New Merced NAACP president hopes to drive down stubbornly high black unemployment

The number of black people who are unemployed and who struggle to find work in Merced County were looming topics this week as a new president took over the Merced chapter of the NAACP.

Incoming President Allen Brooks took the reins Monday of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, replacing Daryl Davis, who served since 2015.

Members of the group said increasing the number of employed African-Americans comes down not only to getting young people to finish school, but also in getting business owners to give young black men and women a chance.

“We know the gaps in education are wide. One of my jobs is to close those gaps,” Brooks said on Monday. “One of the main reasons I want to be here is education.”

African-Americans in Merced County are unemployed at a higher rate than any other group, according the U.S. Census Bureau. A five-year study through 2017 showed that while the countywide unemployment rate was 14.6 percent for anyone older than 16, blacks were unemployed at 21.9 percent.

Brooks and the new leadership of Merced’s NAACP said bringing down the stubbornly high unemployment rate ranks high in the year’s to-do list.

A graduate of Grambling State University, the 40-year-old Brooks is originally from Milwaukee, Wis. He came to Merced more than a decade ago, he said, and works as a real estate agent.

According to a 2009 study from Northeastern University, one in 10 male high school dropouts is in jail or juvenile hall on any given day. That’s compared with 1 in 33 who finished high school.

The numbers are even bleaker for African-Americans, with nearly one in four young black male dropouts incarcerated or otherwise institutionalized on an average day, according to the New York Times. That compares with about one in 14 young, male, white, Asian or Hispanic dropouts.

Small-business owner Necola Adams said the effort to push down the black unemployment rate in Merced also needs support from people who are doing the hiring. It can be difficult to get an interview or any serious interest from an employer who doesn’t look like you, she said.

“I don’t care what kind of education you have, if you can’t get a job you’re the same as high school dropout,” she said.

The group touched on a few other goals for the year:

• Educating the community on better preventive health care
  
  
• Increasing the NAACP’s visibility in Merced
  
  
• Growing membership