Jul 15, 2010 - Issue 384
Click here to go to the Home Page
is published every Thursday
Est. April 5, 2002
Click to go to the Subscriber Log In Page
Click here to go to a menu of the Contents of this Issue
 
Click to visit our Google powered search page
Click to visit the Friends of BC page
Click to vist the Cartoons page
Click to visit the Art page
Click to visit the Links page
Click to visit the Advertise With Us page
 

Wealth Gap Quadruples - Blacks Can’t Call it Progress - By Jamala Rogers - BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board

   
Click to go to a Printer Friendly version of this article
 

For Share-able Page - Click here
 
 

Let�s be crystal clear. There has never been full equality in the earning power between African Americans and white Americans. Our free labor for over 300 years (including sharecropping, another form of slavery) put us on a virtual treadmill where the earnings gap has never closed. Racist policies and laws helped to ensure the widening schism. A recent report by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP) underscored this depressing fact. So don�t let LeBron James� $110 million dollar contract cloud your vision that the entire race is moving forward on the economic front.

The Institute reported the wealth gap between white and African-American families increased more than four times between 1984-2007. The wealth of middle-income white households now exceed that of high-income African Americans. And while income is different from wealth, they are inextricably linked. In both cases, the disparity between blacks and whites in wealth and income are real and wide. It is proof that higher income alone will not lead to increased wealth, security and economic mobility for African Americans.

Some blacks joke that our persistent poor economic state makes us resilient when bad economic times fall on the country. While that is true, there�s nothing funny about the impact of public policies that favor the wealthiest and discriminate in housing, credit and labor markets. Our ability to take care of our families, build wealth and contribute to society on all levels is compromised. While blacks could buy less and save more, it�s the structural framework that systematically keeps us eating the dust of our white counterparts sprinting in front of us.

The other albatross is the payday loan predators that generally have free reign in our communities. Bloodsuckers like W. Allan Jones, founder of Check into Cash, who have built their dynasties of the backs of poor folks. Poor communities and communities of color are often the targets subprime loans, along with payday lending and check-cashing stores.

Unemployment and underemployment are additional factors that affect our ability to get ahead financially. Currently, the unemployment rates for African Americans are over 15% compared to the overall national rate of about 10%. In some cities and for certain age groups, the rates are even higher.

In an article by Orlando Patterson entitled �Can�t Call It Progress: African-Americans Are Earning Less Than Their Parents Did,� Patterson says the unemployment figures reflect only part of a broader pattern of socioeconomic disparity between blacks and whites. He states that �nearly all indexes - income, wealth, educational attainment, homeownership and foreclosures - show growing gaps and a retreat from gains made in the 1990s, gaps that are being devastatingly widened by the Great Recession.�

Getting educated, working hard and working smart won�t make a dent in this reality. We must get creative about economics under a system that ensures rich people get richer and poor folks get poorer. The underground economy that has developed is a stop gap measure but what really is needed are more collective forms of economic development such as co-ops. This concept is not totally foreign to us as a people. We brought that communal spirit with us from Mother Africa but have allowed it to be perverted by a system where human needs are subservient to maximum profits for a few. It is past time for pooling our resources and getting our economic health together as we build stronger, viable communities.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Jamala Rogers is Leader of the Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis and the Black Radical Congress National Organizer. Click here to contact Ms. Rogers.

 
 

If you would like to comment on this article, please do so below. There is a 400 character limit. You do not need a FaceBook account. Your comment will be posted here on BC instantly. Thanks.

Entering your email address is not mandatory. You may also choose to enter only your first name and your location.

 

e-Mail re-print notice
If you send us an emaill message we may publish all or part of it, unless you tell us it is not for publication. You may also request that we withhold your name.

Thank you very much for your readership.

 
 
 

 

 

Executive Editor:
David A. Love, JD
Managing Editor:
Nancy Littlefield, MBA
Publisher:
Peter Gamble
Road Scholar - the world leader in educational travel for adults. Top ten travel destinations for African-Americans. Fascinating history, welcoming locals, astounding sights, hidden gems, mouth-watering food or all of the above - our list of the world’s top ten "must-see" learning destinations for African-Americans has a little something for everyone.