I blame rap music.
On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 6:15 PM, Judah McAuley <ju...@wiredotter.com> wrote: > > On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 2:00 PM, Jerry Barnes <critic...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > "Fair enough. What do you think is the tipping point then where race > isn't a > > predictor of poverty?" > > > > All I can say is that the point has passed. Race is used these days as > > political currency. By declaring one race poorer than another and > promising > > rectification of the problem, a politician is trying to buy votes. > Remove > > that currency. Use economics as the standard and not race warefare. > > Sounds like the argument for definition of obscenity being "I know it > when I see it". Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it isn't > true and a gut feeling about politics doesn't make for a very good > policy basis. I can reasonably think of a number of potential rubrics, > like when the percentage in poverty isn't substantially different from > one racial group to another. I'm sure that there are many others that > could be put out there as well. But considering that you chastised me > for saying that "class" isn't a useful enough distinction, I find it > hard to accept "I just know" as a distinction either. > > > > > "Poverty rates are certainly substantially higher amongst non-whites and > the > > middle class is certainly smaller. " > > > > But as you said yourself, the black middle class is growing rapidly. I > also > > saw a report that said the growth of business startups is higher among > > Blacks than any other race. > > The black middle class *was* growing rapidly. Of course, that was > rapidly from a baseline of 0. The middle class, in general, has been > hit the last couple decades and the black middle class is more tenuous > than the white middle class. I went and finally looked up the stats > and the Pew Center offered these stats in 2007: > > 45% of black children from middle class families end up "near poor". > The comparable number for white families is 16%. > 31% of black children from black middle class families make more than > their parents. The comparable number for children from white middle > class families is 68%. > > The average child from a white middle class family ends up with a > higher income than their parents. The average child from a black > middle class family ends up with a lower income than their parents. > > The black middle class is much bigger than it was in, say, 1960. > Statistics show that those gains, however, are tenuous at best. We are > talking a generation or two that has been undergoing these changes. > The white middle class has had many generations longer to solidify its > gains and even with that advantage, the current environment is tough. > > > "At some point, though, I agree that class will have much more to do with > a > > cycle/culture of poverty that is based more on local conditions than > > anything else. " > > > > That's fine. I believe we are well past the point. All it does now is > > allow race-baiters like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson to remain relevant > > and allow politicians to hide real issues behind charges of racism. > > Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are all about attention seeking. It is > like saying that Pat Buchanan represents all white people. I > understand that you feel that we are well past the point, but I > honestly don't see any evidence of that. > > > "Also, conditions aren't the same for african-americans versus hispanics > > versus south east asians, etc. Do you feel that we moved passed race for > all > > the non-white groups or just some of them?" > > > > This is very tricky ground. One has to be subtle how one states the > issues > > or he ends up sounding racist. Let me say it this way. Asian Americans > > seem to be doing fine and they are a minority. Asian immigrant parents > work > > hard and their children rise out of poverty frequently. > > It is tricky. There is more than just race involved. Education, > marriage rates, out of wedlock births, religion, family size and > support...there are a huge number of factors that come into play. Race > is a tricky thing to even define in America considering the amount of > intermarrying. > > Pew has a 2008 study on the plight of the middle class in general > which is instructive: > http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/706/middle-class-poll > > And here is the archive.org version of the 2007 USA Today article > about the Pew study on the black middle class. I couldn't find it on > the usatoday site anymore, it seems to have been reorganized: > > http://web.archive.org/web/20080220175857/http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/11/downward-mobili.html > > Che > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:323396 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
