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This statement is factually wrong. I'll hope that in correcting it maybe some readers on HN can help learn about this common misunderstanding, and it's importan

by floor2 5y ago

This statement is factually wrong. I'll hope that in correcting it maybe some readers on HN can help learn about this common misunderstanding, and it's important ramifications for understanding the often demonized white working class. The working class is not even remotely "mostly people of color". The most recent data I could quickly find (from https://talkpoverty.org/basics/ https://talkpoverty.org/basics/) shows that there are 15.9 million white Americans in poverty compared to 8.5 million Black people. Poverty rates among Black Americans are far higher than among white Americans, but in absolute numbers there are roughly twice as many poor and working class whites. In a similar dynamic, there are far more poor whites than there are rich whites. This creates the essential conflict when we use race instead of socioeconomic class or income. Instead of creating programs and policies to help the poor, we create programs and policies to help people on the basis of race. Those unfortunate 16,000,000 poor white citizens get double-excluded and then scorned as racists when they distrust a system that so clearly harms them. The story here isn't that these people are racists, the story is that people are being harmed by a system that focuses on race instead of need.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
seanmcdirmid 5y ago
> shows that there are 15.9 million white Americans in poverty compared to 8.5 million Black people. That is insane! Consider that black people make up 12% of the USA's population while white people make up 76%. I didn't think the wealth disparity between white and black people was that bad in the USA, are you sure those numbers are accurate?
- car_analogy 5y ago
  > white people make up 76% Untrue - the talkpoverty.org page being referred to distinguishes white and Hispanic, but non-Hispanic whites make up only 57.8% of the US. It was 75.6% in 1990, but their share has been dropping fast: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_d... Furthermore, while that page provides poverty rates for all sorts of groups, it somehow missed men (10.6% vs 12.9% for women) and Asians (10.1%, same as the white rate), according to https://www.povertyusa.org/facts https://www.povertyusa.org/facts (I assume the small difference is due to povertyusa.org using older data, from 2018)
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    The original number didn't distinguish between Hispanic or non-Hispanic whites, I assume you aren't counting Hispanic as a race? Assuming the 15.9 million includes poor white hispanics, that makes the disparity even more astonishing.
    - car_analogy 5y ago
      > The original number didn't distinguish between Hispanic or non-Hispanic whites Are you referring to the figures on https://talkpoverty.org/basics/ https://talkpoverty.org/basics/? Under the white poverty rate, it clearly says: "Percentage of non-Hispanic whites who fell below the poverty line in 2020"

by floor2 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

> shows that there are 15.9 million white Americans in poverty compared to 8.5 million Black people. That is insane! Consider that black people make up 12% of the USA's population while white people make up 76%. I didn't think the wealth disparity between white and black people was that bad in the USA, are you sure those numbers are accurate?

car_analogy 5y ago
> white people make up 76% Untrue - the talkpoverty.org page being referred to distinguishes white and Hispanic, but non-Hispanic whites make up only 57.8% of the US. It was 75.6% in 1990, but their share has been dropping fast: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_d... Furthermore, while that page provides poverty rates for all sorts of groups, it somehow missed men (10.6% vs 12.9% for women) and Asians (10.1%, same as the white rate), according to https://www.povertyusa.org/facts https://www.povertyusa.org/facts (I assume the small difference is due to povertyusa.org using older data, from 2018)
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  The original number didn't distinguish between Hispanic or non-Hispanic whites, I assume you aren't counting Hispanic as a race? Assuming the 15.9 million includes poor white hispanics, that makes the disparity even more astonishing.
  - car_analogy 5y ago
    > The original number didn't distinguish between Hispanic or non-Hispanic whites Are you referring to the figures on https://talkpoverty.org/basics/ https://talkpoverty.org/basics/? Under the white poverty rate, it clearly says: "Percentage of non-Hispanic whites who fell below the poverty line in 2020"