Race As The Most Significantficant Factor In African Ameri Essay, Research Paper
The main idea behind this essay will be to look at the effects of race and class on the economic position of African Americans, and to try to define whether race or class that is the most significant factor in African American poverty. It is not really a comprehensive study of black poverty and its real causes, but more a discussion of two opposing schools of thought. The first school of thought professes that the main reason for black poverty is the factor of racism, while the second school of thought professes that the class positions in America have now superseded the race barrier, and therefore the main factor in any poverty in America, whether white or non-white is the issue of class and economic status. __Maybe the real question though is whether such a study is relevant, in terms of whether it is possible to divide the issues of race and class in African American poverty. Although many scholars now profess that class is the predominant factor in black poverty, the fact that it is still treated as a separate issue must suggest that African American poverty is something _ ð73 _Šdifferent to white poverty. The only defining characteristic is the racial one. __There are some provisos that must be noted though, in any consideration of these arguments, and those are mainly concerned with terms and definitions used in the area of African American poverty. Firstly it must be acknowledged that although there is a considerable amount of evidence to suggest that black citizens of America feature very prominently in the statistical analysis of the poor, it must be recognised that there is also an opposite side to the coin, which is the increasing amount of black middle class people. It would therefore be a mistake to imagine that being black necessarily meant being poor. Just as it would be a mistake to conclude that being white necessarily meant being rich. __The second point is a little more complex and this encompasses the various ways of defining poverty itself. There are for the purposes of statistics many ways of defining actual poverty. It must be noted that poverty is always relative to the current economic situation, the most common yardstick that is used are the relevant government guidelines on the definitions of poverty. The other point that follows on from this is the difference between being defined as just poor and living on or below the recognised poverty line. __African Americans have been traditionally disadvantaged in American society. Without wishing to over emphasise the issue of slavery as the cause of all evils, it must be noted that attitudes to black citizens do stem from a traditional culture of white supremacy. throughout the centuries since slavery, African Americanshave had to fight hard for equality in all areas of life. The migration of Southern blacks to the North in search of employment and better economic opportunity, just seems to have spread the problem of racial inequality geographically without solving any of the problems. Economically African Americans gained very little despite a concerted effort to move in search of employment and equality. Blacks were forced into the worst parts of the cities, with lower standard residential facilities, because of their comparatively low social status. Therefore perhaps it can be stated that this was a class issue, but one must look at the reasons behind the low economic status , as the racial discrimination in the labour market meant in many cases either a lower paid job, or no job at all. __It is difficult to find a point in history where the African American poverty problem began to be addressed. Post the Civil Rights era racism in society and especially in the work place, could ideally have been tackled. In fact it seems that white society believed that it had, but for African Americans the problem of poverty was still a very important issue. This can be seen in the events of 1965, just six days after the Voting Rights Act had been written into law there came the Watts riot in Los Angeles. This rioting was a way of showing the anger felt by blacks in the Northern cities, who were no better off, despite the acts passed during the Civil Rights era. Racism had become institutionalised, it is impossible to legislate against a phenomenon like racism, laws cannot enforce a change in opinion, or breed a more tolerant society. __William Julius Wilson in his book _ The Declining Significance of Race._ argues that the main consideration in the issue of black poverty is now class not race. He bases this argument on a theory of ongoing development of American society in terms of history and economics. He splits this development into three distinct periods, the Pre-Industrial, the Industrial, and the Modern Industrial._1_ He cites that in the last period (modern industrial) the one that we have been in since the end of the second world war, is the turning point in terms of the change and decrease of the significance of race as a factor in black poverty. __In this study Wilson points to the growing number of middle class black professionals who live a very comfortable life. This is thanks to an expansion of the governmental and corporate structures to include them as a growing section of the population. This inclusion of African Americans in the mainstream of American life seems to be the justification for his theory that the reason for black poverty is therefore something more complicated than a racial problem. __There is though still a clear racial stratification and this can be seen in unemployment rates. The 1993 unemployment rate was 14.2% for blacks and 6.2% for whites.It has also been proved that during the seventies the average black worker could expect to earn on average $1,200 less than a white worker doing the same job._3_ And from the end of 1983 right through the nineties one out of every four black workers were unemployed._4_ There is still a large disparity in the median incomes of black _ ð73 _Šand white workers the 1986 figures for white median income was $31,000, while the median black income was $18,000._5_ __Pay anomalies have always been a contributing factor to the poverty of African Americans. The fact that black workers can expect to earn less than their white counterparts for the same job, points to a certain degree of racism. Hacker in his book _Two Nations Black White Separate, Hostile and Unequal._ suggests that because of racial discrimination the income gap between white and black median incomes could only be closed by half, even if both parents were present and working. _
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