5 ms·

> more than half of African Americans are less than middle class What is the reason of that?

• jdavis703 8y ago
  There’s a lot of complicated reasons. The easiest ones to look at via economic data is the homeownership rate which is significantly lower, higher levels of student debt (a fairly recent phenomenon) and that young black adults start out with less wealth in early adulthood, which means they miss out on the power of compounding interest. All this data can be found from the source I linked to above.
  • amanaplanacanal 8y ago
    I'm pretty sure that they were disproportionately affected by the drug war, also. Large numbers of black men are convicted felons, which has to have an effect on future earnings.
  • subpixel 8y ago
    It's one thing to state that "the homeownership rate which is significantly lower" and another to point out the systematic housing discrimination that has taken place across America for more than a century and which is certainly not over. https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history... Think about it - in most cities the entire shape of our urban landscape is defined by the movement of white people to avoid living near black people. Similarly, the reason public transit in most of the US is near non-existent is b/c people do not want buses and trains bringing 'other' people to where they live.