Posted on 11/14/2006 8:21:40 AM PST by Graybeard58
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Decades after the civil rights movement, racial disparities in income, education and home ownership persist and, by some measurements, are growing.
White households had incomes that were two-thirds higher than blacks and 40 percent higher than Hispanics last year, according to data released today by the Census Bureau.
White adults were also more likely than black and Hispanic adults to have college degrees and to own their own homes. They were less likely to live in poverty.
"Race is so associated with class in the United States that it may not be direct discrimination, but it still matters indirectly," said Dalton Conley, a sociology professor at New York University and the author of "Being Black, Living in the Red."
"It doesn't mean it's any less powerful just because it's indirect," he said.
Home ownership grew among white middle-class families after World War II when access to credit and government programs made buying houses affordable. Black families were largely left out because of discrimination, and the effects are still being felt today, said Lance Freeman, assistant professor of urban planning at Columbia University and author of "There Goes the 'Hood."
Home ownership creates wealth, which enables families to live in good neighborhoods with good schools. It also helps families finance college, which leads to better-paying jobs, perpetuating the cycle, Freeman said.
"If your parents own their own home, they can leave it to you when they pass on or they can use the equity to help you with a down payment on yours," Freeman said.
Three-fourths of white households owned their homes in 2005, compared with 46 percent of black households and 48 percent of Hispanic households. Home ownership is near an all-time high in the United States, but racial gaps have increased in the past 25 years.
Asian Americans, on average, have higher incomes and education levels than whites. However, they have higher poverty rates and lower home ownership rates.
The Census Bureau released 2005 racial data on incomes, education levels, home ownership rates and poverty rates today. The data are from the American Community Survey, the bureau's new annual survey of 3 million households nationwide. The Associated Press compared the figures with census data from 1980, 1990 and 2000.
Among the findings:
- Black adults have narrowed the gap with white adults in earning high school diplomas, but the gap has widened for college degrees. Thirty percent of white adults had at least a bachelor's degree in 2005, while 17 percent of black adults and 12 percent of Hispanic adults had degrees.
- Forty-nine percent of Asian Americans had at least a bachelor's degree in 2005.
- The median income for white households was $50,622 last year. It was $30,939 for black households, $36,278 for Hispanic households and $60,367 for Asian households.
-Median income for black households has stayed about 60 percent of the income for white households since 1980. In dollar terms, the gap has grown from $18,123 to $19,683.
-Hispanic households made about 76 percent as much as white households in 1980. In 2005, it was 72 percent.
-The gap in poverty rates has narrowed since 1980, but it remains substantial. The poverty rate for white residents was 8.3 percent on 2005. It was 24.9 percent for black residents, 21.8 percent for Hispanic residents and 11.1 percent for Asian residents.
Thomas Shapiro, professor of law and social policy at Brandeis University, said the "easiest answer" to narrowing racial gaps is to promote home ownership, which would help minority families accumulate wealth.
"The wealth gap is not just a story of merit and achievement, it's also a story of the historical legacy of race in the United Sates," said Shapiro, author of "The Hidden Cost of Being African American."
Shelton, of the NAACP, called for more funding for preschool programs such as Head Start, improving public schools and making college more affordable.
"Income should not be a significant determining factor whether someone should have an opportunity to go to college," Shelton said.
Yep, that'll fix it, throw some more tax money at it.
Yep, that'll fix it, throw some more tax money at it.
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Here we go again -- the droning of the liberal victimization mob. Always starts up when an election is approaching (2008) --- we can expect a huge increase in whining from the standard liberal victimization crowd, the standard playbook stuff, all to keep the "victimized" blacks and latinos (legal and illegal) on the liberal voting plantation.
White "households" are significantly different from black ones. "Household income" is one of the least informative statistics the U.S. government keeps track of.
For several years black females as individuals have made about 98% of what white females make. For black males, it's a different story. This tracks the problems in black male behavior that have been going on since the early 1960s.
It's true I read this quickly, but I somehow missed where the author made the pertinent points about blacks having an 80% illegitimacy rate and how we are importing hispanic poverty through massive immigration of the poorest people in Mexico and Central America.
How about we include the Cultural problems in the Black (and other urban) communities? Crime, fatherlessness, it seems to me that NOW, the urban communities problems are self inflicted. Sure alot of this has to do with racism in the past, but at some time, you have to pick yourself up, and move UP. For far too many urban youth (and now I include Hispanic and even White kids), its too cool be stay in the ghetto subculture.. that is their choice..
Nothing about the huge number of black families headed by single mothers. Want to live in perma-poverty? Don't finish school and have a child out of wedlock. Is it racism that causes that? No.
There are several black families in my upper middle class neighborhood. They got here the same way whites did. They got an education, then they got married, then they had children. Works every time it's tried.
Funny - they left out that very important fact - 80% of all black children are growing up in a home with no daddy. Does anyone really think that has no impact on income levels?
If all the programs that have been around a long time really worked we would no longer need the programs. College is even becoming a guaranteed. Grades don't matter I guess. Lib indoctrination does.
If anyone would actually listen to Bill Cosby, those "Gaps" would go away within a generation.
You got that right.
Well we've known for years that whites are all racist. It's inherent to the white race. Just like we all know that racism is a crime found only amongst whites. Blacks and other minorities are much too culturalized and accepting.
And if you can't see all the racial assumptions above you're asleep. But in typical left wing fashion we'll use the government as the great equalizer (and never call it "Jim Crow" - cause when you're discriminating against whites it's called "Affirmative Action"...)
Stop the RAP CRAP...get a book
Couldn't be cultural differences accounting for that divide. Nope, no way. /head in sand>
Why aren't Asians included in this study?
Could it be because they are very successful as a "minority" group, and that wouldn't fit with the victim agenda? I know that they are admitted to the UC system in numbers far disproportionate to their percentage of the population.
This article is just another tired attempt to make race/ethnicity an issue, rather then dysfunctional BEHAVIOR.
The rules for success in the US are very straightforward.
Get a good education, work hard, practice thrift/investment, get married and stay married, and you will do just fine.
That is actually what the libs want to do... tax us more so that it can be wasted "on the children". Why don't blacks/hispanic people take education more seriously? No matter how much money is spent on so called education, if young people don't appreciate it and take it more seriously... nothing will improve.
How many Republicans blocked the doors of schools so blacks couldnt go to school? How many democrats voted for the Civil RIghts Act?
Discrimination against whites is preventing them from being as rich as Asians.
Blacks are 12 % of the population and Whites are 60% did they take that into account. I know that liberals play it real fast and loose with statistics.
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