Posted on 11/14/2006 2:24:53 PM PST by stainlessbanner
WASHINGTON -- 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 Tuesday 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.
Black families have also been hurt by the decline of manufacturing jobs - the same jobs that helped propel many white families into the middle class after World War II, said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington office.
Among Hispanics, education, income and home ownership gaps are exacerbated by recent Latin American immigrants. Hispanic immigrants have, on average, lower incomes and education levels than people born in the United States. About 40 percent of U.S. Hispanics are immigrants.
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 Tuesday. 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.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.# 49 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.
"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 States," 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.
Since Asians make more than whites, does that mean they are discriminating against whites?
more race-baiting crap from the NAALCP and Jessie "blackmail" Jackson
I won life's lottery.
I was the son of an irish small town doctor who kicked my ass and made me get good grades and become a decent human being.
Wow, go figure. A whole article about what everyone should do about this "problem".....except the blacks themselves. Not a word about the failings of a culture.
"Income should not be a significant determining factor whether someone should have an opportunity to go to college," Shelton said.
In my experience, it largely is not a factor. My wife is an inner city (Los Angeles) public high-school teacher.
Kids who have a half-decent GPA can get into many colleges with tons of financial aid. Problem is, these kids can't STAY there. They drop out frequently.
Paradoxically, some very fine soldiers have also come from her classroom.
Draw your own conclusions.
So shouldn't we discontinue affirmative action, since it is obviously a failure? lol
Your father was clearly a white supremacist b@stard...
"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."
Gee, I thought the liberals viewed that as wrong. They want to tax the hell out of inheritences. What am I missing? It seems the liberals are harming minorities' chances at success!
How about an article detailing "self-imposed cultural separatism", where it is shown that groups who teach their children to reject learning and understanding the capitalist society that they live in tend to be unhappy and poor.
What a load! Taking summary statistics and telling us the solution is to give away more money.
Several points jump out of this article.
1. Hispanics have lower levels of college degrees than blacks, yet their income is higher. Guess we should be discouraging those college degrees.
2. Asians have higher levels of college degrees than whites, yet have higher levels of poverty. Again, looks like we should be discouraging people from going to college.
Bottom line, if I look at my selected statistics I come to the conclusion that education is bad, so we should save taxpayer money and not fund education.
That is why statistics are so fun, you can make them say anything you want.
Hey blacks, quit having babies without fathers, quit killing one another, Quit dispraportionate crime you do.
Try in school. Raise your kids, quit doing crack, and get the hell off welfare as a livelyhood and maybe the disparaties will disappear.
Repeat after me, Professor: Correlation is not causation. Correlation is not causation. Correlation is not causation.
If there is no direct discrimination based on race, then it is hard to see how race "matters indirectly." In other words, in the absence of racial discrimination, other factors must account for the observed income disparities. The article hints at one possible explanation:
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.
Correlation does not equal causation.
EVERY year my son and daughter were going to college, I had to help fill out scholarship/grant forms for their respective colleges. There were not scholarships or grants because I made too much money. There were no Pell Grants because I and my children were white. I know of no black, hispanic or otherwise minority who could pass even the most basic requirements for college who couldn't some way get an out and out grant that paid for their schooling...When is the blame and complaining going to stop?//
Wonder whose fault this is:
http://www.tampabays10.com/video/news/?aid=35177&sid=43603
The only things that he comes close to hating are muslims and Bill Clinton!
"Race"? I would say employment and financial responsibility effects income and the ability to purchase a home.
Gee, you mean being one of seven half-siblings born to a crack mother and spending half your adult life in prison, between siring seven children from seven different women, is not conducive to high earnings and domestic stability?
Knock me over with a feather. I guess I'll have to completely revise what I've been telling kids about how to get ahead.
(No, all blacks aren't like my example above -- only a small minority of them, thank God. But who's pulling down the averages in this study?)
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
LOL... Can the whites get reparations?
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