http://www.theroot.com/views/are-poor-black-americans-screwed?page=0,1
The article is pretty long so here is some quotes that stuck out to me.
"According to the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series current population survey data, the percentage of blacks living far below the poverty line (50 percent or less) has essentially remained constant since 1968, at 15 percent, even though the overall black poverty rate fell from 40 percent in 1968 to 30 percent in 2012. At the other extreme, the percentage of blacks among the comfortably middle class (incomes at least five times the poverty level) quadrupled, rising from a negligible 3 percent in 1968 to 13 percent in 2012.
Yes, the black middle class has grown. Roughly 1 in 4 blacks in 1968 (27 percent) could be classified as middle class (income two to four times the poverty level). That figure in 2012 was up to almost half, or 47 percent. About half of this growth in the size of the middle class occurred between 1968 and 1978. The remainder is spread more evenly across the next three decades. Despite these changes, blacks today are more than twice as likely as whites to be in extreme poverty, at the low end, and half as likely as whites to be in the comfortable middle class at the high end (having reached the level of representation in this category in 2012 that whites had attained more than four decades earlier!)."
"What really worries the black middle class is that the poor and near-poor segment of the black population is a large fraction of the entire community, and their disadvantage seems more intractable than ever. This anxiety is only aggravated by the fact that even middle-class blacks have far greater difficulty passing along their class advantages or success to their children than comparable whites. And perhaps most of all, the angst behind the worry is a product of the failure of our leaders to put forward a compelling strategy, message or agenda on how we should deal with these challenges.
On these first two points, a major Pew Center report showed, for example, that nearly "two thirds of blacks (65 percent) were raised at the bottom of the family income ladder as compared with only 11 percent of whites. The same pattern exists for family wealth: 57 percent of blacks were raised at the bottom, but only 14 percent of whites were." Moreover, the same report showed much higher rates of downward mobility for middle-class blacks than for middle-class whites, and far lower rates of upward mobility for poor blacks as compared with poor whites."
I'd like to hear the IC's thoughts on this. I would comment on this article, but I'll just let Dr Claude Anderson speak on it.
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The article is pretty long so here is some quotes that stuck out to me.
"According to the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series current population survey data, the percentage of blacks living far below the poverty line (50 percent or less) has essentially remained constant since 1968, at 15 percent, even though the overall black poverty rate fell from 40 percent in 1968 to 30 percent in 2012. At the other extreme, the percentage of blacks among the comfortably middle class (incomes at least five times the poverty level) quadrupled, rising from a negligible 3 percent in 1968 to 13 percent in 2012.
Yes, the black middle class has grown. Roughly 1 in 4 blacks in 1968 (27 percent) could be classified as middle class (income two to four times the poverty level). That figure in 2012 was up to almost half, or 47 percent. About half of this growth in the size of the middle class occurred between 1968 and 1978. The remainder is spread more evenly across the next three decades. Despite these changes, blacks today are more than twice as likely as whites to be in extreme poverty, at the low end, and half as likely as whites to be in the comfortable middle class at the high end (having reached the level of representation in this category in 2012 that whites had attained more than four decades earlier!)."
"What really worries the black middle class is that the poor and near-poor segment of the black population is a large fraction of the entire community, and their disadvantage seems more intractable than ever. This anxiety is only aggravated by the fact that even middle-class blacks have far greater difficulty passing along their class advantages or success to their children than comparable whites. And perhaps most of all, the angst behind the worry is a product of the failure of our leaders to put forward a compelling strategy, message or agenda on how we should deal with these challenges.
On these first two points, a major Pew Center report showed, for example, that nearly "two thirds of blacks (65 percent) were raised at the bottom of the family income ladder as compared with only 11 percent of whites. The same pattern exists for family wealth: 57 percent of blacks were raised at the bottom, but only 14 percent of whites were." Moreover, the same report showed much higher rates of downward mobility for middle-class blacks than for middle-class whites, and far lower rates of upward mobility for poor blacks as compared with poor whites."
I'd like to hear the IC's thoughts on this. I would comment on this article, but I'll just let Dr Claude Anderson speak on it.
