The war on poverty will be won with jobs, not government assistance, says the niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Alveda King, a civil-rights activist, told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner on
Newsmax TV on Wednesday that conservative economic policies aimed at boosting the private sector are the key to lifting African-Americans out of poverty after a half-century of reliance on liberalism.
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"Every successful attempt to combat poverty has involved putting Americans back to work," said King, who is urging black Americans to support Republican electoral candidates through her "Restore the Dream 2014" initiative.
"Americans want to work, and that includes African-American people," she said.
King said African-Americans still bear the brunt of U.S. poverty, with a disproportionately high unemployment rate, and she seconded the opinion of other black leaders that
President Barack Obama's economic policies haven't altered that grim reality.
"Now, our unemployment rate is 35 percent," King said of the country's working black population. "That's twice any other average for any other ethnic group in the nation. And so, when people are not allowed to work, they begin to have other efforts. So, to think that there could be enough welfare to take care of all Americans who are not working, that's not a practical model."
She said that Restore the Dream 2014 promotes alternatives such as offering "the private sector of business and earners in America" tax benefits and incentive programs "for hiring people, training people, and hiring people on entry level."
She added that educational programs for "21st-century employment" are critical.
"That's going to include more knowledge and technology, changes in science and math and reading, and the culture," said King.
She also said policies toward expression of religious faith need changing.
"Stop trying to muzzle people in the marketplace and the workplace and in the town squares," said King. "People should be able to pray and call on God."
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King also discussed the upheaval in Ferguson, Missouri, where white police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot a young black man named Michael Brown, 18, this summer.
While a grand jury considers whether to charge Wilson, King said that the Rev. Al Sharpton and other black leaders who have criticized police and led protests in Ferguson need to aim some of their outrage at Democrats for their knee-jerk support of police unions.
"He needs to tell the truth and say that the unions need to stop protecting the rights of police officers to have quotas and make so many arrests," said King.
"The police officers are going after the low-hanging fruit, which is us, the African-Americans," she said. "That's controlled by the Democratic Party, and you know what? Rev. Sharpton needs to tell the truth about that."
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