from NewsOne.com
LEFT OF BLACK:
Global Financial Crisis Threatens Black Middle Class
by Mark Anthony Neal
The current crisis in U.S. financial institutions, along with record-breaking home foreclosures, higher unemployment rates, and skyrocketing gas prices, has given many Americans reason to pause, if not panic. Though the federal government has stepped in to help calm the public fear by bailing out certain institutions, as the old saying goes “when White America catches a cold, Black America catches the flu.”
And it is no different in this case. There’s little question that working-class and poor Americans are catching the brunt of what some pundits have called a recession. In this election season however, the working class and so-called working poor are often recalled only in relation to branding one presidential candidate an elitist and the other as out-of-touch with the economic mainstream.
Yet clearly the presidential candidates have been directing their economic rhetoric at the middle-class. Perhaps rightfully so, given widespread perceptions that the middle class sees its own financial stability as tied to the housing market and investment banking, particularly for those who hold 401K plans and various other IRA and pension plans.
But what exactly do we mean by the “middle class?” FactCheck.org at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication notes that there’s no standard definition to “middle class,” observing that the vast majority of Americans view themselves as middle-class. Even the presidential candidates seem unable to agree, as Senator McCain recently suggested (admittedly, in jest) that 5 million per year is the dividing line between being middle-class and rich.
In the absence of clear definitions that also account for social factors like geography, education and social class standing (a college professor making 40,000 a year has more social standing than an electrician that makes three times as much), most pundits use median income as a marker of middle-class status. According to 2005 census data, the median income for American families was a little more than 56,000. But when that data is adjusted for race, the median income for blacks is nearly 20,000 less than it is for whites.
When one looks at the comparisons between black and white incomes between 35,000 and 75,000, there is noticeable parity. However, for all of the egalitarian talk that those numbers might suggest, the reality is that middle-class blacks and whites who might live in the same neighborhoods, send their kids to the same private schools, and earn the same annual incomes are not equal.
Read the Full Essay @
LEFT OF BLACK:
Global Financial Crisis Threatens Black Middle Class
by Mark Anthony Neal
The current crisis in U.S. financial institutions, along with record-breaking home foreclosures, higher unemployment rates, and skyrocketing gas prices, has given many Americans reason to pause, if not panic. Though the federal government has stepped in to help calm the public fear by bailing out certain institutions, as the old saying goes “when White America catches a cold, Black America catches the flu.”
And it is no different in this case. There’s little question that working-class and poor Americans are catching the brunt of what some pundits have called a recession. In this election season however, the working class and so-called working poor are often recalled only in relation to branding one presidential candidate an elitist and the other as out-of-touch with the economic mainstream.
Yet clearly the presidential candidates have been directing their economic rhetoric at the middle-class. Perhaps rightfully so, given widespread perceptions that the middle class sees its own financial stability as tied to the housing market and investment banking, particularly for those who hold 401K plans and various other IRA and pension plans.
But what exactly do we mean by the “middle class?” FactCheck.org at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication notes that there’s no standard definition to “middle class,” observing that the vast majority of Americans view themselves as middle-class. Even the presidential candidates seem unable to agree, as Senator McCain recently suggested (admittedly, in jest) that 5 million per year is the dividing line between being middle-class and rich.
In the absence of clear definitions that also account for social factors like geography, education and social class standing (a college professor making 40,000 a year has more social standing than an electrician that makes three times as much), most pundits use median income as a marker of middle-class status. According to 2005 census data, the median income for American families was a little more than 56,000. But when that data is adjusted for race, the median income for blacks is nearly 20,000 less than it is for whites.
When one looks at the comparisons between black and white incomes between 35,000 and 75,000, there is noticeable parity. However, for all of the egalitarian talk that those numbers might suggest, the reality is that middle-class blacks and whites who might live in the same neighborhoods, send their kids to the same private schools, and earn the same annual incomes are not equal.
Read the Full Essay @
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