Racial Gaps Still
Wide This King Holiday
by Holly Sklar
Dissident Voice
January 18, 2003
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News
Service, January 15, 2003
"When the
Constitution was written, a strange formula to determine taxes and
representation declared that the Negro was 60 percent of a person. Today
another curious formula seems to declare he is 50 percent of a person,"
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his 1967 book, "Where Do We Go from
Here?"
"Of the
good things in life he has approximately one-half those of whites; of the bad
he has twice those of whites," King continued. "Negroes have half the
income of whites...There are twice as many unemployed. The rate of infant
mortality...is double that of whites."
How wide are
black-white gaps today?
Black per capita
income is 62 percent of whites--mirroring the 1787 Constitutional formula that
counted slaves as three-fifths of a free person in determining each State's
apportionment of taxes and Congressional representatives.
Slaves were
about half the workforce that built the White House and U.S. Capitol. Today,
millionaires are much better represented in Congress than African Americans.
At least 170
senators and congresspeople are millionaires, but there are no black senators
and just 37 black members of the House of Representatives (out of 435). The
U.S. population is more than 12 percent black. About 1 percent of Americans are
millionaires.
The typical
white family has more than 11 times as much net wealth--assets minus debt--as
the typical black family. White families had median net wealth of $94,900 in
2001, according to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Black families had just
$8,500, including home equity.
The black
poverty rate is almost triple that of whites. The official 2001 black poverty
rate was 22.7 percent--nearly one out of four people--compared to 7.8 percent
for non-Hispanic whites.
Adjusting for
inflation, the typical full-time black male worker made less in 2001 ($31,921)
than the typical white male worker made in 1967 ($33,704). The median 2001
income for white full-time male workers was $40,790. The typical full-time
black female worker made just $27,297 while white women made $30,849.
Black
unemployment is twice that of whites. The official 2002 unemployment rate was
10.3 percent for blacks and 5.1 percent for whites. The unemployment rate only
counts people who are actively looking for work, not those who have given up.
If the overall unemployment rate were 10 percent, Congress would consider it an
emergency.
Numerous
government and nongovernmental studies have documented continued racial
discrimination in employment, education, health care, housing, insurance and
lending for mortgages, businesses and farms.
In a revealing
2002 speech, Franklin Raines highlighted the denial of black asset-building
through slavery, the broken promise of "40 acres and a mule,"
segregation, violent dispossession of land and businesses, redlining and
ongoing discrimination. In 1999, Raines became the first black CEO of a Fortune
500 corporation when he became CEO of the Fannie Mae company, the nation's
largest source of financing for home mortgages.
Raines said if
America had racial equality, African Americans would have nearly $200 billion
more income, 2 million more college degrees, nearly 2 million more professional
and managerial jobs, and 3 million more homeowners.
"If America
had racial equality in wealth," Raines said, "African Americans would
have $760 billion more in home equity value." They would have $200 billion
more in the stock market, $120 billion more in retirement funds and $80 billion
more in the bank. "That alone would total over $1 trillion more in
wealth," he observed.
Racial
disparities take their toll from birth to death. The black infant mortality rate
is more than double that of whites. Whites born in 2000 have a life expectancy
that is nearly six years longer than blacks.
In the days
before his assassination, King was working hard for civil rights and economic
justice, and looking ahead to the Poor People's March on Washington. He would
be appalled that the Bush administration is piling on tax cuts for the already
wealthy while communities around the country are laying off teachers, raising
public college tuition, closing libraries, cutting health care and housing
assistance, and undermining civil rights enforcement.
Where do we go
from here? That's up to all of us.
Holly Sklar is coauthor of "Raise the Floor: Wages and
Policies That Work for All Of Us" (www.raisethefloor.org).
She can be reached at hsklar@aol.com. © Copyright
2003 Holly Sklar. Posted with author’s permission.