The following is a fact-check from the July 25, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:


MARC MORIAL (Urban League President) | Latino unemployment is higher than white unemployment and African American unemployment is higher than Latino unemployment – TRUE

MR. MORIAL: I don’t agree that Latinos and Asians have not suffered discrimination in this country or that Native Americans have not suffered discrimination in this country . I think the question is, how do you target and tailor policies that are going to help all economically and socially disadvantaged people. And it’s a fair debate to have, but it also needs to be positive with facts . Look at the Latino unemployment rate . It’s higher than the white rate. The black rate is higher than the Latino rate. So to suggest that there are not disparities that affect the Latino community , that affect the Native American community , most in depth, the African- American community , we’ve got to have the discussion that Jim Webb wants to have. We have facts , real facts , that give a picture of how life is in this nation.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s employment summary for June of 2010, Caucasians’ unemployment rate sits at 8.6% and Hispanics at 12.4%. African-Americans have the highest rate of unemployment at 15.4%.

Mr. Morial mentions that he believes that Latinos, Asians and Native-Americans have suffered from discrimination, then correctly states where the unemployment rates for Hispanics, Caucasians and African-Americans stand in-relation to each other. PolitiFact also did this check (same primary source/result – they have a few other sources as well) and we agree with their decision to additionally point out that the Asian community has the lowest rate of unemployment, at 7.7%. We then looked but were unable to find the current Native American unemployment rate.

Because Mr. Morial correctly stated where the unemployment rates of Caucasians, Hispanics and African-Americans stand in relation to each other, we rate his statement TRUE.


Special thanks to crowd-sourcer Shelley for assisting with this fact-check.


This fact-check took a combined 1 hour.