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No, I don't just mean the same old "black families are poorer than white families. I mean that the intergenerational "just fit in and in a few generations, you'll be like all the other families" line seems to not be true.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/12/AR2007111201711_pf.html
From the Washington Post (from the Pew Charitable Trusts):
Many Blacks Worse off Than Their Parents, Study Says
Nearly half of African Americans born to middle-income parents in the late 1960s plunged into poverty or near-poverty as adults, according to a new study -- a perplexing finding that analysts say highlights the fragile nature of middle-class life for many African Americans.
Overall, family incomes have risen for both blacks and whites over the past three decades. But in a society where the privileges of class and income most often perpetuate themselves from generation to generation, black Americans have had more difficulty than whites in transmitting those benefits to their children.
Forty-five percent of black children whose parents were solidly middle class in 1968 -- a stratum with a median income of $55,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars -- grew up to be among the lowest fifth of the nation's earners, with a median family income of $23,100. Only 16 percent of whites experienced similar downward mobility. At the same time, 48 percent of black children whose parents were in an economic bracket with a median family income of $41,700 sank into the lowest income group.
This troubling picture of black economic evolution is contained in a package of three reports being released today by the Pew Charitable Trusts that test the vitality of the American dream. Using a nationally representative data source that for nearly four decades has tracked people who were children in 1968, researchers attempted to answer two questions: Do Americans generally advance beyond their parents in terms of income? How much is that affected by race and gender?
(snip)
Ronald B. Mincy, a Columbia University sociologist who has focused on the growing economic peril confronted by black men and who served as an adviser on the Pew project, said skeptical researchers repeatedly reviewed the findings before concluding they were statistically accurate.
"There is a lot of downward mobility among African Americans," Mincy said. "We don't have an explanation."
(snip)
"That's a stunner," said Orlando Patterson, a Harvard University sociologist, when told about the Pew finding. "These kids were middle class, but apparently their parents did not have the cultural capital and connections to pass along to them."
*********
It isn't a stunner to me - it is merely an extension of what I have believed for a while now. For whatever reason, we are not playing on a level playing field now - and it is not just 'class' that is involved - it is skin color and it is culture and there is something very wrong with what is going on.
And we need to figure out what it is.
******
For a more intellectual response to it, have a look at my favorite educational policy blog:
http://educationpolicyblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/work-hard-be-nice-and-other-lies-my.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/12/AR2007111201711_pf.html
From the Washington Post (from the Pew Charitable Trusts):
Many Blacks Worse off Than Their Parents, Study Says
Nearly half of African Americans born to middle-income parents in the late 1960s plunged into poverty or near-poverty as adults, according to a new study -- a perplexing finding that analysts say highlights the fragile nature of middle-class life for many African Americans.
Overall, family incomes have risen for both blacks and whites over the past three decades. But in a society where the privileges of class and income most often perpetuate themselves from generation to generation, black Americans have had more difficulty than whites in transmitting those benefits to their children.
Forty-five percent of black children whose parents were solidly middle class in 1968 -- a stratum with a median income of $55,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars -- grew up to be among the lowest fifth of the nation's earners, with a median family income of $23,100. Only 16 percent of whites experienced similar downward mobility. At the same time, 48 percent of black children whose parents were in an economic bracket with a median family income of $41,700 sank into the lowest income group.
This troubling picture of black economic evolution is contained in a package of three reports being released today by the Pew Charitable Trusts that test the vitality of the American dream. Using a nationally representative data source that for nearly four decades has tracked people who were children in 1968, researchers attempted to answer two questions: Do Americans generally advance beyond their parents in terms of income? How much is that affected by race and gender?
(snip)
Ronald B. Mincy, a Columbia University sociologist who has focused on the growing economic peril confronted by black men and who served as an adviser on the Pew project, said skeptical researchers repeatedly reviewed the findings before concluding they were statistically accurate.
"There is a lot of downward mobility among African Americans," Mincy said. "We don't have an explanation."
(snip)
"That's a stunner," said Orlando Patterson, a Harvard University sociologist, when told about the Pew finding. "These kids were middle class, but apparently their parents did not have the cultural capital and connections to pass along to them."
*********
It isn't a stunner to me - it is merely an extension of what I have believed for a while now. For whatever reason, we are not playing on a level playing field now - and it is not just 'class' that is involved - it is skin color and it is culture and there is something very wrong with what is going on.
And we need to figure out what it is.
******
For a more intellectual response to it, have a look at my favorite educational policy blog:
http://educationpolicyblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/work-hard-be-nice-and-other-lies-my.html
