African American Economy : African Americans

Reading the article, “The Racial Discrimination System” by Barbara Reskin, helped me see that diversity is more than just race; it varies between skin color, wealth, education level, religious beliefs, and gender identity. But even though multiple laws since the 1960s have been passed to ban racial discrimination, the effects are still around today. One of the concepts from the article that really intrigued me was when it talked about some of the racial disparities I wasn’t even aware of. For example, prior to reading the article, I didn’t know that black businesses on average would pay higher interest rates than white businesses. And while I was aware about the employment gap between blacks and whites, I didn’t realize that blacks were twice as likely to be unemployed as whites. And while I always believed

According to the United States Department of Labor(2016), the unemployment rates among black americans was a staggering 8.6, compared to 4.1 with white americans as of October of 2016. This gap, although much smaller compared to thirty five years ago, shows no trend of changing. Unemployment rates among the minority citizens of america has been consistently about double that of white america for an extremely long amount of time, six decades to be exact, according to Pew Research Center (2013). This is not only an issue in the United States, in the UK nearly half of young black males looking for a job are unemployed. This shows that discrimination is not just a factor in today’s labor force in the United States, but throughout the world as

In 2008 black male workers only made 74 cents to every dollar made by a white worker with equal education. This is a significant issue because it creates a self reinforcing system that puts a large portion of the population at a disadvantage. Although the poor economic situation for African Americans in the U.S. may not be as prevalent as it was in the 1930’s, there still exists a significant gap between wages earned by white and black workers.

(Newman and Pedulla, 2010). This number is twice as much as whites. Even if they had a job, many African Americans work for the low quality jobs. This means low levels of income relatively whites. And also nearly 50% of the wage differences between blacks and whites result from the racial discrimination. (Greene and Rogers, 1994). So, we can say that discrimination of wages between blacks and whites play a key role to determinate the income status of blacks. Also underemployment is serious as unemployment for many Americans especially for African Americans, because generally they work in that kind of positions. In March, almost 6 percent of workers had worked part time involuntary jobs. (Newman and Pedulla, 2010).

Economically speaking, not all men and women are created equal within America. After reading Doubly Divided, it is clear that white people have always maintained a wealthier status above non-white groups throughout this country’s history. Even in today’s society, many Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans have high poverty rates and low valued assets when compared to whites, clearly exhibiting a racial wealth gap. However, the Federal Government has greatly contributed to this wealth gap over the last 200 years through a process I call the “take and prevent method”. For example, large amounts of land were taken from Native Americans and given to white farmers under the Homestead Act of 1862. With a major asset gone, the government prevented any further wealth accumulation by forcing Native Americans onto reservations, using corrupted trust fund accounts, and assimilating them into white culture (through the 1887 Dawes Act). As an additional example, the discontinuation of the Freedman’s Bureau and an overturned civil rights act meant that African Americans had their land and rights to ownership taken away as well. And as a measure of prevention, governmental programs such as unemployment, Social Security, and

Economically, African-Americans are still far behind compared to white people in the south. In the Jstor journals, Kenneth Ng and Nancy Virts write about a study on the income

The mission of the students around the country who fought for an education that would shed light on African Americans. The progress the students created is seen today in American Universities ,and also HBCUs, where (AAS)African American Studies is implemented into the curriculum. Before, the dissection the formation of AAS, it should be noted that without the sacrifice from others I undoubtedly would not be writing about AAS ,or reflecting on the significance it has created for generations so far.

Intro: The American Dream attracts many people from all over the world, people have an image that living in America grants them the life of their dreams, but does living in america really grant people the perfect life? The Case For Reparations by Coates explains how African Americans have struggled in the past with racism and discrimination. He goes on to talk about their lives during slavery and post slavery, and how African Americans are unemployed and undereducated. Aja ET AL.’s essay From A Tangle Of Pathology To A Race Fair America also talks about the lives of African Americans, the discrimination, segregation, and unemployment. They both go on explaining how Blacks are always discriminated against and are not given equal

The Civil Rights movement gave many African Americans access to job markets that were previously off limits to them. However, the unemployment rates among people living in ghettos continued to rise. For those who are employed, their average income had grown compared to the income of African Americans in the past. However, African American workers were being paid less than white workers. This is even truer for African Americans who have the same educational level as white workers. “The white high school graduate will earn just about as much as a Negro, who has gone through college and beyond for graduate training” (Clark 35). Addition to lower pay, access to higher paid job was harder for African American

According to Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors, whites are more likely to earn a better childhood education, have more access to technology, attend college, attain a stable job, and have benefits of healthcare. Jensen emphasizes the difficulties for black citizens to locate employment because of the employer’s prejudice against them. Many statistics provided by the author exhibit this disadvantage, “the typical black family had 60% as much income as a white family in 1968, but only 58% as much in 2002” (Jensen5). Additionally, it’s

But, for African Americans their progress has came to a halt in the past few years. In, the past few years racial discrimination has tried to inch its way back into society, trying to stop blacks from gaining equality for some reason. Kathy Wilmore said,” Most Africans Americans live in substandard housing because that's the only thing they can afford. Also, for Africans Americans that are able to live in better housing they aren't able to because of racial discrimination. Furthermore, African Americans women struggle with housing because there is still some gender discrimination, which puts them at the bottom of the economic ladder.” This is one of the reasons why African Americans are struggling to progress in today's world. According to Drew Desilver,“ Last month, the jobless rate among whites was 6.6%; among blacks, 12.6%. Over that time, the unemployment rate for blacks has averaged about 2.2 times that for whites. Blacks have been also struggling with employment recently because of racial discrimination. Which isn't good at also because blacks were doing so well with gaining equality and now there is like another brick wall blacks have to break through now because people want to discriminate. In the 21st century there has definitely been housing problems for Africans Americans. There is definitely an inequality with housing between blacks and

Economically, there is a deep seeded gap between African Americans and Caucasians in modern era. Michael Genovese argues that “in the United States, corruption and reform more often exact their costs in the form of reduced competition in both politics and the economy” (14). It is about reducing competition, or ,in other words, reducing the amount of economic opportunity to grow one’s wealth. Through slavery and segregation, the African American community had no ability to grow as they were not only physically but economically as well. This idea of corruption reducing competition can be seen in the economic gap that is shown between African Americans and Caucasians.Taking a look at this statistic that was found in “The Racial Wealth Gap” a Forbes article by Laura Shin, “the median white household had $111,146 in wealth holdings in 2011, compared to $7,113 for the median black household and $8,348 for the median Latino household”. Oppression of African Americans can not be the sole reason for this disparaging difference, but perceptions of African Americans can definitely be a factor to not allow the same opportunities as others, reducing the likelihood gaining individual wealth. Through these statistics, the oppression of the past is highly likely to be a key factor in the maltreatment and disproportionate distribution of wealth in regards to African Americans. The attitudes that have been pasted

’’No matter your social status or how powerful you feel you are, we are all equal. We came here by birth and will leave in death.’’(Sententia) African Americans are one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States. The history of black people in America has come a long way. The Blacks were brought to the American colonies as slaves in the17th century by European trades. Traders brought the first slaves from Africa in the 1600s. I have often wondered by the power of African-American spirit, they lived under the pressure (Aporia). African Americans have been known by diverse names such as colored and the N-word, which are not longer used in English. They were taken out of the home, they were compelled to

In the United States wealth disparity, has affected different race of people, for example blacks, leading experts the field of sociology, in their opinion that black people are at a disadvantage in comparison to other ethical groups such as whites in wealth distribution, there are several social issues that creates this disparity. In the article written by Kellen Stanfield, (2011), p. 350 Persistent Racial Disparity, Wealth and the Economic Surplus as the for Reparations in the United States, states that “Even after the exclusion from wealth accumulation due to slavery ended, “segregation blocked access to education, decent jobs, and livable wages among the grandparents and parents of blacks born before the late 1960s, effectively preventing

To maintain and rationalise white privilege and power white racist ideologies and attitudes are perpetuated so that racism remains at the core of all major parts of American society, this is underpinned by white consciousness that perpetuates these ideologies. This insures patterns of un merited treatment and disadvantage of black bodies still continues. For example black Americans are continually funnelled into low wage jobs while most high ranking positions in society are held by white people. According to the American Census Bureau in 2012 the Black Median Household income was $33,460 whereas the median of all other races was $50,502. However there recently has been a shift in America with the election of it’s first black president Barack Obama in 2008 and his re election into office in 2012. The election of a black president does show signs of a decrease in discrimination against black Americans. Although, it is possible Obama’s election is tokenism, giving the appearance America is changing and being more inclusive of the black minority when in reality no change to the discriminatory nature of the American social system has