We desperately need another stimulus bill that focuses on job creation.

Millions of livelihoods depend on it, and the black community is in the direst need.

The national unemployment rate has hit a record high of 10.2 percent. In the black community, unemployment has climbed to nearly 16 percent, and for Latinos to 13.1 percent. For black men, the numbers are even more severe at 17.1 percent, compared to 9.9 percent for white men.

Up until now, the Obama administration has been reluctant to address unemployment rates or target dollars for job creation in specific communities. However, any new bill under consideration should work directly to reduce the unemployment rate and create jobs in the black community, as well as elsewhere.

The first stimulus package was geared toward industries where blacks make up less than 7 percent of the work force and even less of the managerial positions.

If Obama provides support directly to blacks and Latinos, some will say he’s favoring those groups over others.

While there is no denying that the entire country is suffering during this time of economic crisis, the recession has made the already vulnerable economic position of blacks and Latinos much worse.

In cities and states with a sizable black population, the unemployment rate has reached incredible levels. Detroit, for example, has an unemployment rate of 30 percent and one-third of its residents live below the official poverty line.

President Obama has announced a jobs summit for Dec. 3, and he’s said he is interested in hearing any good ideas. He should try this one: addressing the hemorrhaging in communities of color and clearing out the dangerous intersections of unemployment and poverty.

To do this, Obama should establish a special task force to examine the higher than average unemployment rates in black and Latino communities and to develop strategies to support long-term recovery. He should also direct funds to minority-owned businesses in hard-hit cities to ensure that they remain open and are able to continue to provide services to the community. And he must set aside money for training, education and outreach to racial and ethnic minorities.

Critics of any new jobs bill are likely to say that the country cannot afford another stimulus package. The reality is that we cannot afford not to pass one. The longer we allow unemployment to hover in the double digits, the less consumer demand there will be for more goods and services. As a result, the economy may take a double dip into recession.

Above all, the human costs of doing nothing are astronomical: millions of devastated families and thousands of ruined communities.

We must not let that happen.

C. Nicole Mason, Ph.D., is a political scientist and the executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. The group recently published a report entitled “Race, Gender and the Recession,” available at http://wagner.nyu.edu/wocpn/reports/. Mason can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.