Gaps among African Americans?
In 1998, happy were also African Americans who had left the terrible and confusing 1960s toward living as the American middle class as a racial group.
Spring 1998
American Racial and Ethnic Politics in the 21st Century: A cautious look ahead
Today the United States has a thriving, if somewhat tenuous, black middle class. By conventional measures of income, education, or occupation at least a third of African Americans can be described as middle class, as compared with about half of whites. That is an astonishing--probably historically unprecedented--change from the early 1960s, when blacks enjoyed the "perverse equality" of almost uniform poverty in which even the best-off blacks could seldom pass on their status to their children. Conversely, the depth of poverty among the poorest blacks is matched only by the length of its duration. Thus, today there is greater disparity between the top fifth and the bottom fifth of African Americans, with regard to income, education, victimization by violence, occupational status, and participation in electoral politics, than between the top and bottom fifths of white Americans.
http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/1998/03/spring-demographics-hochschild
However, after the 2008 Financial Crisis, bleak reality has been confirmed that non-middle class African Americans are in a desperate condition:
"As of 2010, the poverty rate among non-Hispanic whites was 9.9%, whereas the poverty rate among African Americans was 27.4%."
Black middle class economically vulnerable
Downturn has wiped out gains of last 30 years, Urban League says
October 07, 2012|By Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune reporter
The Pew Charitable Trusts' Economic Mobility Project recently released a report projecting that 68 percent of African-Americans reared in the middle of the wealth ladder will not do as well as the previous generation.
In August, the National Urban League's State of Black America 2012 report found that nearly all the economic gains that the black middle class made during the last 30 years have been wiped out by the economic downturn.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-10-07/news/ct-met-black-middle-class-austerity-20121007_1_black-middle-class-black-households-national-rate
It was disastrous for African Americans. But, they are compared with whites without the premise that it is natural that African Americans are poor. This comparison is based on an underlying notion that blacks and whites should be equal.
5 disturbing stats on black-white inequalityNonetheless, it is apparent that as a racial group Africans Americans are disadvantageous. But, it looks like there are still middle class African Americans who account for 30% of their racial group, though the upper half of them must be still thriving and the lower half of them declining.
By Tami Luhby @Luhby August 21, 2014: 10:49 AM ET
A typical black household has accumulated less than one-tenth of the wealth of a typical white one. And it's only getting worse.
Over the past 25 years, the wealth gap between blacks and whites has nearly tripled, according to research by Brandeis University.
That's in large part because home ownership among blacks is so much lower. Housing is often Americans' greatest asset and a major component of their overall wealth.
Blacks also typically have lower incomes than whites, which also makes it harder for them to save and build wealth. The median income for black households is less than 60% that of white ones.
Unemployment is also a major problem. The jobless rate for blacks is twice that of whites. The gap has been at least that large for years.
All of these factors combine to push many blacks into poverty. America's 15% poverty rate masks the underlying racial differences. More than one in four blacks live in poverty, while fewer than one in 10 whites do.
The economic situation in Ferguson mirrors the national picture, with poverty, unemployment and low income pervasive among its black residents.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/21/news/economy/black-white-inequality/
Probably rich African Americans are getting richer, like Mr. Obama, while poor African Americans are getting poorer.
Solution does not lie in dollars but in faith.
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Joh 11:28 And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee.