Black People Still Poor in Obamerica

Where is the concern for poor peopleMore damning statistics on the state of race in Obama's America.

This recent report from the Pew Institute demonstrates yet again that post-racial America did not arrive via the 2008 election of the first black president. At least in terms of household/family wealth, being black or brown in America still means being broke. The average black household only held $5,600 in wealth in 2009, down from $12,124 in 2005!

The black-white comparisons in the two charts show that being white in America still comes with huge advantages.

 Wealth, as opposed to income, is an important indicator of social inequality. 

Income is what you use to buy a loaf of bread, Patron bottle service at the club, or a Mercedes.

Wealth is what you use to buy opportunity: to live in a safe neighborhood, to ensure that your children get a quality education, to live a healthy life.

See more at pewsocialtrends.org

Thus, these huge wealth differences indicate that the average Black or Latino still lacks access these benchmarks of the American dream.

Yes, black America has it's Jay-Z and Oprah, but while the Obama's live in the White House a large swatch of black America still lives paycheck-to-paycheck. The recent recession has destroyed the new black middle class. This population remains at risk of losing their jobs and houses, and falling back into poverty. Look at chart #2, black folks lost 53% of their nest eggs since the housing crash.

Where is the outrage? And perhaps more importantly, when will we hold those in the highest offices of the nation--those who look like us--responsible? I don't want to hear another song about Maybachs or G6 private jets. I need a 2Pac Rebel of the Underground 2011 remix.

Colorism in the criminal justice system

New report shows that dark-skinned women are treated more harshly by the criminal justice system. The original report referenced in the article looks pretty solid. I was left wondering why these differentials exist. Is it old school colorism or discrimination, or is there something else going on?

People talk a lot about the racism that poisons the criminal justice system, sending African-Americans to jail more often ... Read more

 

Is racism on the way out?

via salon.com

Interesting conversation with Ellis Cose about his new book. These black Harvard students seem to understand that pretending to be colorblind or colormute is a good strategy for individual success in white spaces.

I want to talk to you about the last paragraphs of your book. You include a section called "A Harvard MBA Guide to Success" in the appendix, and Rule 10 is: "Never talk about race (or gender) if you can avoid it, other than to declare that race (or gender) does not matter."

One of the things I found interesting, but not surprising, was that when I did the survey of the 200 Harvard MBAs, during the follow-up interviews I said, "Well, do you want to be identified or not [in the book]." The vast majority said no, we don't want to be identified. And when we asked why, a lot of them were saying, well, we don't want to be identified with anything having to do with race.

The larger message that they were transmitting was that they realized that they saw racial dynamics very, very differently from their white colleagues. And that to the extent they flag that for their white colleagues, they would be perceived in ways that they did not want to be perceived -- as people who had racial grievances, as people who were too sensitive about racial slights, as people who were maybe racist themselves. Sophisticated African-Americans recognize that they just didn't want to be associated with the work, or with thoughts that suggested that they thought some white folks are bigots.

Is This Dove Ad Racist?

Dove body wash turns you white, skinny, and blonde.

via theroot.com