Black Americans Have Suffered an Historic Wipeout of Their Wealth, With Few Signs It's Coming Back

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/156396/black_americans_have_suffered_an_historic_wipeout_of_their_wealth%2C_with_few_signs_it%27s_coming_back/

The latest report from the Pew Mobility Project shows a particularly bleak picture for African-Americans. Not only are blacks more likely to come from the bottom income bracket (65 percent of blacks compared to 11 percent of whites) but blacks have a far harder time than whites when it comes to exceeding the economic success of their parents. Only 77 percent of African-Americans raised in the middle quintile of income earners will out-earn their parents, compared to 88 percent of whites. The picture is worse for blacks in the second quintile from the bottom; only 66 percent out-earn their parents, compared to 89 percent of whites. Things are even worse when it comes to wealth:



Those stars in the fourth and top quintiles represent “insufficient data.” There are so few African-Americans among the top income earners that Pew couldn’t accurately measure their mobility. To a large degree, this illustrates one of the underlying stories of the Pew report—the extent to which African-American wealth has been devastated by the Great Recession. Some of this is born out by the Pew study—black family wealth is dwarfed by white family wealth—but you can get a fuller picture from a Pew Research Center report released last summer.

[siligut]

1. There is a very unAmerican sentiment among the far-right

They want to keep the status quo, and that means no upward mobility for anyone other than them. It just stinks that things has actually gotten worse for black Americans.

I think when Obama talks about how if you work hard you should be able to succeed in this country, he is speaking to what we want to believe of ourselves as a nation.

[Starry Messenger]

2. k&r

[RainDog]

3. k&r n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. This hits close to home, but the problem is not entirely racism...its also our culture

By culture I mean American Black Culture, and I use the possessive because I am black and have seen the effect first hand.

Some time ago in USA Today, the NYT, and others there was a flurry of articles about the lack of many middle class and upper middle class blacks to truly become wealthy. There was also a brief cascade of books on the topics. A good part of this is things we do to ourselves...and its self defeating at a level that is hard to comprehend unless you see it first hand.

The first place is expenditures. Once we make it to the professional ranks, we don't shop at Walmart anymore. Its Saks or Nieman-Marcus. Not just for us, but our entire family. We have made it, no need to shop down.

Look at what the average middle class black woman spends on her hair and appearance and compare it to what average middle class women of other racial or ethnic groups spend. Multiple studies place it 3 to 5 times. Clothes tend to 2-3X (both genders), again quite a bit more than our peers. Similar pattern with cars and other outward symbols of wealth.

Literally, we tend to spend ourselves to the point that even many very successful blacks are a pay check or two away from real trouble. There are exceptions, but it is not part of our culture to live well within our means and extensively save. The concept of generational wealth is never even considered.

My wife went into an atypical profession, despite that she still felt a lot of that pressure and even succumbed occasionally. Her guilty pleasures she called it and I liked it too. Who doesn't like a beautifully done and adorned partner? However, eventually we both realized what a trap it was and decided it was better to be able to send our daughters to any college they could get into than be fashion horses. That caused some stir in both of our extended families. We were successful, why did we not look it? The truth is we looked fine, but to the standard of the black middle class we were certainly not stylish and somewhat dowdy. My wife was asked at one point why she did not dress in a manner that suited her position (professional and personal) and that she should be setting a better example for younger black women. Her colleague was quite serious.

So one of the primary causes that the down turn has hit so hard in my community is because so many of us were already living on the edge by choice. We escaped, mostly due to our jobs and how we were raised. However, when I see $500-$1000 hair on your students, you have to fear for the future.