Renowned philosopher and NAACP founder W.E.B. DuBois once said that the problem of the 20th century was the problem of the color line. Today, I would venture to say that the problem of the 21st century is the problem of the class line.
Yes, there are still segments of racism prevalent in our community. However, racial prejudice and discrimination have gone underground. In the words of National Urban League President Marc H. Morial, Jim Crow has been replaced by Mr. James T. Crow, Esquire.
There are more black households in upper-income brackets than ever. The portion of black households making between $75,000 and $100,000 per year has increased fourfold from 1.75 percent in 1967 to 7 percent in 2003. Black American households with annual incomes of more than $100,000 increased from 2.3 percent in 1990 to 2.7 percent in 1996. The black middle class has increased to 31.9 percent, or 9 million households earning between $25,000 and $50,000 annually.
African Americans have also made dramatic strides in education during the 20th century. In 1890, three out of every five blacks age 14 and older were illiterate. This rate was cut in half to 33 percent by 1910, and by 1930 fewer than one out of every five African Americans was illiterate.
Today, the percentage of young African Americans who have completed high school has risen to 86.8 percent in 2000 from 39 percent in 1960. The rate of blacks completing college has risen dramatically from 1 percent in 1940 to 16.6 percent in 2000.
In spite of our gains, there are still some areas that we need to reflect upon. In 1990, more than 2.2 million African American men were jailed or imprisoned at some time during the year, while only 23,000 earned a college degree. There is also a thriving economic underclass in the black community. It was recorded in 1998 that 9 million African Americans were living below poverty level. This means that 30 percent of all African Americans are poor, while another 40 percent are considered middle and upper-class.
So, why are some black families thriving while others are barely surviving?
Higher-income blacks tend to be more educated and/or married. In 1999, the median income of black families was $31,778 (62 percent that of their white counterparts). This gap reflects the fact that 81 percent of white families are maintained by married couples while only 47 percent of black families are maintained by married couples.
Among married-couple families, the gap is much smaller: the median income of black families ($45,372) was 87 percent of that for white families ($52,098). Education is also key to financial success. Black men who graduate from high school earn 50 percent more than those who drop out. African-American women who graduate from high school earn about 50 percent more than those who drop out.
The causes of poverty within the African-American community are both structural and behavioral. Yes, racism does exist. But nearly half of the black community has found a way to prosper in spite of racism, while the other half has used discrimination as an excuse to hold them down. In the 1950s and 1960s, assimilation was seen as being the key to success among black Americans.
After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a more militant point of view took over. The black middle class was seen as being “uppity” and “bourgeois.” The ghetto mentality was glorified, and Ebonics became the language of choice among some lower-income blacks. These actions caused economic suicide, led to the gangsta rap culture that we see prospering in our urban communities today, and made it very difficult for people to leave the ghetto.
The black community is slowly changing into two separate and distinct classes: an enlarged, prosperous middle class and an impoverished, pathological lower class. The time has come for us all to give up on the victim mentality, stop depending on the government for handouts and start working towards making our own realities better.
The time has come for African Americans to revisit our roots, to re-learn the methods that were previously used to chart our road to freedom. Somewhere along the way, we lost the map.