The disappearing black middle class

[Zacha341]

For certain we are seeing this impact in Detroit...
The disappearing black middle class

BY JESSE WASHINGTON
July 10, 2011 12:24AM

Some see a bitter irony in soaring black unemployment and the decline of the black middle class on the watch of the first black president.

....“I thought Barack Obama could have provided some way out. But he lacks backbone,” Princeton Professor Cornel West told truthdig.com recently."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/...dle-class.html

[Buy American]

It's ALL of the middle class that's disappearing, not just black folks.

It won't be long before there are just the "rich" and just the "poor" folks that exist.

[Bham1982]

I generally like Cornel West, but IMO he's sometimes a bit hyperbolic.

Is the black middle class really disappearing? Is there any evidence that high unemployment among blacks is concentrated in middle class income quartiles?

This "median net worth" statistic is not one commonly used. Is median household income [[a more common measure) among blacks falling? I don't see this addressed.

[Zacha341]

Agreed. However, this specific article points out the irony [[not my irony mind you - I'm not surprised) of the black middle class erosion under president Obama... did you read it?

It's ALL of the middle class that's disappearing, not just black folks.

It won't be long before there are just the "rich" and just the "poor" folks that exist.

[Zacha341]

Cornel annoys me as well, but that being said a drive along the once solidly middle-class areas of Detroit demonstrates the erosion of said black middle class...

Once beautiful bricks homes in what were once middle class areas: foreclosures, abandoned, gutted, side-by-side. Government sector jobs for example that were a staple of middle-class income have become scarce, with layoffs along with the severe automotive and private sector hiring decline.

Then of course there's been an exodus of the black middle class from Detroit too.

I generally like Cornel West, but IMO he's sometimes a bit hyperbolic.

Is the black middle class really disappearing? Is there any evidence that high unemployment among blacks is concentrated in middle class income quartiles?

This "median net worth" statistic is not one commonly used. Is median household income [[a more common measure) among blacks falling? I don't see this addressed.

[De'troiter]

Blacks are leaving MICHIGAN in general because Michigan today is the equivalent to the Mississippi of the past. Black people migrated north in the 20th century to gives their families a chance at making a life for themselves, and this is the same reason they are leaving. Defacto segregation, nothern prejudice, disenfranchisement, have all gave Michigan a "Up South" feeling. Yes, Detroit may be a city of the black majority, but so was Sunflower County, Ms.

[Bham1982]

Black people migrated north in the 20th century to gives their families a chance at making a life for themselves, and this is the same reason they are leaving. Defacto segregation, nothern prejudice, disenfranchisement, have all gave Michigan a "Up South" feeling. Yes, Detroit may be a city of the black majority, but so was Sunflower County, Ms.

I don't totally disagree, but I don't think the South is necessarily more welcoming to blacks than the North in 2011. The South is generally VERY conservative and Republican, and is often outright hostile to issues important to African Americans.

And I always scratch my head when I hear a person [[of any race) is moving down South for "economic opportunity". Are they aware that, with all of Michigan's problems, the South is still poorer, less educated and more violent? Are they aware that the South has significantly higher unemployment than the North?

The schools, in particular, are terrible. I hear of folks moving to Georgia for the public schools, and I have to laugh. Georgia schools are horrible compared to Michigan schools. They are bottom 5 in the country in everything [[and pretty much the entire bottom 10 states in education are down South).

[lilpup]

I'd love to see stats for the racial breakdown of who's leaving Michigan if anyone has them.

I suspect there are quite a few blacks who have moved UP the economic ladder and have joined their high-value white peers in suburbia.

Did you see the Wall Street Journal article showing that there's over 92,000 millionaires living in the metro Detroit area?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0...le=10_San_Jose

[Zacha341]

Back to the specifics of the article, the lead in paragraph states the following:

"Millions of Americans endured financial calamities in the recession. But for many in the black community, job loss has knocked them out of the middle class and back into poverty. And some experts warn of a historic reversal of hard-won economic gains that took black people decades to achieve."

Comments, thoughts?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/...dle-class.html

[DetroitPole]

Wrong. Republican speak:

There are is a Job-creators class and Job-taker-awayers class.

Or whatever the fuck they say nowadays.

[Bham1982]

I'd love to see stats for the racial breakdown of who's leaving Michigan if anyone has them.

I suspect there are quite a few blacks who have moved UP the economic ladder and have joined their high-value white peers in suburbia.

Did you see the Wall Street Journal article showing that there's over 92,000 millionaires living in the metro Detroit area?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0...le=10_San_Jose

There are more blacks than ever in Oakland County communities like Bloomfield, Franklin, Birmingham, Bingham Farms, Orchard Lake, West Bloomfield, etc.

These communities were all lily-white, and there is now a significant black population in all these communities. There certainly doesn't seem to be a shortage of black wealth around these parts.

And yeah, Metro Detroit still has a tons of wealth overall. We are still Top 10 nationally in millionaires. There is still vast wealth in some parts. Drive down Vaughn Road in Bloomfield Hills, and it's never looked better. Capitains of industry are building [[or have recently built) huge new spreads. No recession around Cranbrook campus, that's for sure.

Though this may speak more to the inequality issues in our country.

[lilpup]

Here in Michigan the county with the fastest growing financial disparity last year was Washtenaw County, not exactly the state's black stronghold.

And for as bad as Georgia is supposed to be, Texas is even worse.

[De'troiter]

Blacks moving south isn't a trend unique to Detroit, but it is occuring nationally. Many blacks have family and other ties that are drawing them back. Not all of the South is welcoming but the places where the blacks are moving are not the rural plantations of the past. The South is changing and the economic outlook of the southern places that Blacks are moving to, compared to the outlook on Detroit is non existant. A low paying job is better than no job at all.

[DetroitPlanner]

I don't totally disagree, but I don't think the South is necessarily more welcoming to blacks than the North in 2011. The South is generally VERY conservative and Republican, and is often outright hostile to issues important to African Americans.

And I always scratch my head when I hear a person [[of any race) is moving down South for "economic opportunity". Are they aware that, with all of Michigan's problems, the South is still poorer, less educated and more violent? Are they aware that the South has significantly higher unemployment than the North?

The schools, in particular, are terrible. I hear of folks moving to Georgia for the public schools, and I have to laugh. Georgia schools are horrible compared to Michigan schools. They are bottom 5 in the country in everything [[and pretty much the entire bottom 10 states in education are down South).

You can't group all African Americans as one. I am sure there are quite a few conservative members of the middle class that happen to be black. How you vote depends on what you got and where you see your life going. Middle class folks can afford to be in the better school districts or private schools where ever they live.

[De'troiter]

Here is a link to a New York Times article about this very subject http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/us...pagewanted=all give it a read

[lilpup]

Comparing the "Black alone" race data of the 2000 and 2010 censuses, Michigan only lost 1,400 blacks across those ten years.

[Zacha341]

So do the repubs 'own' the concept/ definition of 'middle class'? Not sure what you mean?

Wrong. Republican speak:

There are is a Job-creators class and Job-taker-awayers class.

Or whatever the fuck they say nowadays.

[JBMcB]

This "median net worth" statistic is not one commonly used. Is median household income [[a more common measure) among blacks falling? I don't see this addressed.

I've been studying various widely used economic factors, and not a lot of them make sense. What good of a statistic is median household income? It doesn't take into account how many people are in the household, nor geographic differences in cost of living, nor savings.

Also, if you look at personal income levels, adjusted for inflation, they have remained pretty constant over time for the 'middle class' segment.

[Danny]

The rich [[Thesis) and the poor [[Antithesis) will be anihilated into the proletariat middle class [[ Synthesis). "THEY" will be the new socialist goverment in thw word.

Now indeed black middle class in Detroit is shrinking, but the black middle class is still grwoing in the suburbs. Only you have to do is follow the money.

[English]

I agree with those who say that the middle class itself is disappearing. Due to historical and continuing structural factors, blacks have had a shorter time and fewer generations to attain middle class status and build wealth, but just as we've learned the end of communism is collapse, the end of capitalism seems to be to consume itself.

The kids are post-capitalist, anyway, or their way of being capitalists looks different than your grandmother's capitalism. I doubt that in 100 years, we'll be dealing with the same sociopolitical or racial designations anyway.

[mwilbert]

I doubt that in 100 years, we'll be dealing with the same sociopolitical or racial designations anyway.

In 100 years, if civilization hasn't collapsed, the robots will have taken over, or at least will have obsoleted people for the vast majority of work. Since the current middle class has mostly been differentiated by the prospect, possession, or history of relatively well-paid work, there probably isn't going to be a large middle class in the sense we have known it.

I don't think this will affect blacks very differently from anyone else, but although I think the salience of race per se will continue to decline, the importance of kinship networks may not, and that may mean the descendants of today's disadvantaged groups may still be disadvantaged then.

[firstandten]

Cornel annoys me as well, but that being said a drive along the once solidly middle-class areas of Detroit demonstrates the erosion of said black middle class...

Once beautiful bricks homes in what were once middle class areas: foreclosures, abandoned, gutted, side-by-side. Government sector jobs for example that were a staple of middle-class income have become scarce, with layoffs along with the severe automotive and private sector hiring decline.

Then of course there's been an exodus of the black middle class from Detroit too.

Prof West most likely has an axe to grind against the Pres. Larry Summers had an influencial voice within the Obama administration. Mr Summers also was the President at Harvard when Prof West was there. The two clashed bitterly and Prof West left as a result and ended up at Princeton.

Back to blacks leaving the middle class. I believe that because many blacks have not had the benefit of generational wealth transfers like whites the foundation of black's middle class status was built on sand. Basically the job they are working. The job goes away, the slide down from the middle class into poverty can be very quick.

Whereas white's may not have that good job either due to the economy but they have wealth. They are better able to take the financial hit and hang in there until the economy recovers.