Warning: If you are overly-sensitive about these types of issues, do not read this web page.
Employment: The unemployment rate is an important and useful indicator for the labor market, but people ultimately care most about getting a job. Looking at the employment level, which does not necessarily mirror trends in the unemployment rate, is therefore helpful for understanding how minorities are faring in the economy.
Continuing the trend from 2008, the number of employed persons in the labor force declined significantly in 2009. The decline has been particularly sharp for African Americans, whose employment levels have fallen by 3.9 percent annually. Both Asian Americans and whites saw the number of employed fall by 2.7 percent, while Hispanic employment levels declined by 2.3 percent annually.
Wages: The wages and earnings of those who are employed provide insight into the economic wellbeing of those Americans. As of the third quarter of 2009, Hispanics and African Americans continued to make far less per week than whites or Asian Americans. In the third quarter of 2009, Hispanics’ usual median weekly earnings were $527.13 in 2008 dollars; African Americans’ earnings were $608.33 a week; whites made $753.19 a week; and Asian Americans made $877.22 a week.
Median household income: Median household income is the most comprehensive measure of economic wellbeing. African Americans continued to have the lowest median household income: $34,345 in 2008 dollars. Hispanics’ median household income was $37,913. White Americans had a median income of $55,530 and Asian Americans had a median income of $65,567 in 2008 dollars.
These large gaps in income, with late 2009 Hispanic and African-American household incomes at 65.1 percent of household incomes for white households, are nothing new. In 2001, Hispanic and African-American household incomes were 66.7 percent of white’s incomes.
Poverty: The share of the population below the poverty line, which today is $21,203 for a family of four, reflects the number of households without sufficient income to meet basic needs. Poverty rates among African Americans and Hispanics are more than double the percentage of white Americans and Asian Americans in poverty; 8.6 percent of whites and 11.6 percent of Asian Americans are in poverty, while 24.7 percent of African Americans and 23.2 percent of Latinos are under the poverty line.
Health care: Having health insurance is a crucial component for a family’s financial stability, given rising health care costs and the burden such costs can place on a family. The percentage of those with health insurance varies widely between African Americans, Hispanics, and white Americans. Hispanics have consistently had far lower levels of health coverage than African Americans and whites throughout the decade. In 2008, 30.7 percent of Hispanics did not have health insurance compared to 10.8 percent of whites. This is an improvement from 2007, when 32.1 percent of Hispanics were uninsured.
African Americans’ insurance levels aren’t as dramatically low as Hispanics, but the number of uninsured is still 8.1 percentage points higher than white Americans. In 2008, 18.9 percent of African Americans lacked health insurance.
African Americans continue to have lower life expectancies on average than whites in the United States. Even when adjusted for age, African Americans are 1.6 times more likely to die from one of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States than European Americans. However, there is evidence that this may be changing: by 2003, sex had replaced race as the primary factor in life expectancy in the United States, with African American females expected to live longer than European American males born in that year.
In the same year, the gap in life expectancy between American whites (78.0) and blacks (72.8) had decreased to 5.2 years, reflecting a long term trend of this phenomenon. By 2004, "the trend toward convergence in mortality figures across the major race groups also continued", with white–black gap in life expectancy dropping to five years. The current life expectancy of African Americans as a group is comparable to those of other groups who live in countries with a high Human Development Index.
At the same time, the life expectancy gap is affected by collectively lower access to quality medical care. With no system of universal health care, access to medical care in the U.S. generally is mediated by income level and employment status. As a result, African Americans, who have a disproportionate occurrence of poverty and unemployment as a group, are more often uninsured than non Hispanic whites or Asians. For a great many African Americans, healthcare delivery is limited, or nonexistent. And when they receive healthcare, they are more likely than others in the general population to receive substandard, even injurious medical care. African Americans have a higher prevalence of some chronic health conditions.
African Americans are the American ethnic group most affected by HIV and AIDS according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black men are six (6) times more likely to have HIV than white men and black women are nearly eighteen (18) times more likely to have HIV than white women. A 2004 "CDC analysis of MSM in five cities found that while only 18 percent of the HIV-infected white men were unaware of their infections, 67 percent of the infected black men were unaware."
It has been estimated that "184,991 adult and adolescent HIV infections [were] diagnosed during 2001–2005" (1). More than 51 percent occurred among blacks than any other race. Between the ages of 25–44 years 62 percent were African Americans. Dr. Robert Janssen (2007) states, "We have rates of HIV/AIDS among blacks in some American cities that are as high as in some countries in Africa". The rate for African Americans with HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C. is 3 percent, based on cases reported. In a New York Times Article, about 50 percent of AIDS-related deaths were African American woman, which accounted for 25 percent of the city's population.
In many cases there are a higher proportion of black people being tested than any other racial group. Dr. Janssen goes on by saying "We need to do a better job of encouraging African Americans to test. Studies show that approximately one in five black men between the ages 40 to 49 living in the city is HIV-positive, according to the TIMES. Research indicates that African Americans' sexual behavior is no different than any other racial group. Dr. Janssen says "Racial groups tend to have sex with members of their own racial group.
Crime also plays a significant role in the racial gap in life expectancy. A report from theU.S. Department of Justice states "In 2005, homicide victimization rates for blacks were 6 times higher than the rates for whites" and "94% of black victims were killed by blacks."
Author's Perspective: The following articles were extracted from several magazine articles, and do not necessarily represent my personal views. African-Americans are not the only group that is suffering economically. Other ethnic groups and some Caucasian-Americans also suffer economically. And, because of problems with the housing market, stock market, the severe recession, increased layoffs, and jobs being moved overseas, the middle class is shrinking, while the number of poor is growing very quickly. Except for the rich, most people are living paycheck to paycheck -- if they're fortunate enough to have a job. In fact, people in other countries all over the world are suffering economically.
The key message here is that most of us suffer economically for the same three reasons: (1) We live beyond our means and fail to take advantage of the money we're making while employed; (2) We lack the knowledge to significantly improve our financial position in life; and, (3) Income inequality between the haves and have-nots is a systemic problem that continues to grow.
However, if you have the drive and the passion to succeed, you can create the opportunity to improve your financial position in life. Refer to the web links listed on the right side of this web page for web pages for information about knowledge, wealth, success, purpose in life, and starting a small business -- it may change your life!
Sidebar 1: America became a world power very quickly and created a lot of wealth for many Caucasian-American familes, thanks to having 200 years of free labor (via slavery) to help build the roads, buildings, farms, infrastructure, etc. Unfortunately, African-American families never had the opportunity to build their wealth while America was booming. Until this issue is resolved and a more level playing field is created, there will always be tension between the races. This is not an excuse for why African-Americans are suffering financially, it's just a fact of American History that is rarely spoken, and, needs to be stated.
Sidebar 2: Income inequality has soared to the highest levels since the Great Depression and the recession has done little to reverse the trend, with the top 1 percent of earners taking 93 percent of the income gains in the first full year of the recovery, The New York Times reported in October 2012.
The growing gap between the haves and the have-nots has given rise to anti-Wall Street sentiment and animated the presidential campaign. Now, a growing body of economic research suggests that it might mean lower levels of economic growth and slower job creation in the years ahead, as well.
“Growth becomes more fragile” in countries with high levels of inequality like the United States, said Jonathan D. Ostry of the International Monetary Fund, whose research suggests that the widening disparity since the 1980s might shorten the nation’s economic expansions by as much as a third.
In the United States, since the 1980s, rich households have earned a larger and larger share of overall income. The 1 percent earns about one-sixth of all income and the top 10 percent about half, according to statistics compiled by the respected economists Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley, and Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics.
The recession seems to have cemented the country’s income and wealth inequality, not reversed it. The top 10 percent earn a larger share of overall income than they have since the 1930s. The earnings of the top 1 percent took a knock during the recession, but have bounced back. In contrast, the average working family’s income has continued to decline through the anemic recovery.
The distribution of wealth has become more concentrated as well. The lower income a family earns, the more wealth they tend to hold in their housing. Housing values have plummeted, and are not expected to recover for years if not decades. At the same time, many bond prices have soared and stock prices have performed well, aiding the upper-income households that tend to hold investments.
At Risk: America’s Poor and Middle Classes
Due to the Great Recession of 2007-2009, the number of poor people has grown exponentially in the United States. Almost 1 out of every 4 Americans is either poor or at risk of becoming poor! -- that's 75 million people!
A large and growing number of Americans are poor, or at risk of becoming poor, as a result of this recent recession and many will continue to struggle during the recovery, according to a White Paper released by broadcaster Tavis Smiley and the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
They conclude that the Great Recession has inflicted long-lasting damage to individuals, families, and communities and presents vexing challenges for policy makers.
The key message here is that most of us suffer economically for the same three reasons: (1) We live beyond our means and fail to take advantage of the money we're making while employed; (2) We lack the knowledge to significantly improve our financial position in life; and, (3) Income inequality between the haves and have-nots is a systemic problem that continues to grow.
However, if you have the drive and the passion to succeed, you can create the opportunity to improve your financial position in life. Refer to the web links listed on the right side of this web page for web pages for information about knowledge, wealth, success, purpose in life, and starting a small business -- it may change your life!
Sidebar 1: America became a world power very quickly and created a lot of wealth for many Caucasian-American familes, thanks to having 200 years of free labor (via slavery) to help build the roads, buildings, farms, infrastructure, etc. Unfortunately, African-American families never had the opportunity to build their wealth while America was booming. Until this issue is resolved and a more level playing field is created, there will always be tension between the races. This is not an excuse for why African-Americans are suffering financially, it's just a fact of American History that is rarely spoken, and, needs to be stated.
Sidebar 2: Income inequality has soared to the highest levels since the Great Depression and the recession has done little to reverse the trend, with the top 1 percent of earners taking 93 percent of the income gains in the first full year of the recovery, The New York Times reported in October 2012.
The growing gap between the haves and the have-nots has given rise to anti-Wall Street sentiment and animated the presidential campaign. Now, a growing body of economic research suggests that it might mean lower levels of economic growth and slower job creation in the years ahead, as well.
“Growth becomes more fragile” in countries with high levels of inequality like the United States, said Jonathan D. Ostry of the International Monetary Fund, whose research suggests that the widening disparity since the 1980s might shorten the nation’s economic expansions by as much as a third.
In the United States, since the 1980s, rich households have earned a larger and larger share of overall income. The 1 percent earns about one-sixth of all income and the top 10 percent about half, according to statistics compiled by the respected economists Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley, and Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics.
The recession seems to have cemented the country’s income and wealth inequality, not reversed it. The top 10 percent earn a larger share of overall income than they have since the 1930s. The earnings of the top 1 percent took a knock during the recession, but have bounced back. In contrast, the average working family’s income has continued to decline through the anemic recovery.
The distribution of wealth has become more concentrated as well. The lower income a family earns, the more wealth they tend to hold in their housing. Housing values have plummeted, and are not expected to recover for years if not decades. At the same time, many bond prices have soared and stock prices have performed well, aiding the upper-income households that tend to hold investments.
At Risk: America’s Poor and Middle Classes
Due to the Great Recession of 2007-2009, the number of poor people has grown exponentially in the United States. Almost 1 out of every 4 Americans is either poor or at risk of becoming poor! -- that's 75 million people!
A large and growing number of Americans are poor, or at risk of becoming poor, as a result of this recent recession and many will continue to struggle during the recovery, according to a White Paper released by broadcaster Tavis Smiley and the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Titled “At Risk: America’s Poor During and After the Great Recession,” the White Paper was prepared at Smiley’s request as a factual foundation for the National Poverty Tour conducted last summer by Smiley and Princeton University professor Cornel West.
The White Paper reveals that the number of Americans living in poverty increased sharply during the economic downturn. The Great Recession produced not only high unemployment rates, but also record numbers of long-term unemployment, making it likely that these ranks of the “new poor” and “near poor” will continue to grow.
“Many of the ‘new poor’ are the former middle class,” Smiley noted. “Poor people are not moochers and welfare queens, as some would like you to believe. Our neighbors, colleagues, and families are all struggling. It’s a problem all of us need to solve together, right now.”
“Promoting sustained economic growth while at the same time protecting the well-being of the poor, the near poor, and the new poor is the central challenge for the leaders of the United States,” say White Paper authors Kristin Seefeldt, assistant professor in the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and John D. Graham, dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and a former senior official with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
They conclude that the Great Recession has inflicted long-lasting damage to individuals, families, and communities and presents vexing challenges for policy makers.
Key White Paper findings include the following:
- The Great Recession left behind the largest number of long-term unemployed people since records were first kept in 1948. More than four million Americans report that they have been unemployed for more than 12 months. Although the official rate of unemployment is declining, much of this apparent progress is attributable to the fact that many adults are giving up on the search for a job. The more telling indicator of an economy’s job-producing performance, the ratio of the number of employed people to the number of working-age adults (the “job-to-people” ratio), has improved only slightly since the Great Recession ended in June 2009. If the long-term unemployed lose their unemployment insurance benefits before the economy produces enough well-paying jobs to approach full employment, the ranks of the “new poor” will steadily swell between now and 2017.
- Poverty has increased significantly. Some 46.2 million Americans lived below the official poverty level in 2010, about 15.1 percent of the population. The number of Americans living in poverty grew by 27 percent between 2006 and 2010, when the U.S. population increased by only 3.3 percent.
- Increases in poverty were greatest among Hispanics and African Americans, children, and households headed by women. Surprisingly, poverty also increased among working-age adults, especially people between ages 18 and 34. States with the highest poverty rates were in the South and Southwest, but states with the largest increases in poverty were scattered across the nation.
- Safety-net programs had a mixed response to the recession. Entitlement programs, such as Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Unemployment Insurance, responded robustly, but programs that depend on discretionary spending were less effective.
- The Great Recession’s impact on the poor would have been even worse if not for the 2009 stimulus package, which included $250 billion aimed at protecting low-income Americans. But most of the stimulus funds have now been spent.
- Federal deficits are creating pressures to control spending, which may adversely affect the poor. The 2011 debt ceiling legislation and the failure of the congressional “super committee” will trigger spending cuts. While entitlement programs are protected, that could change with some in Congress arguing that national defense deserves a higher priority.
- States face their own fiscal problems, with the stimulus ending and state tax collections lagging. Some are cutting state spending on programs such as Medicaid and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. More are likely to follow suit, especially if the strapped federal government pushes more responsibility to the states.
Note: This White Paper is available online athttp://www.indiana.edu/~spea/pubs/white_paper_at_risk.pdf.
Please Note: Despite all of this grim news, there is hope -- there are solutions to overcoming your financial problems. Refer to the web links on the right side of this web page about wealth, your purpose in life, how to achieve success, the wealth-health connection and what to do when you lose your job.
Please Note: Despite all of this grim news, there is hope -- there are solutions to overcoming your financial problems. Refer to the web links on the right side of this web page about wealth, your purpose in life, how to achieve success, the wealth-health connection and what to do when you lose your job.
Economic Status of African-Americans
Excerpt from Wikipedia
Economically, African Americans have benefited from the advances made during the Civil Rights era, particularly among the educated, but not without the lingering effects of historical marginalization when considered as a whole. The racial disparity in poverty rates has narrowed. The black middle class has grown substantially. In 2000, 47% of African Americans owned their homes. The poverty rate among African Americans has decreased from 26.5% in 1998 to 24.7% in 2004. African Americans are the second largest consumer group in America with a combined buying power of over $892 billioncurrently and likely over $1.1 trillion by 2012. In 2002 African American owned businesses accounted for 1.2 million of the US's 23 million businesses.
In 2004, African American workers had the second-highest median earnings of American minority groups after Asian Americans, and African Americans had the highest level of male-female income parity of all ethnic groups in the United States. Also, among American minority groups, only Asian Americans were more likely to hold white-collar occupations (management, professional, and related fields), and African Americans were no more or less likely than European Americans to work in the service industry. In 2001, over half of African American households of married couples earned $50,000 or more. Although in the same year African Americans were over-represented among the nation's poor, this was directly related to the disproportionate percentage of African American families headed by single women; such families are collectively poorer, regardless of ethnicity.
By 2006, gender continued to be the primary factor in income level, with the median earnings of African American men more than those black and non-black American women overall and in all educational levels. At the same time, among American men, income disparities were significant; the median income of African American men was approximately 76 cents for every dollar of their European American counterparts, although the gap narrowed somewhat with a rise in educational level.
Overall, the median earnings of African American men were 72 cents for every dollar earned of their Asian American counterparts, and $1.17 for every dollar earned by Hispanic men. On the other hand by 2006, among American women with post-secondary education, African American women have made significant advances; the median income of African American women was more than those of their Asian-, European- and Hispanic American counterparts with at least some college education.
African Americans are still underrepresented in government and employment. In 1999, the median income of African American families was $33,255 compared to $53,356 of European Americans. In times of economic hardship for the nation, African Americans suffer disproportionately from job loss and underemployment, with the black underclass being hardest hit. The phrase "last hired and first fired" is reflected in the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment figures. Nationwide, the October 2008 unemployment rate for African Americans was 11.1%, while the nationwide rate was 6.5%.
The income gap between black and white families is also significant. In 2005, employed blacks earned only 65% of the wages of whites, down from 82% in 1975. The New York Times reported in 2006 that in Queens, New York, the median income among African American families exceeded that of white families, which the newspaper attributed to the growth in the number of two-parent black families. It noted that Queens was the only county with more than 65,000 residents where that was true.
In 1999, the rate of births to unwed African American mothers was estimated by economist Walter E. Williams of George Mason University to be 70%. The poverty rate among single-parent black families was 39.5% in 2005, according to Williams, while it was 9.9% among married-couple black families. Among white families, the comparable rates were 26.4% and 6%.
According to Forbes magazine's "wealthiest American" lists, a 2000 net worth of $800 million dollars made Oprah Winfrey the richest African American of the 20th century; by contrast, the net worth of the 20th century's richest American, Bill Gates, who is of European descent, briefly hit $100 billion in 1999. In Forbes' 2007 list, Gates' net worth decreased to $59 billion while Winfrey's increased to $2.5 billion, making her the world's richest black person. Winfrey is also the first African American to make Business Week's annual list of America's 50 greatest philanthropists. BET founder Bob Johnson was also listed as a billionaire prior to an expensive divorce and as of 2009, had an estimated net worth of $550 million. Winfrey remains the only African American wealthy enough to rank among the country's 400 richest people.
Some black entrepreneurs use their wealth to create new avenues for both African Americans and new opportunities for American business in general. Examples such as Tyler Perry who created new filming studios in Atlanta, Georgia which makes it possible to film movies and television shows outside of California.
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Economic Health of Black AmericaIn 2004, African American workers had the second-highest median earnings of American minority groups after Asian Americans, and African Americans had the highest level of male-female income parity of all ethnic groups in the United States. Also, among American minority groups, only Asian Americans were more likely to hold white-collar occupations (management, professional, and related fields), and African Americans were no more or less likely than European Americans to work in the service industry. In 2001, over half of African American households of married couples earned $50,000 or more. Although in the same year African Americans were over-represented among the nation's poor, this was directly related to the disproportionate percentage of African American families headed by single women; such families are collectively poorer, regardless of ethnicity.
By 2006, gender continued to be the primary factor in income level, with the median earnings of African American men more than those black and non-black American women overall and in all educational levels. At the same time, among American men, income disparities were significant; the median income of African American men was approximately 76 cents for every dollar of their European American counterparts, although the gap narrowed somewhat with a rise in educational level.
Overall, the median earnings of African American men were 72 cents for every dollar earned of their Asian American counterparts, and $1.17 for every dollar earned by Hispanic men. On the other hand by 2006, among American women with post-secondary education, African American women have made significant advances; the median income of African American women was more than those of their Asian-, European- and Hispanic American counterparts with at least some college education.
African Americans are still underrepresented in government and employment. In 1999, the median income of African American families was $33,255 compared to $53,356 of European Americans. In times of economic hardship for the nation, African Americans suffer disproportionately from job loss and underemployment, with the black underclass being hardest hit. The phrase "last hired and first fired" is reflected in the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment figures. Nationwide, the October 2008 unemployment rate for African Americans was 11.1%, while the nationwide rate was 6.5%.
The income gap between black and white families is also significant. In 2005, employed blacks earned only 65% of the wages of whites, down from 82% in 1975. The New York Times reported in 2006 that in Queens, New York, the median income among African American families exceeded that of white families, which the newspaper attributed to the growth in the number of two-parent black families. It noted that Queens was the only county with more than 65,000 residents where that was true.
In 1999, the rate of births to unwed African American mothers was estimated by economist Walter E. Williams of George Mason University to be 70%. The poverty rate among single-parent black families was 39.5% in 2005, according to Williams, while it was 9.9% among married-couple black families. Among white families, the comparable rates were 26.4% and 6%.
According to Forbes magazine's "wealthiest American" lists, a 2000 net worth of $800 million dollars made Oprah Winfrey the richest African American of the 20th century; by contrast, the net worth of the 20th century's richest American, Bill Gates, who is of European descent, briefly hit $100 billion in 1999. In Forbes' 2007 list, Gates' net worth decreased to $59 billion while Winfrey's increased to $2.5 billion, making her the world's richest black person. Winfrey is also the first African American to make Business Week's annual list of America's 50 greatest philanthropists. BET founder Bob Johnson was also listed as a billionaire prior to an expensive divorce and as of 2009, had an estimated net worth of $550 million. Winfrey remains the only African American wealthy enough to rank among the country's 400 richest people.
Some black entrepreneurs use their wealth to create new avenues for both African Americans and new opportunities for American business in general. Examples such as Tyler Perry who created new filming studios in Atlanta, Georgia which makes it possible to film movies and television shows outside of California.
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The following areas provide an overview of the economic health of African-Americans compared to other American groups in the United States.
Unemployment: The rate of unemployment is the most widely used indicator for the health of the labor market. In 2009 the unemployment rates for minorities rose 7.2 percentage points from 8.6 percent to 15.8 percent, and has continued to rise during the past several years.
The unemployment rate for white Americans was 9.2 percent at the end of 2009, up 5 percentage points from December 2007. Asian Americans saw their unemployment rate go up from 3.7 percent to 7.7 percent, increasing two fold during the recession.
Unemployment: The rate of unemployment is the most widely used indicator for the health of the labor market. In 2009 the unemployment rates for minorities rose 7.2 percentage points from 8.6 percent to 15.8 percent, and has continued to rise during the past several years.
The unemployment rate for white Americans was 9.2 percent at the end of 2009, up 5 percentage points from December 2007. Asian Americans saw their unemployment rate go up from 3.7 percent to 7.7 percent, increasing two fold during the recession.
Employment: The unemployment rate is an important and useful indicator for the labor market, but people ultimately care most about getting a job. Looking at the employment level, which does not necessarily mirror trends in the unemployment rate, is therefore helpful for understanding how minorities are faring in the economy.
Continuing the trend from 2008, the number of employed persons in the labor force declined significantly in 2009. The decline has been particularly sharp for African Americans, whose employment levels have fallen by 3.9 percent annually. Both Asian Americans and whites saw the number of employed fall by 2.7 percent, while Hispanic employment levels declined by 2.3 percent annually.
Wages: The wages and earnings of those who are employed provide insight into the economic wellbeing of those Americans. As of the third quarter of 2009, Hispanics and African Americans continued to make far less per week than whites or Asian Americans. In the third quarter of 2009, Hispanics’ usual median weekly earnings were $527.13 in 2008 dollars; African Americans’ earnings were $608.33 a week; whites made $753.19 a week; and Asian Americans made $877.22 a week.
Median household income: Median household income is the most comprehensive measure of economic wellbeing. African Americans continued to have the lowest median household income: $34,345 in 2008 dollars. Hispanics’ median household income was $37,913. White Americans had a median income of $55,530 and Asian Americans had a median income of $65,567 in 2008 dollars.
These large gaps in income, with late 2009 Hispanic and African-American household incomes at 65.1 percent of household incomes for white households, are nothing new. In 2001, Hispanic and African-American household incomes were 66.7 percent of white’s incomes.
Poverty: The share of the population below the poverty line, which today is $21,203 for a family of four, reflects the number of households without sufficient income to meet basic needs. Poverty rates among African Americans and Hispanics are more than double the percentage of white Americans and Asian Americans in poverty; 8.6 percent of whites and 11.6 percent of Asian Americans are in poverty, while 24.7 percent of African Americans and 23.2 percent of Latinos are under the poverty line.
Health care: Having health insurance is a crucial component for a family’s financial stability, given rising health care costs and the burden such costs can place on a family. The percentage of those with health insurance varies widely between African Americans, Hispanics, and white Americans. Hispanics have consistently had far lower levels of health coverage than African Americans and whites throughout the decade. In 2008, 30.7 percent of Hispanics did not have health insurance compared to 10.8 percent of whites. This is an improvement from 2007, when 32.1 percent of Hispanics were uninsured.
Retirement: Similarly, planning and saving for retirement can place financial burdens on families. Less than half of African Americans—45.6 percent—had access to employer-based retirement savings. Less than a third of Hispanics—30.3 percent—had employer-based retirement plans. Whites also saw a decline, with only 56.6 percent having employer-based retirement plans.
Home ownership: Income is only one side of economic wellbeing; homeownership, as the biggest and most widely used assets, is a good place to start in understanding families’ economic security.
The homeownership rate was 46.4 percent for African Americans as of the third quarter of 2009, 48.7 percent for Hispanics, and 75.0 percent for white Americans.
Sources:
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of the Census
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Home ownership: Income is only one side of economic wellbeing; homeownership, as the biggest and most widely used assets, is a good place to start in understanding families’ economic security.
The homeownership rate was 46.4 percent for African Americans as of the third quarter of 2009, 48.7 percent for Hispanics, and 75.0 percent for white Americans.
Sources:
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of the Census
Health Status of African-Americans
Note: It's not a coincidence that many African-Americans (and other ethnic groups) have poor health and very little wealth. For possible solutions to the wealth issue, readThe Health & Wealth Connection web page.African Americans continue to have lower life expectancies on average than whites in the United States. Even when adjusted for age, African Americans are 1.6 times more likely to die from one of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States than European Americans. However, there is evidence that this may be changing: by 2003, sex had replaced race as the primary factor in life expectancy in the United States, with African American females expected to live longer than European American males born in that year.
In the same year, the gap in life expectancy between American whites (78.0) and blacks (72.8) had decreased to 5.2 years, reflecting a long term trend of this phenomenon. By 2004, "the trend toward convergence in mortality figures across the major race groups also continued", with white–black gap in life expectancy dropping to five years. The current life expectancy of African Americans as a group is comparable to those of other groups who live in countries with a high Human Development Index.
At the same time, the life expectancy gap is affected by collectively lower access to quality medical care. With no system of universal health care, access to medical care in the U.S. generally is mediated by income level and employment status. As a result, African Americans, who have a disproportionate occurrence of poverty and unemployment as a group, are more often uninsured than non Hispanic whites or Asians. For a great many African Americans, healthcare delivery is limited, or nonexistent. And when they receive healthcare, they are more likely than others in the general population to receive substandard, even injurious medical care. African Americans have a higher prevalence of some chronic health conditions.
African Americans are the American ethnic group most affected by HIV and AIDS according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black men are six (6) times more likely to have HIV than white men and black women are nearly eighteen (18) times more likely to have HIV than white women. A 2004 "CDC analysis of MSM in five cities found that while only 18 percent of the HIV-infected white men were unaware of their infections, 67 percent of the infected black men were unaware."
It has been estimated that "184,991 adult and adolescent HIV infections [were] diagnosed during 2001–2005" (1). More than 51 percent occurred among blacks than any other race. Between the ages of 25–44 years 62 percent were African Americans. Dr. Robert Janssen (2007) states, "We have rates of HIV/AIDS among blacks in some American cities that are as high as in some countries in Africa". The rate for African Americans with HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C. is 3 percent, based on cases reported. In a New York Times Article, about 50 percent of AIDS-related deaths were African American woman, which accounted for 25 percent of the city's population.
In many cases there are a higher proportion of black people being tested than any other racial group. Dr. Janssen goes on by saying "We need to do a better job of encouraging African Americans to test. Studies show that approximately one in five black men between the ages 40 to 49 living in the city is HIV-positive, according to the TIMES. Research indicates that African Americans' sexual behavior is no different than any other racial group. Dr. Janssen says "Racial groups tend to have sex with members of their own racial group.
Crime also plays a significant role in the racial gap in life expectancy. A report from theU.S. Department of Justice states "In 2005, homicide victimization rates for blacks were 6 times higher than the rates for whites" and "94% of black victims were killed by blacks."
Why Blacks Remain Poor
Excerpt from Money Magazine article
In 1896, the landmark US Supreme Court ruling, Plessy Vs Ferguson, enforced segregation and created the ‘Separate but Equal’ doctrine and the rise of Jim Crow laws.
This had more than just a ‘moral’ impact, but also an economic one.
An example from the state of Georgia:
“All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine…shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room at any time.”
When you restrict the ability to create commerce, or limit it, it affects the population with the lowest income and wealth base the hardest, as it reduces potential clientele and funding.
Couple that with banks and their red-lining practices at the time and the ability for blacks to generate wealth was severely curtailed.
From the Civil War till now, how much has changed economically?
Although there has been ‘progress’ from an individual standpoint, the disparities between blacks and whites, specifically in the economic arena have been persistent.
According to Dr. Claude Anderson, in his book Black Labor, White Wealth:
"…on the eve of the Civil War, records indicated that more than 50 percent of free blacks were paupers; all free blacks collectively held less than one-half of one percent of the nation’s wealth…A century later, in the 1960s, an era considered by many as “great decade for blacks,” more than 55 percent of all the blacks in America were still impoverished and below the poverty line. And, blacks barely held one percent of the nation’s wealth."
Much of the historical change for blacks in America occurred through legislation that made illegal certain forms of discrimination and racist practices.
However, this legislation did nothing to materially change the effects of years of economic disenfranchisement that occurred through unfair restrictions in the work place as well as in business development.
Affirmative Action, although important, was never intended nor designed to correct disparities caused by slavery and Jim Crow.
Where we are today
According to the Urban League’s State of Black America 2004 Report:
Essentially, disparities created by unequal treatment in the past persist today because much of the Civil Rights Movement has not progressed beyond legislative and social issues into the arena of economic empowerment through entrepreneurialism and financial literacy.
In addition, this is a hard area to move into because essentially and broad scale initiatives to truly empower blacks financially creates competition against non-black businesses.
When you have systems in place such as networks and relationships with individuals in certain arena, it dramatically increases your odds for economic success.
Being that blacks have historically been locked out of certain ‘networks’ it further restricts their ability to access information that generates wealth.
The power of wealth
When you have a specific race with such a dramatic disparity in income, you also have a race that will be materially affected by the issues of poverty in America.
In a 2004 article titled Poverty Spreads by CNN Money, they state that the poverty rate of African Americans remained nearly twice the national rate, with 24.4 percent of blacks living below the poverty line in 2003, slightly higher from 24.1 percent a year earlier. (http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/26/news/economy/poverty_survey/)
When you are in poverty, the ability to acquire wealth and escape poverty is terribly difficulty. Check to check living precludes significant savings and investments, which allow you to grow your wealth and protect your future.
You typically acquire bad credit due to unforeseen financial problems occurring, which force you’re to skip payments. Bank loans are at a higher percentage rate, insurance costs are higher, health care is poorer or unaffordable and the educational system in the inner city environment that most poor blacks live in are worse or insufficient.
Even if racism ceased to exist today, the economic disparities caused by racism would still be pervasive and persistent amongst blacks as poverty becomes cyclical.
To truly eliminate or dramatically reduce disparity between blacks and whites, a holistic paradigm change in how our nation addresses the problem must occur.
Solutions to the disparity
The solution to the black disparity in wealth in America is a dramatic change in government policy and in non-profit funding and missions.
Typically, inner-city and African-American centered programs are geared towards good, but ineffective band aid programs that don’t holistically work to elevate the economic condition of blacks.
There need to be more programs that increase home ownership, that increase business ownership, that train on money management and wealth building. Access to cheap capital for business development, and low interest rate loans for mortgages are crucial.
Subtle red lining must be eliminated in insurance and banking practices, and buy here pay here, check cashing, and other businesses that nearly extort inner city residents must be regulated.
In addition, inner city, heavily minority concentrated schools should be teaching economics, business and financial literacy as core principles.
Empowerment zones and economic development grants for indigenous inner city residents should be appropriated from the federal level, and incentives should be increased for businesses that want to re-locate in urban, low income environments.
To truly decrease the economic disparity caused by hundreds of years of economic disenfranchisement and racism, effective, disciplined, and strategically oriented strategies at all facets of American life need to be enacted.
Financial Examples
Investments
When it comes to wealth building, amount, time and rate of return determine levels of wealth. If the typical African American has less to invest, the ultimate return, and the ability to secure a retirement, and leave wealth for children is dramatically decreased.
In the following example, it shows the difference between a thousand dollars invested and five hundred over thirty years.
$1000 at 10% at 30 Yrs – Returns $17,449
$500 at 10% at 30 Yrs – Returns $8,725
The although initially the $1000, which was double the $500 invested by the other investor, was only $500 more, at the end of 30 years, it is $8724 more dollars, although still double, that of the poorer investor. If blacks as a whole have less disposable income to invest, over time the disparity remains statistically even, even though real wealth is dramatically more for the white.
Loans
Although credit problems are pervasive in all races, being that blacks per capita have more poverty and less wealth reserves, they generally as a group have poorer credit, meaning that they have to pay more for the money they borrow.
The following is the difference in interest paid over the life of a Class A mortgage loan, and a poorer credit Class B mortgage loan.
Class A - $100,000 at 6% at 30 Yrs – Interest = $115,838
Class B - $100,000 at 12% at 30 Yrs – Interest = $270,300
The difference is $154,462 or an average of $429 dollars a month. (Calculations courtesy of Quicken Loans)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Impact of Being Born Into a Poor (Black) Family
Excerpt from NY Times magazine article
There are hundreds of examples of poor black people and other poor people rising up out of the depths of being raised in poor families.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpt from NewsOne Article
When former Republican Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan said “America has been the best country on earth for black folks” and “no people anywhere have done more to lift up blacks than white Americans”, you can be sure that he believed every word.
As recently as 2004, the typical Black family earned only 58% of what the typical white family earned, a full 5% less than the percentage of white income that a Black family earned way back in 1974.
Even if the Blacks and whites are similarly educated, the white male still out earns the Black male by 30%.
Black poverty rate, though down considerably since the early 1990s, was at a still astonishing 24.7% in 2008.
Among the myth-based mindsets that even non-virulently racist whites can’t seem to shake is that welfare is a predominantly Black phenomenon.
Meanwhile, most Blacks know by now that purely from a gross numerical standpoint, way more whites are on welfare than Blacks.
Add to that the fact that white America’s awe for white wealth—regardless of its source—doesn’t extend to Black wealth.
Mafia members, bootleggers and stock market fixers are all respected for their ingenuity and only loathed when they get caught.
This is the reason that Bernie Madoff could run his fraudulently-gotten gains up to 65 billion but 5 grams of crack will get a Black kid 5 years mandatory the very first time he gets busted.
So why are so many Black people poor?
Well simply stated, the “Buchanan mentality” becomes a daft exercise in the worst kind of circular logic, allowing whites to feel guiltless about not hiring even the most qualified Blacks because somewhere in their minds, they think that Blacks always have welfare to fall back on, meanwhile Buchanan “types” simultaneously work to reverse affirmative action and nearly exterminating welfare altogether seemingly, one might think, just because Blacks have been so ungrateful after all that white people have done to help.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpt from Money Magazine article
In 1896, the landmark US Supreme Court ruling, Plessy Vs Ferguson, enforced segregation and created the ‘Separate but Equal’ doctrine and the rise of Jim Crow laws.
This had more than just a ‘moral’ impact, but also an economic one.
An example from the state of Georgia:
“All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine…shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room at any time.”
When you restrict the ability to create commerce, or limit it, it affects the population with the lowest income and wealth base the hardest, as it reduces potential clientele and funding.
Couple that with banks and their red-lining practices at the time and the ability for blacks to generate wealth was severely curtailed.
From the Civil War till now, how much has changed economically?
Although there has been ‘progress’ from an individual standpoint, the disparities between blacks and whites, specifically in the economic arena have been persistent.
According to Dr. Claude Anderson, in his book Black Labor, White Wealth:
"…on the eve of the Civil War, records indicated that more than 50 percent of free blacks were paupers; all free blacks collectively held less than one-half of one percent of the nation’s wealth…A century later, in the 1960s, an era considered by many as “great decade for blacks,” more than 55 percent of all the blacks in America were still impoverished and below the poverty line. And, blacks barely held one percent of the nation’s wealth."
Much of the historical change for blacks in America occurred through legislation that made illegal certain forms of discrimination and racist practices.
However, this legislation did nothing to materially change the effects of years of economic disenfranchisement that occurred through unfair restrictions in the work place as well as in business development.
Affirmative Action, although important, was never intended nor designed to correct disparities caused by slavery and Jim Crow.
Where we are today
According to the Urban League’s State of Black America 2004 Report:
- Fewer than 50% of black families own their own homes, vs. over 70% of whites
- Blacks are denied mortgages and home improvement loans at twice the rate of whites
- Black males mean income is 70% of white males ($16,876 gap), black females mean income is 83% of white counterparts ($6,370 difference) (http://www.nul.org/news/2004/soba.html)
- Blacks are more likely to develop diabetes than any other race (except Native Americans)
- Blacks are less likely to spend their disposable income on healthy foods and books about diet and exercise.
Essentially, disparities created by unequal treatment in the past persist today because much of the Civil Rights Movement has not progressed beyond legislative and social issues into the arena of economic empowerment through entrepreneurialism and financial literacy.
In addition, this is a hard area to move into because essentially and broad scale initiatives to truly empower blacks financially creates competition against non-black businesses.
When you have systems in place such as networks and relationships with individuals in certain arena, it dramatically increases your odds for economic success.
Being that blacks have historically been locked out of certain ‘networks’ it further restricts their ability to access information that generates wealth.
The power of wealth
When you have a specific race with such a dramatic disparity in income, you also have a race that will be materially affected by the issues of poverty in America.
In a 2004 article titled Poverty Spreads by CNN Money, they state that the poverty rate of African Americans remained nearly twice the national rate, with 24.4 percent of blacks living below the poverty line in 2003, slightly higher from 24.1 percent a year earlier. (http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/26/news/economy/poverty_survey/)
When you are in poverty, the ability to acquire wealth and escape poverty is terribly difficulty. Check to check living precludes significant savings and investments, which allow you to grow your wealth and protect your future.
You typically acquire bad credit due to unforeseen financial problems occurring, which force you’re to skip payments. Bank loans are at a higher percentage rate, insurance costs are higher, health care is poorer or unaffordable and the educational system in the inner city environment that most poor blacks live in are worse or insufficient.
Even if racism ceased to exist today, the economic disparities caused by racism would still be pervasive and persistent amongst blacks as poverty becomes cyclical.
To truly eliminate or dramatically reduce disparity between blacks and whites, a holistic paradigm change in how our nation addresses the problem must occur.
Solutions to the disparity
The solution to the black disparity in wealth in America is a dramatic change in government policy and in non-profit funding and missions.
Typically, inner-city and African-American centered programs are geared towards good, but ineffective band aid programs that don’t holistically work to elevate the economic condition of blacks.
There need to be more programs that increase home ownership, that increase business ownership, that train on money management and wealth building. Access to cheap capital for business development, and low interest rate loans for mortgages are crucial.
Subtle red lining must be eliminated in insurance and banking practices, and buy here pay here, check cashing, and other businesses that nearly extort inner city residents must be regulated.
In addition, inner city, heavily minority concentrated schools should be teaching economics, business and financial literacy as core principles.
Empowerment zones and economic development grants for indigenous inner city residents should be appropriated from the federal level, and incentives should be increased for businesses that want to re-locate in urban, low income environments.
To truly decrease the economic disparity caused by hundreds of years of economic disenfranchisement and racism, effective, disciplined, and strategically oriented strategies at all facets of American life need to be enacted.
Financial Examples
Investments
When it comes to wealth building, amount, time and rate of return determine levels of wealth. If the typical African American has less to invest, the ultimate return, and the ability to secure a retirement, and leave wealth for children is dramatically decreased.
In the following example, it shows the difference between a thousand dollars invested and five hundred over thirty years.
$1000 at 10% at 30 Yrs – Returns $17,449
$500 at 10% at 30 Yrs – Returns $8,725
The although initially the $1000, which was double the $500 invested by the other investor, was only $500 more, at the end of 30 years, it is $8724 more dollars, although still double, that of the poorer investor. If blacks as a whole have less disposable income to invest, over time the disparity remains statistically even, even though real wealth is dramatically more for the white.
Loans
Although credit problems are pervasive in all races, being that blacks per capita have more poverty and less wealth reserves, they generally as a group have poorer credit, meaning that they have to pay more for the money they borrow.
The following is the difference in interest paid over the life of a Class A mortgage loan, and a poorer credit Class B mortgage loan.
Class A - $100,000 at 6% at 30 Yrs – Interest = $115,838
Class B - $100,000 at 12% at 30 Yrs – Interest = $270,300
The difference is $154,462 or an average of $429 dollars a month. (Calculations courtesy of Quicken Loans)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Impact of Being Born Into a Poor (Black) Family
Excerpt from NY Times magazine article
There are hundreds of examples of poor black people and other poor people rising up out of the depths of being raised in poor families.
So there was a study about being born in a poor household in America that those kids never escape that situation. Now of course because we in America and if as a people are so focused on race the study say forty percent of black children in that situation not only stay poor but dropout of school and have more teen pregnancies.
This study would be a good one and some what disappointing if there were programs in place to put an end to poverty in America as well raising the minimum wage to a living wage. But since that isn’t the case and now the country seems to be closing schools in the inner city and rural areas how will things get better?
This study is an old one and I feel like all these race related economic, residential and educational gap studies seem to be popping up because of Obama. You ask any black person who says since Obama has become president things seem to be looking up for blacks they’ll still tell you there will be people left behind. Being poor is like being really wealthy is becomes a generational thing. The poor black kids have of course poor parents who parents were most likely poor too and so on and so on.
Again this also becomes sad because it starts from education and job opportunities. Just roll through Kansas City on Gilliam Road and then just drive downtown and see big ass building you know were factories that are now just empty. The city is still looking to open bars but not re-open those buildings and give people in the inner city a good paying job that is right in their backyard.
There really in the end shouldn’t have to be a reach to help poor people in this country. You ask someone in their 50’s the programs that were available may have small but they were important. Middle and high school have lost so many classes that now to take them you have to go to college. A group of older men who know how to work on car engines and have worked in mechanic shops as late teens and early 20’s because they took those classes in high school.
There is none of that or culinary classes in high school anymore, so to at least even find your self or a passion for free and then want to get a school loan to further that career path is not there. You can’t get a trade in prison anymore either. Hell, that in itself is a bad hand dealt out to you. Yes ,you did the crime do the time but say you were falsely arrested and lost five to ten maybe more years of your life. Yeah you don’t have to say you were locked up but you can’t get work to provide for your family because you haven’t worked for so long.
Then there is the fact that as time has gone by blacks have become less helpful to one another. I’m old enough to remember those days and I’m always reminded of that when I see how Mexicans who don’t know each other at all will help one another for no other reason than the bond of race. Yes I feel bad saying help a black person because you’re black but we have lost that essence in the last twenty years. Look at those civil rights marches where blacks from all backgrounds came together.
A place where a person in some good position would get someone a job doing nothing more than janitorial duties may not have even get that job today. Like that scene in Boomerang where Chris Rock thanks Eddie Murphy for the hook up for the job, those days are totally gone these days. I lived about 15 minutes from Hampton University and that mixed with pro black pro active black men and women wanting to insure that blacks in the hood had better choices before them did have a good impact in some areas. Of course it still comes down to if one is qualified for the jobs but the assistance was there.
If just half of the money given to the Pentagon, NASA and if the corporations gave the same money to the funds they have their names attached to that they give to political parties to lobby for things would be, COULD be better. Again not wanting to go back to Kansas City but the city is willing to cut programs and spend city money on entertainment. It is sad to inherit poverty, your life is an uphill battle from birth.
And with that battle comes to fact people aren’t as willing to help you make a difference in your life to better your self. Maybe while they do these studies they also should address how we as Americans play a hand in keeping people where they are.
This study would be a good one and some what disappointing if there were programs in place to put an end to poverty in America as well raising the minimum wage to a living wage. But since that isn’t the case and now the country seems to be closing schools in the inner city and rural areas how will things get better?
This study is an old one and I feel like all these race related economic, residential and educational gap studies seem to be popping up because of Obama. You ask any black person who says since Obama has become president things seem to be looking up for blacks they’ll still tell you there will be people left behind. Being poor is like being really wealthy is becomes a generational thing. The poor black kids have of course poor parents who parents were most likely poor too and so on and so on.
Again this also becomes sad because it starts from education and job opportunities. Just roll through Kansas City on Gilliam Road and then just drive downtown and see big ass building you know were factories that are now just empty. The city is still looking to open bars but not re-open those buildings and give people in the inner city a good paying job that is right in their backyard.
There really in the end shouldn’t have to be a reach to help poor people in this country. You ask someone in their 50’s the programs that were available may have small but they were important. Middle and high school have lost so many classes that now to take them you have to go to college. A group of older men who know how to work on car engines and have worked in mechanic shops as late teens and early 20’s because they took those classes in high school.
There is none of that or culinary classes in high school anymore, so to at least even find your self or a passion for free and then want to get a school loan to further that career path is not there. You can’t get a trade in prison anymore either. Hell, that in itself is a bad hand dealt out to you. Yes ,you did the crime do the time but say you were falsely arrested and lost five to ten maybe more years of your life. Yeah you don’t have to say you were locked up but you can’t get work to provide for your family because you haven’t worked for so long.
Then there is the fact that as time has gone by blacks have become less helpful to one another. I’m old enough to remember those days and I’m always reminded of that when I see how Mexicans who don’t know each other at all will help one another for no other reason than the bond of race. Yes I feel bad saying help a black person because you’re black but we have lost that essence in the last twenty years. Look at those civil rights marches where blacks from all backgrounds came together.
A place where a person in some good position would get someone a job doing nothing more than janitorial duties may not have even get that job today. Like that scene in Boomerang where Chris Rock thanks Eddie Murphy for the hook up for the job, those days are totally gone these days. I lived about 15 minutes from Hampton University and that mixed with pro black pro active black men and women wanting to insure that blacks in the hood had better choices before them did have a good impact in some areas. Of course it still comes down to if one is qualified for the jobs but the assistance was there.
If just half of the money given to the Pentagon, NASA and if the corporations gave the same money to the funds they have their names attached to that they give to political parties to lobby for things would be, COULD be better. Again not wanting to go back to Kansas City but the city is willing to cut programs and spend city money on entertainment. It is sad to inherit poverty, your life is an uphill battle from birth.
And with that battle comes to fact people aren’t as willing to help you make a difference in your life to better your self. Maybe while they do these studies they also should address how we as Americans play a hand in keeping people where they are.
Excerpt from NewsOne Article
When former Republican Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan said “America has been the best country on earth for black folks” and “no people anywhere have done more to lift up blacks than white Americans”, you can be sure that he believed every word.
As recently as 2004, the typical Black family earned only 58% of what the typical white family earned, a full 5% less than the percentage of white income that a Black family earned way back in 1974.
Even if the Blacks and whites are similarly educated, the white male still out earns the Black male by 30%.
Black poverty rate, though down considerably since the early 1990s, was at a still astonishing 24.7% in 2008.
Among the myth-based mindsets that even non-virulently racist whites can’t seem to shake is that welfare is a predominantly Black phenomenon.
Meanwhile, most Blacks know by now that purely from a gross numerical standpoint, way more whites are on welfare than Blacks.
Add to that the fact that white America’s awe for white wealth—regardless of its source—doesn’t extend to Black wealth.
Mafia members, bootleggers and stock market fixers are all respected for their ingenuity and only loathed when they get caught.
This is the reason that Bernie Madoff could run his fraudulently-gotten gains up to 65 billion but 5 grams of crack will get a Black kid 5 years mandatory the very first time he gets busted.
So why are so many Black people poor?
Well simply stated, the “Buchanan mentality” becomes a daft exercise in the worst kind of circular logic, allowing whites to feel guiltless about not hiring even the most qualified Blacks because somewhere in their minds, they think that Blacks always have welfare to fall back on, meanwhile Buchanan “types” simultaneously work to reverse affirmative action and nearly exterminating welfare altogether seemingly, one might think, just because Blacks have been so ungrateful after all that white people have done to help.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the fiftieth anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the United States seems to have returned to degree zero of moral concern for the majority of descendants of slavery and segregation. Whether the Black poor live or die seems to merit only haughty disinterest and indifference. Indeed, in terms of the life-and-death issues that matter most to African-Americans -- structural unemployment, race-based super-incarceration, police brutality, disappearing affirmative action programs, and failing schools -- the present presidential election might as well be taking place in the 1920s.
But not all the blame can be assigned to the current occupant of the former slave-owners' mansion at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue. The mayor of New Orleans, for example, is a Black Democrat, and Los Angeles County is a famously Democratic bastion. No, the political invisibility of people of color is a strictly bipartisan endeavor. On the Democratic side, it is the culmination of the long crusade waged by the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) to exorcise the specter of the 1980s Rainbow Coalition.
The DLC, of course, has long yearned to bring white guys and fat cats back to a Nixonized Democratic Party. Arguing that race had fatally divided Democrats, the DLC has tried to bleach the Party by marginalizing civil rights agendas and Black leadership. African-Americans, it is cynically assumed, will remain loyal to the Democrats regardless of the treasons committed against them. They are, in effect, hostages.
Thus the sordid spectacle -- portrayed in Fahrenheit 9/11 -- of white Democratic senators refusing to raise a single hand in support of the Black Congressional Caucus's courageous challenge to the stolen election of November 2000.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpt from news article
Recently a group of more than a hundred Jamaicans returned to Jamaica from jobs on the US Gulf coast. They were ordinary workers, hotel maids, bellhops and the like, with no particularly rare skills. They’ve been working in the US because American hotels “can’t find” American workers to do these jobs.
Recently a group of more than a hundred Jamaicans returned to Jamaica from jobs on the US Gulf coast. They were ordinary workers, hotel maids, bellhops and the like, with no particularly rare skills. They’ve been working in the US because American hotels “can’t find” American workers to do these jobs.
They can’t find them because Americans, no matter how poor, refuse to work for the kind of pay Jamaicans will accept. The American workers are, in the words of the globalist, not competitive.
To encourage them to be more competitive the United States has for generations, relied on imported labor, mainly illegal immigrants and some others who go to the United States with the full knowledge and complicity of the American authorities to work on American farms and factories.
“How can we compete?” the capitalists ask piteously, “Against the production of peasants? in far away countries, impressed into industrial labour forces by agents of other American capitalists and increasingly, by Chinese and other foreign businessmen.
Obeying the imperatives of capitalism, and the bottom line, Americans have been outsourcing production for a very long time. Within the last ten years the movement has accelerated into a stampede.
Originally, the equation was simple. Industrialized countries “bought” primary products from former colonies and sold them at grossly inflated prices to their own markets and to the people they had bought the stuff from in the first place.
But as countries like Jamaica developed on the so-called "Puerto Rican" outsourcing model and others developed on the Japanese model, profits began to be shaved and markets began to be fragmented.
In the Far East where colonialism had not managed to do too much damage, people retained their culture, their language, and most of their ancient skills. The Chinese, who invented gunpowder, were producing steel in backyard furnaces in the 1960s.
The Japanese who had built the world's largest and most advanced battleship—the YAMATO, 70 years ago—had to endure the fairly benign occupation of the American Military after having been atom-bombed into subjection. But they got to keep their emperor and they got something infinitely more valuable, enormous amounts of US military expenditure which helped fuel a new growth of industrialization. The same thing happened in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and the effect spilled over into other southeast Asian countries. Europe got the Marshall Plan.
Starting from a lower level than Americans, these people soon began to outproduce Americans particularly in motor vehicles and electronics.
In Africa, where whole civilizations and cultures had been uprooted and obliterated, and in the former American colonies of the European powers, life was very different.
One major reason was the color of the skins of the peoples. For 500 years, in order to justify slavery, the world was told that blacks were shiftless, work-shy and undisciplined. They had to be forced to work "for their own good, you understand." They needed slavery. Long after slavery was officially abolished that same excuse allowed King Leopold to literally enslave and brutalize the Congo, long after slavery was officially abolished and licensed the British, Dutch Portuguese and Spanish to enforce similar forms of profit-extraction and productivity in Africa, the Caribbean Latin America and in the southern United States.
In Latin America there were lots of blacks, but they were not the majority, except in the Caribbean. In Latin America, the majorities were, as writer Inga Muscio was once described "less than white."
Within the United States itself the promised Reconstruction after slavery swiftly degenerated into white reaction and re-enslavement under other names.
The puritanical Americans emulated the ecclesiastics of the twelfth century, but instead of estimating how many angels could dance on the head of a pin they were more interested in calculating how many Anglos could dance on the head of a peon.
Blacks in the Americas have always been ambivalent about their prospects on this side of the Atlantic. There were and are those, like Martin Luther King and Jean Bertrand Aristide, who figured that their blood and suffering had bought them rights. There were others, like Marcus Garvey and the "Black Muslims" who could not believe that white man's justice would ever encompass them.
Being black in the US is not quite as dangerous as being openly homosexual in Jamaica, but it is close. A black man in the Bronx today "or in Haiti" has a lower life expectancy than a Bangladeshi of the same age.
Nearly fifty years ago, on my first visit to the United States I was challenged by a black shoemaker in Washington DC, literally within the shadow of the capitol. He was puzzled by my accent and wanted to know where I came from. When I told him he asked me: "They got anybody like me where you come from?" I didn' t understand him. Yes, they had shoemakers in Jamaica, I said. "No man. They got any niggers there?"
I was totally flabbergasted. He and I could easily have been blood brothers; our hair was the same, our skin colour was the same—if anything he was a shade or two lighter skinned than I and I thought we looked a little bit alike. We settled the historical and ethnic questions over a pitcher of beer in a nearby bar. Why, I asked him, didn't he think I was a nigger?
"Because you don't talk like a nigger, man and you don't walk like a nigger."
Passing for Creole
New Orleans was on the surface, a swinging, cosmopolitan city, multicultural, multi-ethnic, in which "black culture" was the defining flavor. In reality it was cross-dressing—passing for Creole while underneath it was the archetypical Southern United States city, a kind of human zoo or theme park in which the majority of the population are allowed to flourish as long as they are of good behavior.
Beneath the export-only black culture there was another layer of black poverty and misery, largely invisible to the Blitzers and the kibitzers.
Apart from being so poor and so black, the Afro American minority is also dismissed as criminal and diseased. In the name of law and order, about half a million blacks are currently warehoused in prisons which are really universities of crime, sources of cheap commercial labor and focal points for spreading HIV/AIDS throughout the black communities.
The American black prison population alone is larger than the total prison population of any country other than perhaps China . Almost one third of young black American men are either in jail or under some sort of state supervision, because the laws of the United States, as exemplified by such as Trent Lott,, Jesse Helms, and the media, believe that blacks prefer a life of crime to fulfilling the American dream.
As Herrnstein and Murray boldly say in The Bell Curve, "Clearly something about getting seriously involved in crime competes with staying in school." The Bell Curve, accepted "by an overwhelming cross section of the US media" as a sane and sensible book, postulated a "Custodial state," a high tech and more lavish version of the Indian reservations for some substantial minority of the nation's population while the rest of America tries to go about its business?
Its authors, Herrnstein and Murray say that such a state "will not only be tolerated but actively supported by a consensus of the cognitive elite" and they claimed that they were not theorising but "reporting."
Instead of a custodial state Herrnstein and Murray suggested "cognitive partitioning" supported by a return to Individualism. That is, the cognitive elite will formally continue to select out its Colin Powells, Condoleezza Rices and Clarence Thomases (but obviously not Serena Williams or Cynthia McKinney) to serve them as Harry Belafonte described Powell—as house slaves.
The problem is not only ethnic, although ethnicity is involved. The Central Europeans who are the largest ethnic bloc in the United States outside of Hispanics, have always had their Serbs, Slavs and Gypsies (Egyptians) to hew wood and draw water.
To that underclass we could, perhaps, add the Irish—until they were all supplanted by the blacks.
Nor is discrimination simply ethnic, but it provides a convenient means to classify an economic underclass because so many wear an instantly recognizable uniform. Blacks are only one section of the American underclass. Their white compatriots are usually ignored, as if they are simply passing through a phase.
But since many become visible because of their homelessness, or joblessness or some dysfunctionality which makes them stand out, all of these characteristics (welfare abusers etc.) are typically ascribed to all poor people, particularly to blacks.
Black is black and white is white and never the twain shall mate. That at least is the theory of Hollywood myth-makers and of much of the media that is now part of the Hollywood entertainment-industrial-financial complex. The rest of the world looks nonplussed at an America in which "Guess who's coming to dinner" after forty years, is still the Hollywood paradigm for race relations, as if the mating of white and black were as experimental as the union of gorillas and chimpanzees.
The result is a case like O.J. Simpson's, who, having been acquitted of murder, was still found guilty, essentially of marrying a white woman. While no one can explain how Simpson could have sanitized himself and his house in the hour or two between the murders and his journey to Chicago, most white Americans thought he should pay punitive damages to the families of his murdered wife and her friend. NEWSWEEK made the point. O.J. tried to live like a white man: "He even played golf."
TIME magazine confessed to painting Simpson blacker than he was—as they did more recently to Hugo Chavez, no doubt for good and sufficient geopolitical reasons.
When, forty years ago, movie star Kim Novak was rumoured to be having an affair with Sammy Davis Jr. it more or less meant the end of her career. "Inter-racial" mating is seen by the media as terminally dangerous not just to the morals of their audiences but more subversively, to the class system. There can be no miscegenation without representation, and where would that leave the working class and its necessary underclass?
Barbara Bush had it right. Refugees in Texas must be better off than at home in New Orleans. And more hygenic and less sinful to boot.
Meanwhile, if one examines the real USA, away from the ersatz gentility of the media, one discovers that not only are the really poor getting poorer, but the middle class is going nowhere fast.
In real economic terms, in constant dollar terms, the Middle classes are almost exactly where they were when Jimmy Carter was president. Meanwhile, according to the US Census Bureau, the rich have become immeasurably wealthier. If the appearance of social peace is to be maintained, globalisation must provide the answer: That means providing cheaper and cheaper goods to disguise the static economic position of the majority of Americans.
That requires not only a real Third World outside the boundaries of the United States; it also requires one within those boundaries.
Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau for African-Americans:
Annual median income: $33,000 vs. $51,000 for U.S.Blacks with a bachelor's degree or higher: 14% vs. 37% for Whites, 50% for Asian-Americans, and 10% for Latinos
Poverty rate: 28% vs. 12% for U.S.
Lacking health insurance: 21% vs. 15% for U.S.
Home ownership: 44% vs. 69% for U.S.
Black-owned businesses: 1.9 million
Revenue from black-owned businesses: $137 billion
Author's Note: Refer to the following web pages for information about knowledge, wealth, success, purpose in life, and starting a small business:
Purpose in Life
What is Success
References
- ^ America: A Narrative History, Chapter 18-19
- ^ Text of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356 (1886) is available from: ·Findlaw
- ^ West, Jean. "Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson, Interview Essay".http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/pdf/hs_in_robinson_rickey.pdf. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
- ^ Tygiel, Jules (2002). Extra Bases: Reflections on Jackie Robinson, Race, and Baseball History. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 0-8032-9447-6.http://books.google.com/books?id=2zI2UhykNuEC&pg=PA69.
- ^ Foner, Henry (2002). "Foreword". In Dorinson, Joseph; Pencak, William. Paul Robeson: Essays on His Life and Legacy. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. p. 1. ISBN 0-7864-2163-0.http://books.google.com/books?id=Otiz7Mi-iUYC&pg=PA1.
- ^ Myrdal, Gunnar; Bok, Sissela (1995). An American dilemma: the Negro problem and modern democracy. Transaction Publishers. p. 478. http://books.google.com/books?id=yuAEokAx2G4C.
- ^ Fauntroy, Michael K. (2007). Republicans and the Black vote. Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 43. http://books.google.com/books?id=RyuHAAAAMAAJ. ""... lily whites worked with Democrats to disenfranchise African Americans.""
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ Glenn Feldman, The Disfranchisement Myth: Poor Whites and Suffrage Restriction in Alabama, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004, p. 136
- ^ Kenneth T. Jackson, The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915–1930, New York: Oxford University Press, 1967; reprint, Chicago: Elephant Paperback, 1992, pp.242–243
- ^ Kenneth T. Jackson, The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915–1930, New York: Oxford University Press, 1967; reprint, Chicago: Elephant Paperback, 1992
- ^ James D. Anderson, Black Education in the South, 1860–1935, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988, pp.244–245
- ^ For example, Alpha Phi Alpha the first black intercollegiate fraternity was founded at Cornell University in 1906. Wesley, Charles H. (1950). The History of Alpha Phi Alpha: A Development in Negro College Life (6th ed.). Chicago, IL: Foundation.
- ^ "We Shall Overcome: The Players". http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/players.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
- ^ James D. Anderson, Black Education in the South, 1860–1935, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 198
- ^ Source — PBS website From Swastika to Jim Crow
- ^ a b c Ewers, Justin (March 22, 2004). "'Separate but equal' was the law of the land, until one decision brought it crashing down" (page 2). US News & World Report.
- ^ Ewers, Justin (March 22, 2004). "'Separate but equal' was the law of the land, until one decision brought it crashing down" (page 3). US News & World Report.
- ^ Ewers, Justin (March 22, 2004). "'Separate but equal' was the law of the land, until one decision brought it crashing down" (page 4). US News & World Report.
- ^ a b c d David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009, pp.72-89.
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