General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: They Dared Me to Post This... [View all]frazzled
(18,402 posts)a little more closely. The US Census Bureau estimates the 2014 population at approx. 318,000,000.
The white population is approx. 77% of that figure, or 244,860,000 people. 10% of them, or 24,486,000 are living below the poverty line.
The black population is approx. 13.2% of the total, or 41,976,000 people. 27% of them, or 11,333,520, are living below the poverty line.
So ... the number of whites living in poverty is more than double the number of blacks living in poverty in this country.
Yet we know from further statistics that whites are not pulled over or shot by the police at double the rate of blacks. Indeed statistics show that nationally (and it's much worse in some geographic areas than others, that a black driver is 31% more likely to be pulled over. And while only about 2% of white drivers are subjected to searches in such stops, nearly 7% of blacks and Hispanics are searched. More than 3 times likelier. Let's not even talk about incarceration rates or death by police.
So economics factored out, statistics reveal racial imbalances of significant proportions. We need to investigate these disparities outside questions of economics: in terms of bias, bigotry, racial profiling and other issues that may not mean much to us white folk, but can mean life or death, freedom or incarceration, to a person of color. And that have deep historical and sociological roots in this this country.
Both issueseconomic and racial injusticeare vital. But to subsume the latter wholly (or even mainly) under the former dangerously ignores issues of vast importance to communities of color. We need to listen to posters such as the OP and not belittle their real-life experiences and justifiable fears.
By the numbers, poor black people suffer social injustices in far greater numbers than equally poor whites. You just can't write that away.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/09/you-really-can-get-pulled-over-for-driving-while-black-federal-statistics-show/