[Chode]

you said "To be fair, about 70% of african-americans in the US are in the middle class (or better)"

middle class or better do NOT live in a "crappy neighborhood", a better neighborhood is the definition of Middle Class not simply above the poverty line and paying your bills... that's more like blue collar

according to wikipedia,

Within capitalism, middle class initially referred to the bourgeoisie and petite bourgeoisie. However, with the immiserisation and proletarianisation of much of the petit bourgeois world, and the growth of finance capitalism, middle class came to refer to the combination of labour aristocracy, professionals and white collar workers.

[L,TOWM]

OK, so we have a disagreement in defintions then. Fair enough. When I grew up, auto mechanics, welders, carpenters, factory workers, and clerks were all middle class persons. May be lower middle class, but middle class nonetheless.

May original post was to point out that comments on this thread which seemed paint ALL or TOO MANY african americans in this nation with a broad brush of government dependency and aberrant behavior are not completely accurate.