Posted on 11/13/2007 6:28:17 AM PST by shrinkermd
Nearly half of African Americans born to middle-income parents in the late 1960s plunged into poverty or near-poverty as adults, according to a new study -- a perplexing finding that analysts say highlights the fragile nature of middle-class life for many African Americans.
Overall, family incomes have risen for both blacks and whites over the past three decades. But in a society where the privileges of class and income most often perpetuate themselves from generation to generation, black Americans have had more difficulty than whites in transmitting those benefits to their children.
Forty-five percent of black children whose parents were solidly middle class in 1968 -- a stratum with a median income of $55,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars -- grew up to be among the lowest fifth of the nation's earners, with a median family income of $23,100. Only 16 percent of whites experienced similar downward mobility. At the same time, 48 percent of black children whose parents were in an economic bracket with a median family income of $41,700 sank into the lowest income group.
This troubling picture of black economic evolution is contained in a package of three reports being released today by the Pew Charitable Trusts that test the vitality of the American dream. Using a nationally representative data source that for nearly four decades has tracked people who were children in 1968, researchers attempted to answer two questions: Do Americans generally advance beyond their parents in terms of income? How much is that affected by race and gender?
"We are attempting to broaden the current debate" beyond the growing gap between higher- and lower-income Americans, said John Morton, Pew's managing director for program planning and economic policy. "There is little out there on the question of mobility across generations, and we wanted to examine that."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Could it be that there has been a decrease in two-parent families since LBJ’s “War on Poverty” replaced Black fathers with the welfare check? The surest predictor of poverty, school dropouts, and juvenile crime is the lack of a father in the home.
Well, in the segment you posted, no "explanation" was offered, it just discussed the problem (and no, I'm not about to visit the WP website to find out).
But the obvious cause is the "new black cultchah" that "avoids acting white" by not doing things like learning to read and speak well, studying and making decent grades in school, "getting knocked up" for the females (and "knocking up" for the males), getting married and staying married. Simple things like that.
And I wonder why these studies never look at asian-americans and why they are so successful.
Despite the massive drive toward the abject dead-end that is socialism, by the media, Hollywood and academia, the American dream is alive and well.
If most blacks are not on board, it is their own fault.
Theirs and NO ONE else’s.
There's a zillion ways to make money. Living with your mother playing video games and sports by day and getting girls pregnant by night is not very lucrative tho.
Sadly it is also a telling window into our society.
The downward death spiral of our entire society, encapsulated in a stupid TV show.
With the "Great Society" and the affirmative action plans of the Liberals, they've managed to keep 'em "on the plantation" now, haven't they?
So long as they are indoctrinated into a "blame whitey" and "we'll take care of you with Gubmint programs" mentaltiy, the hip-hop/rap rhetoric will keep them from achieving any semblance of self-respect, self-motivation, and self-reliance.
No amount of mandatory "diversity training" or "sensitivity training" will change the fact that personal responsibility is the path to success in any endeavor.
I worked as a substitute teacher in the Houston ISD for a while in the 1970’s and again in the 1980’s. A lot of the kids in some of the “inner city” schools where I was worked hard to get to school, get a diploma and go on to college. There were others whose only interest was to disrupt the class and keep others from learning. I’m assuming that some of those kids who are now adults are among those who find that the middle class eludes them.
I read that this morning. Good article.
90.5% of the bottom quintile moved up at least one quintile in within 9 years.
The thrust of the article on THIS thread is that America must still be systemically racist, and that’s why blacks cannot be upwardly mobile.
No, wouldn’t have anything to do with coddling and subsidizing irresponsibility in an entire culture, with these subsidies being granted solely on skin color, now, would it?
Could we assume those were the females who became unwed mothers?
Yes, my grandparents must have had the fantasy of living under Jim Crow implanted by the Democrats. Legal segregation did not really exist.
The truth is, it is a lot harder to build a strong family without two parents and two incomes. A single mother is going to have a hard time, even if she comes from a middle class background. When 70% of black children are born out of wedlock, it isn't surprising that economic progress has began to reverse.
Keep any class or group of people doped up on narcotic welfare and you’ll pave the road to eternal poverty.
“a perplexing finding”
Hmmm. I wonder if they factored in such things as teen pregnancy, dropout rates, prison time?
From everything I have been able to find on the subject, black literacy rates were higher several generations ago than they are now.
Perplexing indeed.
And sad.
I like your thinking.
Disintegration of the Black family unit and the coarsening of elements of the Black society - obviously intertwined - all deriving from secularization, particularly from the media, and removal from traditional religion and the Lord God.
These ills obviously affect all skin colors today, and particularly the Blacks.
Stop thinking and scream “Power to the people.”
Class warfare feels so much better than blaming oneself for failure. At least that’s how many operate. Drugs, broken families, a sub-culture that largely advocates a self destructive lifestyle..... no let’s rather not go there, that wouldn’t feel good and could even get labeled as racist.
You mention correlation. Do you really think that the author of this article or many others propagating this sort of nonsense care? They have something they think substantiates their pre-existing belief, and so they run off on their tangent.
It’s culture that makes wealth, not vice versa.
Yeah, that is a good observation.
We’ve been told that if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Somehow, some people never learned that to make lemonade, you gotta squeeze some lemons.
“Hey, where’s my lemonade?” they whine.
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