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PrintShalia Lindsey does not gamble, and the prospect of her Social Security retirement savings being placed in a private account that relies on the stock market does not sit well with her.
"If I was a person that gambles, which I am not, I could go to Las Vegas or any other place to throw away my finances and savings," said Lindsey, a regional youth field director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "I prefer to protect my future."
Lindsey sat on a panel of members from the NAACP and the AARP on Saturday afternoon that came together to host a town hall meeting with members from both organizations.
The event, which about 50 people attended, addressed the efforts by President Bush to privatize portions of Social Security and offered ways that individuals from both groups could speak out against those changes.
"It becomes incumbent on us that we not only look at this issue carefully, but we have to engage the community around us," said Gill Ford, regional director for the NAACP. "Poverty, disability and sickness do not know discrimination. They do not care what color your skin is."
Ford and other members of the panel said that though changes do need to be made in the overall Social Security system - such as an increase in spending caps and alteration of benefit payouts - Bush's plan to privatize will lead to a reduction of more benefits for people who are going to become dependent on the monthly payments as they enter retirement.
"The last thing you need to hear when you are older and retired is that this was a failed experiment and that you now have no options," Ford said. "This is the only entity that we have right now that people can find some solace."
Members also blasted the privatization proposal, saying that without some kind of safety net for low-income families, many of which are minorities, then there will be no chance of getting families any kind of support in the event of an accident or death. Social Security offers benefits for both of these situations.
"One in 16 African-American children receive some kind of benefit from the Social Security program. That is 700,000 children," Lindsey said. "This is not just a number from the sky; it is a fact that shows how our county uses this program."
Sidney McCarther, of the AARP, also pointed out that nearly 1 in 3 African-American retirees depends on Social Security every month as the only form of income. Nearly 80 percent of retired African-Americans depend on Social Security for more than half of their income.
"These benefits are the only thing that stands between many of the beneficiaries and poverty," he said. "Make no mistake, Social Security is a critical support for African-Americans. Social Security matters to us; we cannot afford to be silent about it."
With privatization of Social Security, the panel said, support for people who rely on monthly retirement checks might not change, but individuals who rely on disability and other assistance from Social Security would be left without any means of support.
Ford, the most vocal member of the panel, accused President Bush and those who support his plan of privatization of trying to force lower-income individuals to support the upper class.
"The reason gambling is such a success in our communities is because they prey - that's P-R-E-Y - on those who can least afford it. That is what they want to do with social security," Ford said. "For every working person here, this issue cannot be decided by people who do not know what it is like to walk in a working person's shoes."
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