Ramiz Choudhry
Professor Martin
ENG 2150
30 March 2017
The Hidden Factors: Racial Income Inequality
Despite the establishment of Civil Rights Acts, there are still several issues involving race in America. A critical issue that is preventing other issues from resolving is the income inequality between Whites and Blacks. According to Gillain B. White’s article from The Atlantic, “Is America Having the Wrong Conversation About Income Inequality?”, the income gaps between the two races have decreased over the last few years, but the gap is still far from coming to a complete close (White). With this gap creating poverty for more Blacks than Whites, it is difficult for Blacks to catch up with Whites in terms of income. This is because more Blacks live in poor neighborhoods, which causes the conditions of black families’ children to be a lot worse than the conditions of white families’ children, on average. This raises an important question that addresses the overall issue of inequality: Is the income gap within the Black demographic group more of a problem than the income gap between the Black and White demographic groups?
The harsh conditions faced by Black families have been around for many decades within the United States. In Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Atlantic magazine article issued in 2014 “The Case for Reparations”, Coates’ examines the life of Clyde Ross, a black man that was raised on a farm in Mississippi. He was born in 1923 which was a terrible time for Blacks in the South. Although Clyde Ross was a very smart kid growing up, his opportunity to prosper took a huge toll only due to the color of his skin. He faced many hardships and missed opportunities to excel on the level of rich white kids even though he was smarter than most kids. He was unable to ride the bus, preventing him from attending a more challenging school and was heavily taken advantage of by Whites his entire life, even when purchasing his first house. Clyde Ross’ experiences perfectly showcase the common outcome of living through poverty as a child. It is apparent that Clyde Ross was not able to reach his true potential solely because he was a black kid growing up in Mississippi. This disadvantage that he was born into stopped him from doing what he truly could have done as he grew up, and many Black children that are currently living through poverty are likely to share similar issues.
Coates’ article serves as a timeline for the struggle of Blacks throughout the past 100 years, using Clyde Ross’ hardships as a guideline. His purpose of writing the magazine is to show Americans that the best way to come closer to racial equality is for Whites to give reparations towards Blacks. In the article’s section “IX. Toward A New Country”, Coates’ describes it as “Reparations—by which I mean the full acceptance of our collective biography and its consequences—is the price we must pay to see ourselves squarely” (Coates). Running away from America’s past of torment towards Blacks only creates more problems. According to Coates’ theory of reparations, if Whites accept the facts and guilt of the past, the chances of America gaining more equality will tremendously increase.
As income inequality seizes to end between Blacks and Whites, it is quite possible that other factors of racial inequality must be solved to eliminate income inequality. An important factor to examine is the income inequality within each demographic group. To solve inequality between races, society must first solve the income inequality that Blacks are experiencing with each other. The ability for social mobility with Blacks is currently possible, but the impoverished neighborhoods that poor Blacks are surrounded by make it difficult to allow families to reach their full potential. The idea of becoming influenced by your environment is heavily shown as most poor Blacks struggle to move up financially and continue to stay in these run-down neighborhoods as they grow up and create families.
Many elements, such as lack of social mobility and higher quality education for Blacks, are to blame for the inequality within the black demographic. In Gillain B. White’s article from The Atlantic, “Is America Having the Wrong Conversation About Income Inequality?”, White interviews Kevin Leicht, the head of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign’s sociology department. Kevin Leicht describes the inequality between Whites and Blacks as a big problem, but there is too much focus towards it compared to other problems such as inequality within the black demographic itself:
We have ignored growing inequality within race and gender groups and have focused more on closing gaps between race and gender groups. Social mobility in the U.S. has ground to a halt. So, we still see overrepresentation of white men in elite status positions, but we’re focusing on making those elite positions more diverse, and we’re forgetting about the rest of the economy (White).
To strengthen the entire economy, Leicht believes that there should be less focus on bringing more Blacks to elite positions and more focus towards getting more lower class Blacks into the middle class. The ignorance of lower class Blacks prevents their ability for social mobility. Some ways that would possibly give more attention to lower class Blacks is with the aid of the government and politicians. If the country receives more policies that aid in the education of poor citizens, not only will the income gap within the black demographic decrease, but the income gap within every other demographic group will also see a drop. Higher quality education for most of the country would lead to an advance on society and will most likely increase the motivation of poor families who are surrounded by people who lack an interest in education.
The status of poverty commonly gives off a highly negative influence on the children of a family. According to the University of Michigan’s National Poverty Center, over 26% of Black families in America are currently experiencing poverty (National Poverty Center). Black families experience the most poverty out of any race, resulting in the never-ending hole of their children staying in the ghetto when they get older. In 2014, approximately 4.6 million Black children under 18 were living in poverty. Starting off the journey of becoming independent is very difficult when a family does not have the adequate resources to pay for their child’s higher-education, provide them with proper meals, and give them the ability to continue school without having to work and provide for themselves.
Many disadvantages follow children who are living with families going through poverty. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Greg J Duncan’s article on “The Effects of Poverty on Children” explains that the lack of income influences children through inadequate nutrition, fewer learning experiences, instability of residence, lower quality of schools, exposure to environmental toxins, family violence, and dangerous streets (Brooks-Gunn 56). A kid who is growing up in a middle-class neighborhood usually does not deal with inadequate nutrition, low-quality schools, dangerous streets, or exposure to environmental toxins. Distractions like this are detrimental to a child’s experience growing up, and becoming exposed to something like dangerous streets at a young age can easily infect one’s innocence and corrupt their thought process. Keeping an adolescent away from the realities of the “grown-up” or “real” world for as long as possible can prevent their mind from being corrupted from thoughts of taking or selling drugs, violence, and stealing. With over 36% of Black children in poor families, there is a higher chance for them to be committing felonies and serving time in prison. Since it is very uncommon for someone in poverty to move up to other end of the social spectrum, the income gap of Blacks will either see an increase or stay the same if they continue to have a lack of immediate economic change from the government.
The standard of living based on one’s income level will entirely depend on that person’s race. This is a problem that keeps Blacks from advancing on to a higher level of average income. According to Liam Downney’s article on “Race, Income, and Environmental Inequality in the United States”, “… the relationship between neighborhood and household income levels and neighborhood pollution levels is likely to vary according to neighborhood and household racial composition” (Downney 763). Downney’s research on the relationship between income levels and neighborhood pollution levels based on race shows that Blacks will still experience hazardous neighborhoods when gaining an increase in income more often than Whites and Hispanics. His article contains several charts showing the difference in average neighborhood toxic concentration based on race. These charts examine that Blacks encounter the highest toxic concentration out of any race, followed by Whites and then Hispanics (Downney 767). On average, Blacks live in neighborhoods with a toxic concentration of 732.90 while Whites only experience a toxic concentration of 503.73. Consequently, the chances of a Black citizen to escape neighborhoods with these terrifying conditions are much lower as they are the race that is mostly affected by it. The problem that occurs with this is that more Blacks with a high-income will be seen in neighborhoods of Blacks with a low-income than Whites. This causes the average income gap within Black neighborhoods to be higher, and results in unfair living conditions for Blacks who generate enough income to move out of neighborhoods with low-income blacks. The better a neighborhood is, the better chance a family has of raising their child to stay away from poverty and growing up to be successful.
The everlasting suffering for Blacks trying to move up socially has been around for many decades. In “The Case for Reparations”, Clyde Ross moved to North Lawndale when the Jewish community was encouraging more blacks to move into the neighborhood. While the Jewish community seemed welcoming, their main intentions of getting Blacks into the neighborhood was to take advantage of them by inflating the house prices, and kicking them out when they were unable to pay for their mortgage:
Ross was not really a homeowner. His payments were made to the seller, not the bank. And Ross had not signed a normal mortgage. He’d bought “on contract”: a predatory agreement that combined all the responsibilities of homeownership with all the disadvantages of renting—while offering the benefits of neither. Ross had bought his house for $27,500. The seller, not the previous homeowner but a new kind of middleman, had bought it for only $12,000 six months before selling it to Ross (Coates).
The inflation in house price was specifically aimed towards Blacks so that they would have trouble making ends meet in their neighborhood. Ross bought the house for over double the price just to be able to experience a neighborhood that wasn’t solely filled with Black residents. Buying something “on contract” entitles the house seller and buyer to share the property with a landlord to tenant relationship. Clyde Ross later realized when looking for a better mortgage in another neighborhood that “From the 1930s through the 1960s, black people across the country were largely cut out of the legitimate home-mortgage market through means both legal and extralegal (Coates)”. With Blacks having an inability to purchase houses properly unlike every other race, they are financially set back from the rest of America. Although this targeted hatred occurred many decades ago, attempts made by certain groups to exclude Blacks have not completely vanished. There are many other examples of why Blacks still struggle to move up socially compared to other races, such as police brutality.
As of late, police brutality towards Blacks has seized to end and seems to occur more often towards them compared to every other race. According to Wesley Lowery’s Washington Post’s article “Aren’t More White People Than Black People Killed by Police? Yes, but no”, the Post’s most recent census analysis claims that “Black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers” (Lowery). This indicates that although Blacks have received many lawful justifications towards their previous decades of hardship, they still experience racial prejudice. The increase in brutality towards Blacks poses as another factor on why they are not advancing as rapidly as other races. Having issues with law enforcement can lead to a tougher time finding well-paying jobs. If Blacks have a higher crime rate than other races, then their chances of social mobility by finding better jobs is lower than Whites. The inability for social mobility causes the poor Blacks to commonly stay in the lower class. Relating to the higher income gaps seen in Black neighborhoods, the inability for most Blacks to move out of the lower-class keeps the income gap from decreasing.
Another reason Blacks have trouble moving out of the lower-class is the racial inequality of education. According to Nathan Angelo’s article “What Happened to Educational Equality? Tracing the Demise of Presidential Rhetoric on Racial Inequality in Higher Education”, Angelo refers to the U.S. Census when stating that “the median household American income in 2012 was $33,321 for Black Americans and $57,000 for White Americans” and links the gap with the inequality in America’s education system (Angelo 226). He then says that “Currently, the average black college student attends a less prestigious institution than their white peer even though black and white students are equally likely to attend college” (Angelo 226). He focuses the blame of this inequality on the absence of attention towards affirmative action and educational inequality in presidential speeches. From the 1980s elections until present day, presidents like Ronald Raegan and Jimmy Carter failed to address affirmative action in education. Instead, they encouraged the existence of HBCUs, or historically black colleges and universities for the sake of their presidential stance. This ignorance made by presidents resembles Ta-Nehisi Coates’ theory of giving reparations to Blacks for America’s wrongdoing in the past. If no acknowledgement is made towards America’s previous years of cruelty towards Blacks, then it is difficult to make America more equal. Just because inequality is not discussed by presidents, it does not mean that it ceases to exist in America. The ignorance of this racial imbalance leads to the inability for the country to make changes to this problem.
The lack of recent improvement on equal education limits the potential opportunities that Blacks should have. In “The Case for Reparations”, Clyde Ross’ education in Mississippi took a huge toll solely based on the appearance of his skin:
There was very little support for educating black people in Mississippi. But Julius Rosenwald, a part owner of Sears, Roebuck, had begun an ambitious effort to build schools for black children throughout the South. Ross’s teacher believed he should attend the local Rosenwald school. It was too far for Ross to walk and get back in time to work in the fields. Local white children had a school bus. Clyde Ross did not, and thus lost the chance to better his education (Coates).
Since Clyde Ross did not have the privilege of taking the bus to school, he was unable to learn in a more challenging environment. This is one of many examples where a kid is unable to rise to their absolute capability as a student due to problems that they are unable to solve on their own. If students of all races shared the same opportunities, then the racial income and level of education gaps would see a decrease. Clyde Ross’ intelligence and ambition could have led him out of the ghetto if he got a high-quality education and continued on with school to have a career in fields such as medicine or law. As said by Coates, “As a rule, poor black people do not work their way out of the ghetto—and those who do often face the horror of watching their children and grandchildren tumble back” (Coates). This common occurrence of poor Blacks staying poor could be avoided if presidents addressed this issue of inequality. When the issue is solved, more Black families will have a background of high-level education which will lead to an increase in educated Blacks for future generations.
There are many possible ways of increasing rates of education and job-success for people experiencing poverty. The government must act by performing tasks such as creating jobs and increasing minimum wage. Giving more job opportunity is essential for poor neighborhoods since citizens will have better chances of finding a well-paying job and provide more income or any income at all for their families. Also, minimum wage plays another role in the amount of families suffering from poverty. As stated by Rebecca Vallas’ American Progress article on “The Top 10 Solutions to Cut Poverty and Grow the Middle Class”, “Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and indexing it to inflation—as President Barack Obama and several members of Congress have called for—would lift more than 4 million Americans out of poverty” (Vallas). This projection has seen success with states like Seattle and New Jersey. Although this statistic was stated in 2014, the minimum wage is still not on par with the rate of inflation. Since the minimum wage has not kept up with the rate of inflation, low-paying jobs are not enough to fully provide for families of three or more people, according to Vallas’ article. Giving citizens an easier time with finding an income can help motivate low-earning people without hope in moving up the social class. A swing of momentum that would most likely ensue when the wage increases gives people a good reason to work harder and keep their hopes up for finding success.
Overall, the problem with income inequality seems to find most of its issues within the Black demographic itself, rather than most of them appearing between the White and Black demographic groups. Clyde Ross’ experiences as a kid living in poverty show resemblance with the experiences that Black kids in poverty might come across. Although there is poverty in families of every race, Blacks have the highest rate of poverty. The children of their race are statistically born into the most financial disadvantages. With presidents and government officials ignoring affirmative action for equal education regarding race, it is difficult for Black children struggling for high-quality education to be able to learn at their full potential. Addressing problems like this along with raising minimum wage and increasing the amount of well-paying jobs for citizens would give a higher sense of hope for families who are currently struggling economically. If more action is taken towards unequal troubles that Blacks face compared to other demographic groups, the income gap between the group will see a decrease. According to Kevin Leicht’s theory on inequality, this would allow the income gap between Whites and Blacks to further decrease and start to completely end. The future of equality is not something that can simply fix itself. Many issues must be tended to and without a combination of active government and citizen participation, these issues will not see an end and will continue to prevent the future from becoming balanced.
Works Cited
Angelo, Nathan. “What happened to educational equality? Tracing the demise of presidential rhetoric on racial inequality in higher education.” New Political Science 37.2 (2015): 224-240. Accessed 22 Apr. 2017.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, and Greg J. Duncan. “The effects of poverty on children.” The future of children (1997): 55-71. Accessed 22 Apr. 2017.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Case for Reparations.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 15 Sept. 2015, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017.
Downney, Liam and Brian Hawkins. “Race, Income, and Environmental Inequality in the United States.” Sociological Perspectives, vol. 51, no. 4, Winter2008, p. 759. EBSCOhost, remote.baruch.cuny.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=35832676&site=ehost-live. Accessed 22 Apr. 2017.
Loury, Glenn. “A dynamic theory of racial income differences.” Women, minorities, and employment discrimination 153 (1977): 86-153. Accessed 19 Mar 2017.
Lowery, Wesley. “Aren’t More White People than Black People Killed by Police? Yes, but No.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 July 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/07/11/arent-more-white-people-than-black-people-killed-by-police-yes-but-no/?utm_term=.82ed311089ec. Accessed 22 Apr. 2017.
“National Poverty Center | University of Michigan.” RSS, www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/. Accessed 22 Apr. 2017.
Vallas, Rebecca. “The Top 10 Solutions to Cut Poverty and Grow the Middle Class.” Center for American Progress, 17 Sept. 2014, www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/news/2014/09/17/97287/the-top-10-solutions-to-cut-poverty-and-grow-the-middle-class/. Accessed 22 Apr. 2017.
White, Gillian B. “Is America Having the Wrong Conversation About Income Inequality?” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 06 Apr. 2016. Web. Accessed 22 Apr. 2017.