Rep. West Says Gingrich Right On Black Unemployment Crisis

Rep. Allen West said Tuesday presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is correct in his assessment that President Barack Obama has ignored the problem of Black unemployment, and the Florida Republican believes that anyone should be able to point out the particular jobless plight of the population segment.

“Well, he [Gingrich] is absolutely right — when you look at the statistics and the facts speak for themselves, the national average of unemployment right now is 8.5 percent — in the black community, it’s 15.8 percent, and that's down from close to being 17 percent,” West told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. “For black adult males, it’s 16.4 percent unemployment, and for black teenagers . . . it’s 40.7 percent.

“As a matter of fact, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus once said that if anyone else was in the White House other than President Obama, we’d be marching on the White House,” West said. “So we do have a problem — and I think that we have a greater problem in the United States of America when we believe that only certain people can talk about certain issues. This is a big issue for all of America.”

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