The Unemployment Rate for People Like You

Re:The Unemployment Rate for People Like You by wheels on Saturday November 07, 2009 @06:40AM (#927763)

I assume that the dominant factors are socio-economic rather than racial. The poverty rate for black americans is three times that what it is for white americans. I suspect if the unemployment rates were broken down by most recent household income that the correlation between race and unemployment would be much weaker than the correlation between previous economic status and unemployment.

In other words, I expect that the unemployment rate for the black middle class isn't a whole lot higher than for the white middle class.

How to grow larger minority middle-classes is a much deeper societal problem and is much less subject to relatively instantaneous fluctuations like unemployment rates.

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Re:The Unemployment Rate for People Like You by encoderer on Saturday November 07, 2009 @07:58AM (#927803)

That's exactly correct. I had a nice chat about this with my gf recently... her mom is the traditional "southern woman" aka "socially acceptable racist." (her words, not mine. 'I'm just a 'southern girl' i can't help it)

So I shared an insight with her that I'm not certain of but that makes sense to me:

Since Nixon, income growth in inflation-adjusted dollars for the average American has actually fallen. From something like $46k median income in 1970 compared to $44k today.

Anybody who grew up in the less affluent suburbs knows this just in their families and neighbors.

The real prosperty that actually created the middle class in this country--the real upward mobility--that happened between 1945 and 1965.

And it just so happens that while that was happening, most white Americans still treated blacks like 2nd class humans (at worst) and 2nd class citizens (at best).

They missed out on the last big push of economic mobility.

Lets hope that we all get a 2nd one in our lifetimes.

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Re:The Unemployment Rate for People Like You by silentbicycle on Saturday November 07, 2009 @09:39AM (#927886)

While this is a very large and complex issue, one of the major forces in that "big push" was veterans taking advantage of the GI Bill. Black veterans had a much harder time using its benefits, though - most universities were still segregated, for example.

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