Study Finds Median Wealth For Single Black Women Is Only $5
That is not a typo. Just $5:
Women of all races bring home less income and own fewer assets, on average, than men of the same race, but for single black women the disparities are so overwhelmingly great that even in their prime working years their median wealth amounts to only $5. [..]
See this graph of racial disparities in income
"It's rather shocking," said Meizhu Lui, director of the Closing the Gap Initiative based in Oakland, Calif., who contributed to the report "Lifting as We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth and America's Future." [.pdf]
Among the most startling revelations in the wealth data is that while single white women in the prime of their working years (ages 36 to 49) have a median wealth of $42,600 (still only 61 percent of their single white male counterparts), the median wealth for single black women is only $5.
"Even for those of us who have been looking at the wealth gap for a while, we were shocked and amazed at how little women of color have," Ms. Lui said.[..]
Black women, in general, were more likely to have participated in the subprime loan crisis with upper-income black women being five times more likely to have received a high-cost mortgage than upper-income white men.
"The popular image is they spend too much, which is the reason they are running up credit card and consumer debt, but the cost of living has risen faster than income, and they need to go into debt for basic daily necessities," Ms. Lui said. "It's compounded because unemployment is twice as high in the black community than it is in the white community."
For all working-age black women 18 to 64, the financial picture is bleak. Their median household wealth is only $100. Hispanic women in that age group have a median wealth of $120. Read more
I'm dumbfounded by this study. Could there be a starker example of the haves and have-nots? Don't glide over the statistic either, that upper-income black women were FIVE times more likely to be offered a high-cost (and riskier) home loan than upper-income white men. Racial profiling home mortgages, lovely. A recent study in Pittsburgh found that 70% of African-American families are headed by single women. Families. With a median wealth of $5.
This is a larger issue than the conservatives with their flippant dismissals of "welfare queens" want to admit. The children in these households are living below poverty, with little to no safety net.
In a 2008 study of black women and their money, the ING Foundation found that black women -- who frequently manage the assets of their households -- financially support friends, family and their houses of worship to a much greater degree than the general population.
They also are more likely to be employed in jobs and industries -- such as service occupations -- with lower pay and less access to health insurance. And when their working days are done, they rely most heavily on Social Security because they are less likely to have personal savings, retirement accounts or company pensions. Their Social Security benefits are likely to be lower, too, because of their low earnings.
Rather than strictly comparing income, researchers in the Insight study looked at the wealth gap. The current economic crisis has shown that a person's wealth affects not only retirement security, but also a person's ability to handle financial setbacks such as a job loss or a health emergency.
High unemployment and high incarceration rates for black men also lower the likelihood of single black women finding a partner to help build a more secure financial future.
Ms. Lui said the Insight report would be used to encourage the government to close the wealth gap and improve the outlook for women of color, just as it did for Americans who received land through the Homestead Act, and education through the GI bill.
"If wealth was based on hard work, African-Americans would be the wealthiest people in our nation," she said. "It's not about behavior. It's about government policies. Who does the government help and who is it not helping?
That, my friends, is the question that all liberals ask and conservative ignore.
UPDATE: And to punctuate the point, we hear about the death of former legislator Juanita Goggins of South Carolina who froze to death alone in a rented home, apparently suffering from dementia and who was not discovered until two weeks later. Though she had the money, her electricity was turned off three days after she died, indicating that she had not paid her bills.
America the Beautiful. Haven't seen the beautiful part in quite some time.
is intended to be a factual statement
Hold on just one cotton-picking minute (if I may employ a traditional slave occupation ironically. And I may.) Who's to blame for this? The insinuation is that this is some how the fault of racists oppression and suppression but is it? Is it really?
Look at the family structure mentioned briefly. Where are the fathers? Why are all the mothers left alone to bring up their sons and daughters?
The cause is (as are so many societal woes in this country) religious -- or more accurately, caused by religion. Christianity is harbored by uneducated people to a greater degree than educated people, and Christanic values have always failed to impose any beneficial ideological cornerstone of family structure in its adhearants.
Why are black women so phenomnially poor compared to every other subgrouping of citizen? At core it's cultural, and the core of far too many people in this country is religious, and for those religious people, the overwhelming tyranny of Christianity is the fundamental cause.
This can't be blamed on a political party, nor can it be blamed on corporate fascism and greed. This problem is caused by, fomented by, and deliberately supported by religion.
A stupid, occult religious populace is an unthinking, obeying populace, and there is no desire at all for the Unoted States as a nation to elevate occult stupids out of their willful ignorance.
If Christanic occultism were eliminated and the nation's populace educated, its citizens well informed about why critical thinking is a virtue, who would pay taxes?
From above:
"The popular image is they spend too much, which is the reason they are running up credit card and consumer debt, but the cost of living has risen faster than income, and they need to go into debt for basic daily necessities," Ms. Lui said. "It's compounded because unemployment is twice as high in the black community than it is in the white community."
Believe it or not, american legal and social policy has been deliberately set in such a manner as to deny equal rights and equal opportunity to people of color.
What you are seeing are the fruits of centuries of oppression and unequal protection.
I can understand your anger with Christianity.
Remember, though, that Christians are as diverse as any religion.
I am well aware that conservative, fundamentalist, evangelical Christians have been laboring very hard to define -- for all our benefit -- what "real" Christianity is. Side hugs, respect for the sanctity of contract, hatred of unions, Muslims, birth control and monogamous gays, etc.
Despite these claims, however, there are still many Christians who believe an entirely different message. As evidence of this, I call on the testimony of Mr. Glenn Beck. Mr. Beck has recently intoned that his disciples who are members of churches who preach "social gospel" or "liberation theology" should demand of their leaders to return to the fundamental orthodoxy -- or else leave for a more "Christian" house of worship.
You and I may agree that Mr. Beck is a loon, likely a dangerous loon. But it would be silly to think that he would extend his eliminationist rhetoric to a group that didn't even exist. He grossly exaggerates and prevaricates when he slanders his targets, but the targets themselves are real.
Therefore, I suggest that there are at least enough so-called liberal Christians out there to make Beck's temperature rise. And that these Christians are teaching that the message of Jesus is to address actual social problems like hunger, poverty and injustice.
African American families, you'll find that it has to do with the white power structure in this country. With a 12% black population as a whole and a much larger percentage of black prisoners representing over white and other larger minorities, it's quite apparent that justice certainly is not blind. Not to race anyway.
You have two women sitting in prison for over 20 years in Mississippi over an $11 armed robbery at which they were not present. A coerced 'confession' from someone actually there got these 2 women their state 'housing,' one is now dying from kidney failure, and her only hope for medical care is a substandard company, being investigated and also being sued by many prisoners.
They had no record and they had babies at the time of their arrests.
This is a example, but represents the truth millions of times over. Black people get blamed for shit, because they're black, then they get shitty representation at trial, then they get the maximum sentence, with no consideration.
Then you have assholes like the Keating 5, who robbed millions, the Enron gang all these bankers almost ALL white guys getting walks and near walks on life-ruining crimes. And you blame religion?
I despise organised religion as much as the next person, but you are well off base. This is down to generations of racism and bigotry, and not just against the women, but the entire black race. It's Institutional, it's de facto. It's how it is here in this country.
BTW, 'black' churches preach togetherness, which is dads staying in the home. Stop in to the nearest AME church on a Sunday and listen.
me-oww!
a good friend who was disabled to the Rev. O.C. Smith's church in Los Angeles (I'm sorry I don't recall the name of the church). It was in many ways a real blessing and one of the nicer things I've ever done in my life.
I can honestly say there was more love and acceptance in that church than all the white churches I've attended in my life combined.
"The cause is (as are so many societal woes in this country) religious -- or more accurately, caused by religion etc." I don't know what drugs you are on but please tell us so that we can be sure and avoid them .
say you're wayyyyy off base. It has nothing to do with religion and *everything* to do with institutional racism.
I've never seen change without a fire
I am and old white man now. I know what it is like to live from pay check to pay check. Most of my life up until the last ten years has be just that week to week. Now it is that way again. It has very little to do with the church. It has much more to do with the fact that the whole system is rigged from the top down. So much trickle down bullshit. Everything in America has been shaped to suit those that have.
I have been working since I was 17 years old. I worked 7am to 7 pm 6 days a week, took home 50 dollars for my labor.
I have listened to members of the GOP talk about running a busines. The fact that if they raised minimum wages they would be out of business. IMO if you have a business and it can only operate by paying minimum wage you don't have a business, you are a slave driver. Pure and simple. If you want to see what is wrong with America you don't have to look any farther then the corporate government we have.
The government have conspired with the corporations to rob the people and they do it bigger and more boldly every day.
I am sick of our corporate government and all the lying sons of bitches that make it up.
We need to clean out washington and wallstreet.
We need to tear down their buildings and take back what they have stolen from us. We cannot right all the wrong that they have done but we can stop them from killing others.
One of the reasons why America came out of the Depression was because the so many of the same people then who rigged the system like today lost most of what they had. Though it was very difficult for those who didn't have much as well at least there were enough of these avaricious people wiped out to be able to start a new. That is why when these huge financial firms were on the brink of collapsing I thought they should let them fail to wipe out all the garbage so that those who were being victimized would have more of a possibility to one day move up again since there would be more victimizers gone.
Of course people thought I didn't know what I was talking about.
Bernarkie took the wrong approach because it left most of these predators in business and the situation is even more tenuous because of the bailouts have made these plunderers position more secure where the great majority are more vulnerable. Now according to Dean Baker from his book
"False Profits" Bernarkie and company did have the power to take other actions to bring these financial firms down without backing them up with huge taxpayer bailouts. What really went on was that firms like Goldman Sachs wanted to get the billions paid back from firms like AIG and the Fed was protecting shareholders. This goes back to my thinking that if their were enough of the rich and wretched losing what they had it would have led to a more level playing field down the road. That is less likely thanks to Bernarkie who instead made the predators more powerful.
where you are going....but let's remember...plenty of white, christian folk through the years have made out just fine with their religion as a part of their lives.
It's much simpler...the plan is working.
That is America. Home of the free for the wealthy. Where the rich get richer at the expense of the poor and the poor get poorer as a result of the rich ripping of them off.
AKA the circle of wealth.
The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.
Plato
i dunno about some of that. my sister didn't do well in school and my dad was home for her a lot more often than he was when i was growing up and i went through college partially (i didn't drop out. i got priced out. thanks dubya!)
the rich are getting rich off the poor and uneducated. especially the ones who are uneducated by choice. see below.
Instead of the land of the free and the home of the brave the song should end with the land of the thieves and the home of the greed!
"Land of the thieves and the home of the slaves."
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
.
They need to pick up an extra shift.
there's plenty of jobs if we'd just get our collective lazy asses in gear and went out and got one. I guess it applies to higher paying jobs too, like, if you want a larger income just go get a higher paying job.
Easy, no?
"Annie's Been a Workin' on the Midnight Shift" already...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
What an ass.
"When profit comes up against morality, it's rare that profit loses."~Shirley Chisholm
Is a national disgrace. We all should be embarrassed.
No one should have to perish that way in this country.
Especially not a senior citizen.
This is just so ugly. This goes to health care, mental health care, seniors health care. We have to do better for our senior citizens.
Then, to find out the women of color are categorized like this is abominable.
Anyone who still think this country is #1 is just F*%$@#!!!! UP!
This is a perfect example of tax cuts and budget cuts. Yeah, they're workin great. I'm gettin pissed off now. So, I'll be movin on .
What is your conceptual, continuity?
I read of this yesterday and her biography. She certainly was an exceptional woman. This is truely a national disgrace. We should all be ashamed.
Nice to know what's in store for us isn't it?
That in this day and age, no one went by during that freeze to check on her. I wonder how many more they'll find.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
can only lower and shake my head.
.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
always been amazed at how quickly (government regulated) utilities act in shutting off what are essentially life saving necessities.
Not to sound snarky, but there out to be a law against this type of thing.
but I agree. I think welfare checks should be made. And in hot and cold extremes, utilities should be left on.
I think her story goes to the problem of shitty access to health care, and shitty care for elders, and people suffering from dementia.
me-oww!
.
ideals...but I have advocated for years that life-giving resources should not be a piece of the capitalist pie.
Energy, food and water for sure. Perhaps housing in some fashion as well.
Imagine in the U.S. if you can't afford to pay your heating bill you have the right to actually freeze to death, and no consequences to those who shut you off.
hotter than the hinges of hell and can't run your AC, fry to death in the summer. Again no consequences for the shutter offers of electricity. Just a lot of "Oh dear," and "We couldn't have possibly known" statements and the wringing of the corporate hands...
me-oww!
So Black Women have $5 and are more likely to take care of others.. see if they weren't so damn Christian, they'd have $5.75. Not that I'm Christian, I really dislike Christians generally.. Black Women are one of the few groups of Christians I'm inclined to like.. But their Christianity is probably keeping them from rioting which is the only thing to which the fools running this country will relate.
But in general, my experience leads me to believe that most of the assistance given in this country is from poor people to poor people. I first encountered this phenomenon while researching homeless people.
from my ex-church is raising her teenage great-granddaughter. If a person ever thought she'd be done raising children and be able to hang onto as much of her own money, they'd be wrong.
I'm a Latina from a poorer background myself, and when I was about 11 years old, and my father was terminally ill, our entire trailer park had the gas shut off for the entire month of January due to a bad gas leak. All the heat in our home had to go to my Dad, so it was the family of illegal immigrants next door who had even less than us who took care of me and shared heat, food, etc.
I've never seen change without a fire
What it is really about is how people have denigrated what Christianity is supposed to be about. Now I am in full agreement when you mean right-wing Christians. These people are completely distorting the word of God. In the Book of Revelations it talks about a Harlot Church. I wonder if that is who the right-wing Christians are.
Jesus Christ always talked about helping the poor, that is why it still baffles me about this culture coming out of right-wing circle that have contempt for the poor and preach hate selfishness, and exclusiveness. Just remember that throughout history Christianity has been exploited and manipulated to consolidate people for the benefit of tyrants. It was even said of Hitler that he was a man of God.
that he was doing god's work.
christianity is one big lie AFAIC.
thought it might be too depressing. I was right. It is.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
They would tell you that it's very little better for maybe as much as 20 or 25% of the people in America no matter what their color.
The government has been taken over by the corporations and have worked together to keep all but a few from having a shot at the socalled American dream.
republicans and the corporations need some payback.
God damn the rotten bastards!
There are a lot of Democrats who also pander to the rich and exploitive as well. I used to naively believe it was all the Republicans fault but after seeing some of these charlatans show their true colors in the health care debate I have realized the Dems as a whole are not a lot better.
RIP Ma'am.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
from the sixties
http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Super-Rich-Study-P...
the sad part of it is some of these women are making bad decisions after bad decisions WILLINGLY.
take my sister (20) for example. as soon as she got her driver's license, she:
1. got a new used 4 year old car, and has to make monthly car payments to my dad, despite not having enough money in her accounts to cover the payments.
2. "borrowed" one of my debit cards and promptly ran up 506.01 worth of purchases AND overage fees from october to mid-december and not paid me back one penny despite me saying it doesn't have to be paid back at once.
3. moved out. and moved around to i think her 3rd apartment in 3 months.
all of this on an hourly wage of being a medical assistant at home for people with mental retardation and old people. and she also has no desire for secondary education as far as i am aware.
here's what i do know- her credit rating will be a mess if it isn't there already. and that's not going to help things at all.
i see it as a cultural issue. single women need to prove they are independent. single black women need to prove they are strong and independent. young single black women...?
its why i don't give my sister 6 years younger than me advice anymore. she won't listen or take it when she asks for it, and more times than not i have been right. ignorance is one thing. being deceived is one thing. i don't fault those women who were lied to and taken advantage of. but willful ignorance when you are being told you are being deceived or will be deceived is your fault. an extreme "i told you so" if you will.
the way to fix the mess they are in? for those who have very bad decision making skills, i think the first thing to do is, if you can't pay for it in cash, you can't afford it. if it isn't an essential need, you can afford not to have it. so that means no contract cell service, no cable/satellite tv, eating in instead of out every night. and put some money away instead of spending it immediately.
for the one's that got screwed over? i don't know. because in that case i believe their only recourse is through legislative action and congress or the white house don't have the fortitude to pass some real actual regulations and reform. i really feel sorry for those women.
home say 200 a week before taxes? I think you could starve to death in the dark on that kind of wage very quickly.
Yes people make bad decisions, hell we have 40 million republicans in America that lack the morals and intelligence to make sound rational decisions. In a place like we live most of the wages are minimum and everyone wants a shot at the dream. But here in America your shot depends much more on just shear luck. The sad part is you have made up your mind that it is all personal responsibility. That is not true. It is not even true for you. So much of it is nothing but luck, and help from others. Some people cannot take care of themselves.
To just say it's their own fault leaves so many things out of the mix as to make it impossible to say why one person does well while another does not.
Independence comes when you're paid a living wage for your work. If you still don't pay your bills after that, then that's another issue that needs to be addressed. If you're not making a living wage, and you're eating tuna, mac n cheese, beans and rice, don't have cable, drive a ten year old car, and have to borrow from the sharks just to keep the heat on, then you'll never, ever be able to get your head above water. They can never catch up no matter how careful they are with their money.
"When profit comes up against morality, it's rare that profit loses."~Shirley Chisholm
way through it. But I guess your saying some women (not men) and some blacks (not whites) or is it black women (not black men or whites of either gender) can make some bad decisions.
Give me a break.
are more likely when a person is hungry. A woman (black, white, brown, or purple) working for low wages while supporting a child or two goes hungry a lot. The lack of food along with not enough money for luxuries such as rent, utilities, toilet paper, toothpaste, laundry and etc., stresses a person physically, mentally, and emotionally, thus making bad decisions a certainty.
I know, I've been there...
Got Books? www.membranachristianbooks.com
Need Cables? www.yourcablestore.com
...and get a clue on her way, or at least start really caring about the welfare of black women if she really cares. Or, she could just keep making excuses, enabling a group already prone to victimhood.
Look, "the system" or the "man" stopped giving a shit about a person's race a generation or so ago. It's far more bold and ambitious now. It figures it can make a permanent, replaceable work force of virtually everyone. White people might not want to admit it, but the middle class has gone the way of the dodo in less than forty years.
Instead of these lame excuses, what should be told to these young girls is that THEIR potential economic indepedence is more chiefly affected by beginning a family as opposed to their male companions. And young, single black women are far more detrimentally affected by deciding to start a family prematurely than their lighter skinned sisters. Simply stated, it pretty much takes two incomes to support a family these days. Now consider children born out of wedlock. Now consider divorce rates. Now factor in the "Brady Bunch" factor. You know, the "yours, mine, and ours" merging of families. It's not a universal phenomenon, frankly.
Sister, you're on your own with your kids. The only true reliable support comes from mom and grandma. There's where the unfairness really lies.
the surgeon general's warning is on every pack of cigarettes, after all.
the self destruction of capitalism is in full force.
while americans hide their heads in the sand and blame blame blame everything but the capitalist system.
it has failed before but roosvelt gave it new life with regulations that reagan economics removed those regs while americans lined up to vote for him.
he gave americans hope sound familiar.
the capitalist are ten times smarter than most americans. and of course have 95% of the wealth. and soon 99% of the wealth.
come to think of it I have traveled the world and americans are the dumbest when it comes to economic and world affairs.
the no child left behind was dumber than dumb now we have fire the teachers and go to private schools. $$$$$$
if we can made mega dollars off the sick and needy why not make mega dollars off the kids. god bless america and its greed.
to live in a dumbed down society is an interesting experience.
think I will move to texas at least those people are not dumbed down. :-)
got to go we are holding a bake sale for a family with a 80,000 dollar medical bill because no medical insurance due to pre existing conditions. we might raise 400 dollars for them. truly we are god's chosen nation and I dont want any of that gov health insurance my medicare is fine with me and my social security.
at least in az if they have to be homeless it is warmer here during the winter. we are truly a nation under god but the only good nation is a nation for profits even off the sick and needy.
greed is good it drives people to do great things. we are living proof of those great things with our 720 military bases around the world.
"think I will move to texas at least those people are not dumbed down"
What??
I hope that was sarcasm.
capitalizm is a failure for the second time in a hundred years. But you cannot tell 40 million stupid people that.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness. It has killed the economy and ruined the lives of millions.
God damn the GOP!
"Study Finds Median Wealth For Single Black Women Is Only $5"
So? The last time I checked, experience and education play a major role in how much a person earns.
Race don't count for everything. So don't expect me to boo-hoo if a poorly educated black woman earns less than an educated woman of whatever race. Let's get out of the twilight zone and start living in the real world.
.
education and experience do exactly that - provide better opportunities.
Perhaps if you do some research on the education system in place for poor people in the USA, you may better understand why woeful funding and the need to apply available funds to basic upkeep and facility necessities for dilapidated buildings, along with nearly non-existent advanced and extended subject matter opportunities create a nearly impossible uphill task for K-12 students in poor districts to compete for anything remotely resembling higher education if they find their way to graduation in the first place.
Just a thought.
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