But how much of our wealth inequality is due to choices that we make?
Whites and Asians both have a poverty rate of 7.3% while Blacks have a poverty rate of 18.8% and Hispanics have a poverty rate of 15.7%. At first glance, it sounds like we definitely have an issue.
But, then I look at % of single parent families by race. 15% of Asian families and 24% of white families are single parent families. Counter that with a whopping 64% of Black families are headed by single parents. Single parents are much more likely to live in poverty than a family with both parents.
Why do we want to blame whites for black poverty but never take a look at the choices the black population makes that will keep them in poverty?
I'm sure I will be accused of being racist because of the above comments, but I know that I lead a fairly middle class (low middle class) until my parents divorced. My mom and I were thrust into poverty overnight. Imagine the impact this has on the black community with such a large % of families being run by a single parent.
So much to unpack here, and I think it has more to do with lack of knowledge and understanding than being racist. I’m going to give it a go, with the disclaimer that my thoughts and opinions are just that, not things I learned through formal education or digging up facts and statistics.
The first thing is that certain things are passed down through generations. Those things can be beneficial for individuals or negatives. In many (most?) white families what’s been passed down through generations since America came to be, is the idea and reality, that opportunity abounds, and access to those opportunities, because of who they are related to or who they know or can be introduced to. Many Black families, since America came to be, had to first not be slaves, whether by running away, being freed by their “owners”, or freed by law, finally. Then they had to get to a point where, by law, they had “equal” rights, which supposedly evened the playing field, but it did not.
I think a lot of white people intellectually know when the civil rights movement happened, but don’t grasp the fact that even though it is now “history”, it actually wasn’t that long ago in the grand scheme of things. I’ve said a million times that I have relatives and know people that lived during that time and/or actually participated in the movement, and THEY ARE STILL ALIVE. I say that so often, hoping it helps to put things in perspective for people that think and act like it was back in the dinosaur age.
So, a big part of what’s been passed down in many black families has been trauma and pain, and what I guess what we can call poor coping skills (as if there is any good way to cope with all that shit), ignorance of how to function in America in the same way white people do, and limited access to the opportunities that are out there. Yes, there were individuals and families that figured out how to be “successful” back when things were even worse, but they were the exceptions, not the norm.
A part of local history, there was a black man that lived in this area that figured it out and was the first Black millionaire in the south. He built a mansion in the city. His home was a source of pride for other black people, they were proud that a black man had done so well for himself. Well, there was a white man in the city that was also wealthy and powerful, and he eventually had an issue with the black man over something to do with politics. Eventually, the white man made it his business to destroy the black man’s family fortune and had his mansion burned to the ground.
So for the prior poster that said that white people did not take away what black people built, yes, they sure did. For a more well known instance, there was Black Wall Street.
Anyway, even with the civil rights laws that were passed, at that point, Black people were still “behind” in so many ways, including opportunity. And our families still have wounds to heal in countless different ways. Is it not reasonable to believe that the way we were treated caused mental and emotional wounds that affected how people thought and functioned, and those issues affected how the children they raised thought and functioned? Is it really a surprise that so many of our families are dysfunctional when you consider that it really wasn’t all that long ago that it was still legally ok to treat us like we weren’t even humans and deny us equal rights? It’s not like my people could go lay on a therapist’s couch or hire a life coach. All they had was the white man’s God to try to cling to, to give them hope, and their mental and emotional health was just whatever it was.
I’m not any kind of doctor, but I would guess that there was a whole lot of what we now call PTSD among black Americans. Maybe that comparison makes it a little easier to understand. Do people with what we call PTSD today, especially severe PTSD function well without treatment? Are their children likely to be affected by the parents’ PTSD and have some issues too? And if the children never get help, are they likely to raise children that have mental and/or emotional issues because THEIR parents did? Do you see how it can take generations and a lot of work, to root out all the lingering effects of that first person with PTSD or whatever issues they had? Now think about all of that in a world where treatment for those issues were not available like they are now.
Generational curses are real, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that there are so many in the black communities. My own Grandmother only had a 4th grade education, because working in the fields and picking cotton was more important than little girls and boys going to school. I am part of the first generation of black people born after the civil rights laws were passed. Not my Mom, ME. Does that put any of it into perspective for you? Do you think all the trauma and pain, the dysfunction and mental and emotional issues from trying to live in this country under those horrible conditions just magically disappeared because we were suddenly “free”? I don’t think so.
The problems in our communities are so much more complex than the simplistic way of thinking that this is America, anybody can be successful if they want to.
This post is already long as hell, and I didn’t even get to all the things I wanted to say, but I’ll just stop there.
