I am not disputing your article or trying to argue about it. Just thought this article from LA Times today was interesting. The issue definitely needs a lot of dialog.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-nuvalues14nov14,1,5714649.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
From the Los Angeles Times
Blacks divide along class lines
Many fault individuals, not racism, for lack of success, a poll finds.
By Maura Reynolds
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 14, 2007
WASHINGTON - A majority of black Americans blame individual failings -- not racial prejudice -- for the lack of economic progress by lower-income African Americans, according to a survey released Tuesday -- a significant change in attitudes from the early 1990s.
At the same time, black college graduates say the values of middle-class African Americans are more closely aligned with those of middle-class whites than those of lower-income blacks, the poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found.
And 40% of those surveyed said African Americans could no longer be viewed as a single community.
The report said that in 1994, 60% of African Americans believed racial prejudice was the main thing keeping blacks from succeeding economically. Only 33% blamed the individual. Though views on the issue have shifted over time, this was the first year that a majority of blacks, 53%, said individuals were responsible for their own condition.
At the same time, the survey found that most blacks believed racial prejudice was still a widespread problem in America.
Pew President Andrew Kohut said that about 60% of African Americans surveyed said blacks often faced discrimination when they applied for jobs or looked for housing. Just 20% of whites agreed with the employment assessment of blacks and 27% with the housing.
One result of shifting views on individual responsibility may be changes in blacks' attitudes toward immigrants. In 1986, 74% of blacks said they would have more economic opportunities if there were fewer immigrants; today, 48% feel that way.
Most blacks and whites who participated in the poll agreed that immigrants tended to work harder at low-wage jobs than workers of their own groups.
On the topic of diverging values, 44% of blacks polled in 1986 said they saw greater differences created by class than by race. Today, that figure has grown to 61%.
The feeling holds for blacks with less than a high school education: 57% of those surveyed said middle-class blacks are more like middle-class whites than they are like poor blacks.
"The values of the bottom and the top are different," Kohut said.
Overall, the survey found that there has been a convergence of values held by blacks and whites. For instance, a majority of both groups say that rap and hip-hop music have had a negative influence on society. "Blacks and whites have become more culturally integrated and, therefore, less-affluent blacks feel more estranged," Kohut said.
The survey also found that pessimism about economic prospects has grown significantly among blacks. Fewer than half of those polled, 44%, said they expected life to get better. Twenty years ago, 57% had said they thought life would improve.
"People are quite anxious," Kohut said. "They do not see the kind of forward momentum that blacks saw in earlier times."
One reason for the pessimism may be that the condition of the black middle class appears to be more fragile than that of whites. About 45% of black children who grow up in middle-class families will slip into a lower-income bracket in adulthood, according to a separate study on economic mobility sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
"Nearly half of children born to middle-class African Americans fall down to the bottom quintile [20%] as adults," said John Morton, director of the economic mobility study.
The project, which tracked more than 2,000 children from 1968 to the present, found that two-thirds of children of all races tended to earn higher incomes than their parents when measured in constant dollars, Morton said.
However, about 16% of white children and about 45% of black children were unable to match their parents' success and slipped into a lower socioeconomic bracket in adulthood.
"The good news is that the lower the child begins on the economic ladder, regardless of race, the higher the likelihood that child will surpass their parents' income as an adult," Morton said. "The bad news is that middle-income African American families appear to have tremendous difficulty passing on their middle-income status to their children."
Morton said one reason could be changing family structures.
"There is a higher prevalence of single-parent families at a time that it is increasingly important to have two salaries to maintain a standard of living," Morton said.
The Pew poll, which interviewed more than 3,000 people in September and October, had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points. The margin was slightly higher when the attitudes of blacks, whites and Latinos were considered separately.
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>>> Joel Moskowitz <[log in to unmask]> 11/13/07 5:54 PM >>>
American dream a nightmare for many blacks: study
Alister Bull, Reuters, Nov 13, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Black Americans are failing to climb the
social ladder, while a worrying number born into the middle classes
are now actually poorer than their parents, according to a study
released on Tuesday.
The report by Brookings Institution scholar Julia Isaacs found blacks
were missing out on a cherished American dream that their children
will be economically better off.
"Children from middle- and upper middle-class black families
experience a generational drop in income that is in sharp contrast to
the traditional American expectation that each generation will do
better than the one that came before it," she wrote.
The study was part of the Pew Charitable Trusts' Economic Mobility Project.
Two out of three Americans who were children in 1968 grow up to have
higher income than their parents, Isaacs found, but less than a third
of black children born in the middle classes do better financially
than their parents.
In addition, being born into a financially secure home is no
guarantee of dying in one, with blacks enjoying significantly less
economic protection than white peers.
"A startling 45 percent of black children whose parents were solidly
middle income end up falling to the bottom income quintile, while
only 16 percent of white children born to parents in the middle make
this descent," she wrote.
Isaacs does not specifically discuss outright racial discrimination
in the labor market as an explanation for the poorer economic
performance of black Americans, although one study that draws this
conclusion is cited in the report.
The report examined data on 2,367 individuals who were 18 years old
or younger in 1968. The middle quintile of the U.S. income
distribution covers family incomes between $49,000 and $65,000 in
inflation-adjusted 2006 dollars.
PLIGHT OF BLACK MEN
Family incomes have grown for both groups in the last 30 years,
partly because many more women are now working.
But this has not closed the race income gap. Median black family
incomes in 2004 were $35,000, compared with $60,000 for whites of
similar age, and almost one-quarter of blacks live below federally
defined poverty lines, three times more than whites.
Part of the problem has been the decline in the relative economic
well-being of black men, which got worse between 1974 and 2004. In
fact, black men now in their 30s earn roughly 12 percent less than
their fathers' generation.
Another factor may be the lower level of marriage in the black
American population, leading to more single-parent families supported
by one income.
So not only are black Americans still poorer than whites, the chances
are high that they will remain that way.
"In terms of absolute, relative and integrated mobility measures,
white children have substantially more upward mobility than black
children of comparable incomes," she said.
===
Economic Mobility Project
On Tuesday, November 13, 2007 the Economic Mobility Project released
a set of three new reports on the economic mobility of families.
"Doing better" than one's parents has long been a key element of the
American Dream. But are Americans better off today than their own
parents were a generation ago? How much does one's eventual success
depend on family background? Is the American Dream a reality for
black and white families alike? Does the transmission of economic
advantage from parents to children differ for sons and daughters? The
reports, written by Julia B. Isaacs of The Brookings Institution,
address these questions presenting in-depth analysis and findings on
the economic mobility of families, of men and women, and of black and
white families.
To download any of the reports, please click on the links below or
visit our
<http://www.economicmobility.org/reports_and_research/>Reports and
Research section for all reports by the Economic Mobility Project.
Download The Economic Mobility of Families Across Generations,
<http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_Across_Generations_ES.pdf>Executive
Summary (134 KB) or
<http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_Across_Generations.pdf>Executive
Summary and Chapter (523 KB)
Download The Economic Mobility of Men and Women,
<http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_Men_Women_ES.pdf>Executive
Summary (152 KB) or
<http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_Men_Women.pdf>Executive
Summary and Chapter (281 KB)
Download The Economic Mobility of Black and White Families,
<http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_Black_White_Families_ES.pdf>Executive
Summary (169 KB) or
<http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_Black_White_Families.pdf>Executive
Summary and Chapter (609 KB)
Download the
<http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_Key_Findings_11-13-07.pdf>Key
Findings<http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_Key_Findings_11-13-07.pdf>
(188 KB)
Download the
<http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_PressRelease_11-13-07.pdf>Press
Release<http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_PressRelease_11-13-07.pdf>
(141 KB)
http://www.economicmobility.org/
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