it was picked up by every conservative talk show radio host and show.
Ed, we both know that this statistic makes little to no sense. It is designed to be a one liner that may be used to "wow" an audience.
Total GDP has nothing to do with the well being of the people. India has a GDP of $1.87 trillion, making it the 10th largest economy in the world. Yet, much its populations lives in extreme poverty. China ranks #2 and yet much of it's population lives in more poverty than other Western countries.
You may disagree with the calculations below but there should be no doubt that to calculate economic well-being or prosperity, you need to calculate GDP per capita, or earned income per family/person.
.....divided the most recent estimate of black earned income, $1 trillion, by the Census Bureau estimate of 44.5 million African-Americans. That would create a per capita buying power of around $23,000 a year, which would translate to around 34th around the world on the International Monetary Fund’s list of countries by GDP per capita (between the Bahamas and Malta).
But $23,000 doesn’t go as far in the United States as, say, in Lithuania. Economists multiply GDP per capita by a conversion factor called purchasing power parity to account for the different values of goods and services in different countries. If you apply these factors, the African-American population’s $23,000 a year ranks 44th (between Portugal and Lithuania).
If Black America were a nation, its population would be 31st in the world, poverty rate 27.4%, highest incarceration rate in the world, median household wealth just above Palestine, and human development index 30 places behind USA.
If I remember correctly, this nonsensical statistic was publicized by a conservative commentator who used it on CNN. And then it was picked up by every conservative talk show radio host and show.
Ed, we both know that this statistic makes little to no sense. It is designed to be a one liner that may be used to "wow" an audience.
Total GDP has nothing to do with the well being of the people. India has a GDP of $1.87 trillion, making it the 10th largest economy in the world. Yet, much its populations lives in extreme poverty. China ranks #2 and yet much of it's population lives in more poverty than other Western countries.
You may disagree with the calculations below but there should be no doubt that to calculate economic well-being or prosperity, you need to calculate GDP per capita, or earned income per family/person.
.....divided the most recent estimate of black earned income, $1 trillion, by the Census Bureau estimate of 44.5 million African-Americans. That would create a per capita buying power of around $23,000 a year, which would translate to around 34th around the world on the International Monetary Fund’s list of countries by GDP per capita (between the Bahamas and Malta).
But $23,000 doesn’t go as far in the United States as, say, in Lithuania. Economists multiply GDP per capita by a conversion factor called purchasing power parity to account for the different values of goods and services in different countries. If you apply these factors, the African-American population’s $23,000 a year ranks 44th (between Portugal and Lithuania).
If Black America were a nation, its population would be 31st in the world, poverty rate 27.4%, highest incarceration rate in the world, median household wealth just above Palestine, and human development index 30 places behind USA.
I am glad someone bumped this thread, because I did not even notice your reply. Sorry for overlooking it.
The issue is that you made an incorrect assumption. The intent of my post was to show the size and power of the black consumer market in the USA, not the overall health of the community. Can you not see the benefits of being able to tap into a large consumer market, which is tailored towards people of your race?
This is something that white folks take for granted in both the US and Canada, because the market is already tailored towards your needs already. That was my point.
As far as the overall health of the black community is concerned, I am not sure if you noticed but it is not good anywhere. Until we earn as much as white people, have equal unemployment rates, home ownership rates and get stopped by police and incarcerated at similar rates, then the situation will never be considered "great". This is the reality in both the US and Canada. The difference is that there is a black professional infrastructure in place in the US that is not present in Canada, so therefore many black professionals are attracted to the US over Canada despite the problems you mentioned.
And these rising stars in GTA politics you mention may go on to win big positions some day. Where is the disagreement? I don't see what racism has to do with all of this.
I can tell that you know more than enough about politics in both countries. So, I'm sure you know that politics is a messy and complicated business. Even talented candidates have to be at the right place at the right time to win. For example, US is one of the few democracies to have never had a female leader (as President). One could very easily spin this into a case of extreme misogyny. There were no female front runners till Hillary's loss to Obama in 2008. Is that enough to conclude that US is a sexist society?
Actually the US never having a serious female contender for President (That may change with Hillary, Nikki Haley and Elizabeth Warren this next election) is something that may be reflective of society as a whole. There is still a level of sexism present in US society, one can just look to the "equal pay" discussion that is ongoing right now. Is there a reason why women should not be compensated equally if they hold the same positions as men? That is not the current reality in the US.
As far as those rising stars within the GTA are concerned, they flopped despite running excellent campaigns. Desmond Cole published an interesting article highlighting this:
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