(The Grio) — Black folks in Obama’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois have little confusion when it comes to the state of the economy. With the national African-American unemployment rate at 16.7 percent, the highest since 1984, Chicago’s community of color is a dismal example. ”I know that our black men don’t have nowhere to fit,” says Chi-town native Orlando Chaff, who was out of work for 3 years before recently finding a job as a limo driver. “Too many of them standing around the house, standing on the block.” It’s not just the brothers with too much time to hang. Statistics show that black men in the United States, have the highest unemployment numbers in the U.s. at 19.1 percent. But the rate for African-American women is close behind at 14.5 percent.
