January 26, 2010: Things I Learned Today

How’s everyone doing? I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on investing in the global black community, and I think it’s selfish to keep all the info to myself. Actually, I should try to do this more often in this blog.

So, here are the 10 things I learned today:

1. According to the FBI’s Violence Policy Center, Pennsylvania leads the U.S. in black homicide victims with approximately 37 blacks’ murdered per 100,000 people, which is seven times the national homicide rate. Behind that are Missouri, Indiana, Nevada and Wisconsin. In 2007, 485 black people were killed and 440 of them were black males. The data says 87% were killed with a gun and bbout 79% were killed by someone they knew.

The national black homicide rate is 21% (as of 2007).

2. There 500,000 new blacks residing legally in the U.S. The Census Bureau finds that 41.1 million blacks now live in the country.

3. Approximately 20% of African-Americans have a bachelors degree or higher.

4. Between 2004 and 2008, the number of black voters increased from 14 million to 16.1 million. Black voters between the ages of 18 and 24 had the highest 2008 Election turnout of all races in the same age group.

5. Black-owned companies made up 5% of all U.S. non-farming companies (2002 Census data).

6. I’ve been wondering when Black actors are going to do more than just the expected “funny, slapstick Black movie.” Up-and-coming Black actors: Anthony Mackie is number one. Kerry Washington is also a good one and fun to watch.

7. African-Americans have a risk of outliving their retirement savings, commensurate with a study done by MassMutual, a life insurance company. Black retirees have a median savings of $73,000 versus whites’ savings of $210,000.

8. The 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act is working for the wind energy industry. According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the industry broke a record by installing 10,000 megawatts of wind power in 2009. Direct quote from AWEA: “America’s wind power fleet will avoid an estimated 62 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to taking 10.5 million cars off the road, and will conserve approximately 20 billion gallons of water annually, which would otherwise be withdrawn for steam or cooling in conventional power plants.”

9. Ja-Rule is heading to jail again. In 2007, Ja was pulled over by police in New York after a concert because the car was registered and had no insurance. In a search of the car, the police found a gun in Ja’s possession.

10. Finally, an efficient and monthly-updated Black business web site, the National Black Programming Consortium: http://www.nbpc.tv. They have this documentary called “Africa: Open for Business” which debunks myths surrounding the lifestyles of Africans, and sheds light on the African business worlds of Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, the D.R. of Congo and more. I thought it was brilliant!

The BBC named it ‘Best Documentary of the Year,’ and it was also screened at Columbia University in 2006. The documentary also reminds me of my own previous blog entry entitled the same thing.

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